Lithuania

[LT] Additional rights to protect copyright more effectively granted to the Radio and Television Commission

IRIS 2021-8:1/30

Indre Barauskiene

TGS Baltic

On 29 June 2021, Seimas (the Parliament of Republic of Lithuania) has adopted amendments to the Lietuvos Respublikos autorių teisių ir gretutinių teisių įstatymas (Law on Copyright and Related Rights of the Republic of Lithuania, hereinafter "the Law"), the aim of which is to solve the practical problems faced by the Lietuvos radijo ir televizijos komisija (Radio and Television Commission of Lithuania - RTCL) in performing the functions assigned to effectively protect copyright on the Internet.

Pursuant to the new provisions of the Law, the RTCL has been granted the right to issue binding instructions to a payment, financial or other institution to terminate payments or other financial transactions to an entity performing infringing activities on the Internet.

Since 1 April 2019, following the entry into force of the new version of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights, RTCL had already the right to give binding instructions to Internet access service providers to remove domain name or blocking access to websites that contain illegally published copyrighted content in order to be more effective and efficient enforcement of copyright and related rights in the digital environment.

The Law Amending Article 78 of the Law will enter into force on 1 November 2021.