Romania

[RO] Legal provisions on the statute of orphan works

IRIS 2015-8:1/28

Eugen Cojocariu

Radio Romania International

On 27 July 2015, the Romanian President promulgated the Law no. 8/1996 on copyright and related rights (Law for the completion of the Legea nr. 8/1996 privind dreptul de autor și drepturile conexe) with regard to orphan works (see IRIS 2006-8/27, IRIS 2012-4/38, IRIS 2015-5/30 and IRIS 2015-7/27).

The new Law no. 210/2015 was published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 550 of 24 July 2015. It transposes into the Romanian legislation the Directive 2012/28 EC on certain permitted uses of orphan works. The Law has been adopted under an emergency procedure by the Senate (upper chamber of the Romanian Parliament) on 23 June 2015 and by the Chamber of Deputies (lower chamber) on 30 June 2015.

The orphan work status applies to several categories of works and phonograms protected by copyright or related rights that have been published or broadcast for the first time in an EU Member State. The Law provisions 7 new articles (1122 - 1128) after the Article 1121, and a new subsection h) after following Article 1231 paragraph (1) g), on fair compensation for orphan works, as well as a new subsection i) after Article 1512 h), regarding the Directive 2012/28 EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 on certain permitted uses of orphan works.