Hungary

[HU] Comprehensive Amendment of the Copyright Act

IRIS 2004-1:1/38

Márk Lengyel

Körmendy-Ékes & Lengyel Consulting, Budapest

As a part of the legislation concerning audiovisual services adopted at the end of its 2003 session, the Hungarian Parliament approved Act No. CII on the Amendment of Certain Acts on Intellectual Property.

The new act contains a set of rules to implement Directive 2001/29/EC on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (see IRIS 2001-5: 3). Given this subject, the majority of the new provisions will enter into force at the date of Hungary's accession to the European Union.

Among other acts dealing with questions of intellectual property, the new act also amends Act No. LXXVI of 1999 on Copyright (Copyright Act). An important part of these amendments is related to the limitations and exceptions from the reproduction right. These provisions are regarded to be vital for efforts aimed at the preservation and digitisation of the national cultural heritage. It should be noted that the Informatikai é s Hírközlési Minisztérium (Ministry of Informatics and Telecommunications) currently manages several projects for creating national digital archives. One of the rationales behind adopting the present amendments of the Copyright Act was to create the legal preconditions for the proper functioning of these institutions.