Romania

Modification of Romania’s Copyright Law

IRIS 2020-2:1/28

Eugen Cojocariu

Radio Romania International

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis promulgated on 9 January 2020 the Law for the modification and completion of Law no. 8/1996 on copyright and related rights (Legea nr. 8/1996 privind dreptul de autor şi drepturile conexe). The new Law no. 8/2020 was published in the Official Journal of Romania no. 14/2020, part I (see, inter alia, IRIS 2006-8/27, IRIS 2012-4/38, IRIS 2015-5/30, IRIS 2015-7/27, and IRIS 2015-8/28).

The draft Law had been adopted by the Romanian Senate (the Upper Chamber of the Parliament) on 18 February 2019 and by the Chamber of Deputies (the Lower Chamber) on 11 December 2019.

A new paragraph (21), was subsequently inserted into Art. 170, after paragraph (2). The new paragraph reads as follows:

“(21) The bodies of collective management have the obligation, from 1 January, to publish quarterly [...] the amounts collected [sorted] by categories of users or other payers, the amounts withheld, the [total] management costs sorted by categories of rightsholders, their provenance, the way of calculating the rights as well as the retentions applied.”

Any breach of the provision shall be sanctioned by a fine of between RON 3 000 and RON 30 000 (approx. EUR 627 to EUR 6 270), in accordance with the amended Art. 190 e) of the Law no. 8/1996.

The aim of the amendment was to increase the transparency of the activities of companies engaged in the collective management of copyright with regard to the collection of revenues deriving from copyright (and especially the distribution to rightsholders of collected amounts), in view of the large number of complaints lodged in this field.

References

Legea nr. 8/2020 pentru modificarea şi completarea Legii nr. 8/1996 privind dreptul de autor şi drepturile conexe - forma pentru promulgare
http://www.cdep.ro/pls/proiecte/docs/2019/pr068_19.pdf
Law no. 8/2020 for the modification and completion of the Law no. 8/1996 on copyright and related rights - Form for promulgation

Legea nr. 8/2020 pentru modificarea şi completarea Legii nr. 8/1996 privind dreptul de autor şi drepturile conexe - expunerea de motive
http://www.cdep.ro/proiecte/2019/000/60/8/em71.pdf
Law no. 8/2020 for the modification and completion of the Law no. 8/1996 on copyright and related rights – Explanatory reason

IRIS 2012-4:1/38 [RO] DACIN-SARA - The Collecting Society for Cinematography Works

IRIS 2015-8:1/28 [RO] Legal provisions on the statute of orphan works

IRIS 2015-7:1/27 [RO] Regulations on the status of orphan works

IRIS 2006-8:1/27 [RO] New Working Group to Improve Copyright Protection

This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.