Slovenia

[SI] Copyright Act Adopted

IRIS 2004-5:1/25

Rainer Großhans

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

On 11 May 2004 the new Slovenian act on copyright and related rights entered into force.

The scope of the act firstly covers the rights of authors in the range of literature, science and art.Furthermore, the new instrument also protects the rights of performers, producers of phonograms, film producers, broadcasting organisations and the publishers and makers of databases, which are known as related rights.

The most interesting addition is that of so-called punitive damages for copyright infringements (Art. 168). Since copyright disputes in Slovenia are very different from other civil law procedures, the possibility for the courts to award punitive damages is enshrined exclusively in copyright law.