- Law on Copyright and Neighboring Rights
- Chapter 1General Provisions
- Chapter 2Copyright
- Works Constituting the Objects of Copyright
- Works which are not Considered as an Object of Copyright
- Effectiveness of Copyright on the Territory of the Republic of Armenia
- Origin of Copyright.Presumption of Authorship.
- Interrelation between the Copyright and the Property Right to the Material Carrier
- CoAuthorship
- The personal NonProperty (Moral) Rights of the Author
- The Property (Economic) Rights of the Author or Another Holder of Copyright
- Free Use of the Work
- Use of the Work for Personal Purposes
- Use of the Work by Reprographic Reproduction
- Free Use of the Work Located in Open for Attendance (Public) Places
- Free Use of Ephemeral Audio and Video Recordingsby Broadcasting Organization
- Free Reproduction of Computer Programs and MachineReadable Databases.Decompilation of Computer Programs
- Copyright in an Employment Work
- Copyright in an Audiovisual Work
- The Right of the Author of Work of Art
- Copyright in Collection Work
- Copyright in a Derivative Work
- Copyright in an Interview
- Copyright in a Collective Work
- Inheritance of the Copyright and its Term of Validity
- Transfer of Economic Rights by the Author’s Contracts
- The Conditions and Forms of an Author’s Contract
- The Liability of the Parties in Case of Infringement the Author’s Contract
- Chapter 3Neighboring Rights
- Subjects and Objects of Neighboring Rights
- The Procedure of Protecting Neighboring Rights
- Conditions of Protection of Neighboring Rights
- The Rights of the Performer
- The Rights of Producers of First Fixations of Performances or Audiovisual Works
- The Rights of a Broadcasting Organization
- Limitation of Rights of the Performer, Producer of First Fixations of Performancesor Audiovisual Works and the Broadcasting Organization
- The Use of a Phonogram or a Videogram Published for Commercial Purposes
- Term of Validity of Neighboring Rights
- Chapter 4Ensuring of Copyright and Neighboring Rights
- Chapter 5Protection of Copyright and Neighboring Rights
- Chapter 6Final Provisions
Law on Copyright and Neighboring Rights
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Article
Chapter 1: General Provisions
The Objectives of the Law on Copyright and Neighboring Rights....................................................... 1
Legal Regulation of Public Relations in the Sphere of Copyright and Neighboring Rights............................... 2
International Agreements of the Republic of Armenia.. 3
General Definitions Used in the Law............................ 4
Chapter 2: Copyright
Works Constituting the Objects of Copyright............... 5
Works which are not Considered as an Object of Copyright...................................................................... 6
Effectiveness of Copyright on the Territory of the Republic of Armenia..................................................... 7
Origin of Copyright. Presumption of Authorship.......... 8
Interrelation between the Copyright and the Property Right to the Material Carrier......................................... 9
Co-Authorship............................................................... 10
The Personal Non-Property (Moral) Rights of the Author........................................................................... 11
The Property (Economic) Rights of the Author or Another Holder of Copyright........................................ 12
Free Use of the Work.................................................... 13
Use of the Work for Personal Purposes......................... 14
Use of the Work by Reprographic Reproduction.......... 15
Free Use of the Work Located in Open for Attendance (Public) Places.............................................................. 16
Free Use of Ephemeral Audio and Video Recordings by Broadcasting Organization....................................... 17
Free Reproduction of Computer Programs and Machine-Readable Databases. Decompilation of Computer Programs...................................................... 18
Copyright in an Employment Work.............................. 19
Copyright in an Audiovisual Work............................... 20
The Right of the Author of Work of Art....................... 21
Copyright in Collection Work....................................... 22
Copyright in a Derivative Work.................................... 23
Copyright in an Interview............................................. 24
Copyright in a Collective Work.................................... 25
Inheritance of the Copyright and its Term of Validity.. 26
Transfer of Economic Rights by the Author’s Contracts....................................................................... 27
The Conditions and Forms of an Author’s Contract..... 28
The Liability of the Parties in Case of Infringement the Author’s Contract.......................................................... 29
Chapter 3: Neighboring Rights
Subjects and Objects of Neighboring Rights................. 30
The Procedure of Protecting Neighboring Rights......... 31
Conditions of Protection of Neighboring Rights........... 32
The Rights of the Performer.......................................... 33
The Rights of Producers of First Fixations of Performances or Audiovisual Works............................ 34
The Rights of a Broadcasting Organization.................. 35
Limitation of Rights of the Performer, Producer of First Fixations of Performances or Audiovisual Works and the Broadcasting Organization............................... 36
The Use of a Phonogram or a Videogram Published for Commercial Purposes.............................................. 37
Term of Validity of Neighboring Rights....................... 38
Chapter 4: Ensuring of Copyright and Neighboring Rights
Establishment of Organizations Ensuring the Economic Rights of the Author on a Membership (Collective) Basis.......................................................... 39
The Organization Administering Observation and Protection of Copyright and Neighboring Rights.......... 40
Functions of Organizations Ensuring Economic Rights on a Membership (Collective) Basis............................. 41
Chapter 5: Protection of Copyright and Neighboring Rights
Infringement of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights... 42
The Protection of the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights............................................................................ 43
The Measures of Ensuring the Claim on Infringement of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights......................... 44
Chapter 6: Final Provisions
Rights of Foreign Persons............................................. 441
Entry into Force of the Law.......................................... 45
Adopted by the National Assembly 8 December, 1999
1. This law regulates the relations connected with creation and use of works of science, literature and arts (copyright), performances, phonograms, programs of broadcasting organizations (neighboring rights).
2. Public relations in the sphere of copyright and neighboring rights are regulated by the Constitution, Civil Code, this Law, other laws and legal acts of the Republic of Armenia.
3. If other norms are established in the international agreements signed by the Republic of Armenia, those norms shall be applied.
4. The following general definitions are used in this law:
Exclusive right—the right of the holder of property rights to the results of intellectual activity to lawful use of this object of intellectual property at his/her discretion in any form and any manner. The use of the objects of intellectual property by other persons is allowed only with the consent of the rightholder of exclusive rights. The holder of exclusive rights can transfer his property rights to another person in whole or in part;
Disclosure—an act of first making the work, phonogram (or videogram) accessible to the general public (to the unlimited circle of persons) with the consent of the author or the other rightholder of copyright or neighboring rights by means of publication, public performance, public display, broadcasting or by other means of issue to the public;
Issue to the public/publication/—with the consent of the author or the other rightholder of copyright or neighboring rights, the putting into circulation of copies of a work, phonogram (or videogram) manufactured by any means if the availability of such copies has been such as to satisfy the reasonable requirements of the public, having regard to the nature of a work or a phonogram (or videogram). The making available of a work or a phonogram (or videogram) by means of electronic information systems shall also constitute publication. The performance of a dramatic, dramatico-musical, audiovisual or musical works, the recitation of a literary work, the broadcasting of literary or artistic works, the exhibition of a work of art, and the construction of a work of architecture shall not constitute publication;
Collective work—a work, created by two or more persons, on the initiative and responsibility of a physical or legal person;
Performer—an actor (of theatre, cinema, etc.), a singer, a musician, a conductor, a dancer or another person who plays a role, sings, recites, declaims, plays on a musical instrument, performs literary or artistic works, circus, puppet, variety and other similar shows;
Producer of first fixation of the performances and audiovisual works—a physical or legal person on whose initiative and responsibility the first fixing of any performance, of an audiovisual work or of sounds in the form of a phonogram, videogram or audiovisual record was executed;
Author—a physical person, the result of creative labor of whom the work is;
Phonogram—exclusively aural fixation of sounds of a performance or other sounds, or of digital presentations or any other form thereof, in any manner and on any material carrier;
Communication—display, performance, broadcasting of a performance of work, of a phonogram, a videogram, of a program of the broadcasting organization or execution of any other act (with the exception of distribution of copies of a work, phonogram (or videogram)), whereby they become audible or visible irrespective whether or not they are actually perceived by the public (by third persons);
Broadcasting—dissemination (transmission) of images and (or) sounds or representations thereof through electromagnetic waves by wire (including cable communication) or by wireless means (including broadcasting over the air by radio, television or satellite communications) in such a way as to cause the images and sounds to be received by the public (third persons). The transmission of encrypted signals is also considered broadcasting if their decrypting means are supplied to the public (third persons) by a broadcasting organization or with its consent;
Program of the broadcasting organization—is a body of live or recorded material consisting of images and (or) sounds, or other information, meant for distribution and created by an air or cable broadcasting organization, or on its commission and with its funds by another organization;
Public performance—presentation of a work, a performance, a phonogram, a program of a broadcasting organization by the recitation, playing, singing, dancing or by other means and manners, either directly (live performance) or with the aid of any equipment or processes, in those places where this presentation may be perceived, without the necessity of performing a public communication, stipulated by the paragraph 14 of this Article, and where persons outside the usual circle of a family or of closest acquaintances are or can be present, irrespective of their being in the same place at the same time or in different places in different times;
Public display—showing of an original or the copies of the work, a performance, a program of a broadcasting organization, directly or on the screen by means of films, slides, TV frames or other equipment and processes, in those places where this showing may be perceived without the necessity of performing a public communication stipulated by the next paragraph of this Article, and where persons outside the usual circle of a family or of closest acquaintances are or can be present, irrespective of their being in the same place at the same time or in different places in different times; Public display of an audiovisual work means also the showing of individual frames of the work without keeping to their sequence.
Public communication—communication over the air or by the cable or by other way of a work, a performance, phonogram, a program of a broadcasting organization, images and (or) sounds, in such manner that the persons outside the usual circle of a family or of closest acquaintances may receive said images or sounds in those places the distance of which from the initial point of the communication is such that the images and sounds would not be received in the said locations or in other places without the mentioned communication, regardless of the fact whether the above mentioned persons can receive the images and sounds in the same place at the same time or in different places in different times;
Copy of a phonogram—duplicate of a phonogram containing all or substantial part of the sounds fixed in a phonogram and made from the phonogram directly or indirectly on any material carrier;
Public—large number of persons outside the usual circle of a family or of closest acquaintances, regardless of their presence at the same place at the same time or in different places in different times;
Decompilation of a computer program—converting the object code of the program to its source code;
Rightholder of a copyright and (or) neighboring rights (an entitled person)—an author or a performer having the economic rights, a physical or legal person, to whom the economic rights have been assigned or who was from the beginning entitled by the economic rights;
Imitation/counterfeit/—copy of a work the making or the distribution of which results in infringement of copyright and neighboring rights;
Director or producer of a show—a person who carries out the staging of the stage, circus, puppet, variety or other similar shows;
A work—a specific result of a creative work in the field of science, literature or arts, expressed in some objective form, carried out by the author himself individually or with other authors jointly;
A copy of a work—duplicate of a work, made in any material form;
Substantial part of a work—any part of a work which on its own can be identified as a part of the work, by any person who is familiar with the work;
Distribution of copies of a work, phonogram (or videogram)—making the original or the copies of a work, phonogram (or videogram) available to the public (third persons) by sale, rental or lending for temporary use, or by other transfer of ownership or possession rights concerned, as well as by electronic information systems;
Reproduction—making of one or more copies of the whole work, phonogram (or videogram) or part of it in any material form and on any material carrier, including the form of a sound or visual recording, as well as its recording in the electronic (including digital), optical or other machine-readable form for permanent or temporary storage;
Reprographic reproduction—facsimile reproduction in one or more copies, in any dimension (enlarged or reduced) and in any form, of the original or the duplicate of a written or other graphic work by means of photocopying or by other technical means, except those connected with the application of printing type-forms; Reprographic reproduction does not include the storage or reproduction of the mentioned duplicate in electronic (including digital), optical or other machine-readable form.
Rebroadcasting—either simultaneous broadcasting of the program or subsequent broadcasting of the already transmitted and fixed program of a broadcasting organization, by another broadcasting organization;
Rental—transfer the original or the copy of the work, phonogram (or videogram) for possession and use, for a limited period of time and for direct or indirect profit-making purpose;
Audiovisual work—a series of interrelated images (with or without sound accompaniment), susceptible of being made visible and audible too (if accompanied by sound). Works expressed by cinematographic and other similar means (television films, video films, slide films, motion pictures etc.) are considered audiovisual works;
Public performance of an audiovisual work—showing of the images of a work in their sequence—(including—with the reproduction of the sounds accompanying it. Database compilation of data and other materials (articles, accounts, facts, etc.), systematized in machine-readable or other form, which by the reason of the selection or arrangement of its content, is a result of a creative work.
5. Copyright extends to works in the scientific, literary and artistic domains that are results of creative activity irrespective of the purpose and merits of the work as well as the mode of its expression.
Objects of copyright are:
— geographic, geologic and other maps, designs (plans), sketches and plastic works related to geography, topography, geology, architecture and other sciences;
— derivative works, particularly:
(a) translations, adaptations of other works (treatments, essays (abstracts), annotations, reviews, summaries (resumes), adapted works, arrangements, stage versions, cinematographic (audiovisual) adaptations and other transformations of works in the scientific, literary and artistic domains) which constitute the individual works in a sense of the paragraph 22 of the Article 4 of this Law;
(b) collections of works (encyclopedias, anthologies, databases) and other compiled or composite works that are, by the reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents, the results of a creative work;
— literary works, including scientific works, all types of computer programs (expressed in any programming language and form (including application programs, operation systems, source code and object code);
— works of painting, sculpture, graphics, design and other works of visual (figurative) arts;
Article
Chapter 1: General Provisions
The Objectives of the Law on Copyright and Neighboring Rights....................................................... 1
Legal Regulation of Public Relations in the Sphere of Copyright and Neighboring Rights............................... 2
International Agreements of the Republic of Armenia.. 3
General Definitions Used in the Law............................ 4
Chapter 2: Copyright
Works Constituting the Objects of Copyright............... 5
Works which are not Considered as an Object of Copyright...................................................................... 6
Effectiveness of Copyright on the Territory of the Republic of Armenia..................................................... 7
Origin of Copyright. Presumption of Authorship.......... 8
Interrelation between the Copyright and the Property Right to the Material Carrier......................................... 9
Co-Authorship............................................................... 10
The Personal Non-Property (Moral) Rights of the Author........................................................................... 11
The Property (Economic) Rights of the Author or Another Holder of Copyright........................................ 12
Free Use of the Work.................................................... 13
Use of the Work for Personal Purposes......................... 14
Use of the Work by Reprographic Reproduction.......... 15
Free Use of the Work Located in Open for Attendance (Public) Places.............................................................. 16
Free Use of Ephemeral Audio and Video Recordings by Broadcasting Organization....................................... 17
Free Reproduction of Computer Programs and Machine-Readable Databases. Decompilation of Computer Programs...................................................... 18
Copyright in an Employment Work.............................. 19
Copyright in an Audiovisual Work............................... 20
The Right of the Author of Work of Art....................... 21
Copyright in Collection Work....................................... 22
Copyright in a Derivative Work.................................... 23
Copyright in an Interview............................................. 24
Copyright in a Collective Work.................................... 25
Inheritance of the Copyright and its Term of Validity.. 26
Transfer of Economic Rights by the Author’s Contracts....................................................................... 27
The Conditions and Forms of an Author’s Contract..... 28
The Liability of the Parties in Case of Infringement the Author’s Contract.......................................................... 29
Chapter 3: Neighboring Rights
Subjects and Objects of Neighboring Rights................. 30
The Procedure of Protecting Neighboring Rights......... 31
Conditions of Protection of Neighboring Rights........... 32
The Rights of the Performer.......................................... 33
The Rights of Producers of First Fixations of Performances or Audiovisual Works............................ 34
The Rights of a Broadcasting Organization.................. 35
Limitation of Rights of the Performer, Producer of First Fixations of Performances or Audiovisual Works and the Broadcasting Organization............................... 36
The Use of a Phonogram or a Videogram Published for Commercial Purposes.............................................. 37
Term of Validity of Neighboring Rights....................... 38
Chapter 4: Ensuring of Copyright and Neighboring Rights
Establishment of Organizations Ensuring the Economic Rights of the Author on a Membership (Collective) Basis.......................................................... 39
The Organization Administering Observation and Protection of Copyright and Neighboring Rights.......... 40
Functions of Organizations Ensuring Economic Rights on a Membership (Collective) Basis............................. 41
Chapter 5: Protection of Copyright and Neighboring Rights
Infringement of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights... 42
The Protection of the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights............................................................................ 43
The Measures of Ensuring the Claim on Infringement of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights......................... 44
Chapter 6: Final Provisions
Rights of Foreign Persons............................................. 441
Entry into Force of the Law.......................................... 45
Adopted by the National Assembly 8 December, 1999
1. This law regulates the relations connected with creation and use of works of science, literature and arts (copyright), performances, phonograms, programs of broadcasting organizations (neighboring rights).
2. Public relations in the sphere of copyright and neighboring rights are regulated by the Constitution, Civil Code, this Law, other laws and legal acts of the Republic of Armenia.
3. If other norms are established in the international agreements signed by the Republic of Armenia, those norms shall be applied.
4. The following general definitions are used in this law:
Exclusive right—the right of the holder of property rights to the results of intellectual activity to lawful use of this object of intellectual property at his/her discretion in any form and any manner. The use of the objects of intellectual property by other persons is allowed only with the consent of the rightholder of exclusive rights. The holder of exclusive rights can transfer his property rights to another person in whole or in part;
Disclosure—an act of first making the work, phonogram (or videogram) accessible to the general public (to the unlimited circle of persons) with the consent of the author or the other rightholder of copyright or neighboring rights by means of publication, public performance, public display, broadcasting or by other means of issue to the public;
Issue to the public/publication/—with the consent of the author or the other rightholder of copyright or neighboring rights, the putting into circulation of copies of a work, phonogram (or videogram) manufactured by any means if the availability of such copies has been such as to satisfy the reasonable requirements of the public, having regard to the nature of a work or a phonogram (or videogram). The making available of a work or a phonogram (or videogram) by means of electronic information systems shall also constitute publication. The performance of a dramatic, dramatico-musical, audiovisual or musical works, the recitation of a literary work, the broadcasting of literary or artistic works, the exhibition of a work of art, and the construction of a work of architecture shall not constitute publication;
Collective work—a work, created by two or more persons, on the initiative and responsibility of a physical or legal person;
Performer—an actor (of theatre, cinema, etc.), a singer, a musician, a conductor, a dancer or another person who plays a role, sings, recites, declaims, plays on a musical instrument, performs literary or artistic works, circus, puppet, variety and other similar shows;
Producer of first fixation of the performances and audiovisual works—a physical or legal person on whose initiative and responsibility the first fixing of any performance, of an audiovisual work or of sounds in the form of a phonogram, videogram or audiovisual record was executed;
Author—a physical person, the result of creative labor of whom the work is;
Phonogram—exclusively aural fixation of sounds of a performance or other sounds, or of digital presentations or any other form thereof, in any manner and on any material carrier;
Communication—display, performance, broadcasting of a performance of work, of a phonogram, a videogram, of a program of the broadcasting organization or execution of any other act (with the exception of distribution of copies of a work, phonogram (or videogram)), whereby they become audible or visible irrespective whether or not they are actually perceived by the public (by third persons);
Broadcasting—dissemination (transmission) of images and (or) sounds or representations thereof through electromagnetic waves by wire (including cable communication) or by wireless means (including broadcasting over the air by radio, television or satellite communications) in such a way as to cause the images and sounds to be received by the public (third persons). The transmission of encrypted signals is also considered broadcasting if their decrypting means are supplied to the public (third persons) by a broadcasting organization or with its consent;
Program of the broadcasting organization—is a body of live or recorded material consisting of images and (or) sounds, or other information, meant for distribution and created by an air or cable broadcasting organization, or on its commission and with its funds by another organization;
Public performance—presentation of a work, a performance, a phonogram, a program of a broadcasting organization by the recitation, playing, singing, dancing or by other means and manners, either directly (live performance) or with the aid of any equipment or processes, in those places where this presentation may be perceived, without the necessity of performing a public communication, stipulated by the paragraph 14 of this Article, and where persons outside the usual circle of a family or of closest acquaintances are or can be present, irrespective of their being in the same place at the same time or in different places in different times;
Public display—showing of an original or the copies of the work, a performance, a program of a broadcasting organization, directly or on the screen by means of films, slides, TV frames or other equipment and processes, in those places where this showing may be perceived without the necessity of performing a public communication stipulated by the next paragraph of this Article, and where persons outside the usual circle of a family or of closest acquaintances are or can be present, irrespective of their being in the same place at the same time or in different places in different times; Public display of an audiovisual work means also the showing of individual frames of the work without keeping to their sequence.
Public communication—communication over the air or by the cable or by other way of a work, a performance, phonogram, a program of a broadcasting organization, images and (or) sounds, in such manner that the persons outside the usual circle of a family or of closest acquaintances may receive said images or sounds in those places the distance of which from the initial point of the communication is such that the images and sounds would not be received in the said locations or in other places without the mentioned communication, regardless of the fact whether the above mentioned persons can receive the images and sounds in the same place at the same time or in different places in different times;
Copy of a phonogram—duplicate of a phonogram containing all or substantial part of the sounds fixed in a phonogram and made from the phonogram directly or indirectly on any material carrier;
Public—large number of persons outside the usual circle of a family or of closest acquaintances, regardless of their presence at the same place at the same time or in different places in different times;
Decompilation of a computer program—converting the object code of the program to its source code;
Rightholder of a copyright and (or) neighboring rights (an entitled person)—an author or a performer having the economic rights, a physical or legal person, to whom the economic rights have been assigned or who was from the beginning entitled by the economic rights;
Imitation/counterfeit/—copy of a work the making or the distribution of which results in infringement of copyright and neighboring rights;
Director or producer of a show—a person who carries out the staging of the stage, circus, puppet, variety or other similar shows;
A work—a specific result of a creative work in the field of science, literature or arts, expressed in some objective form, carried out by the author himself individually or with other authors jointly;
A copy of a work—duplicate of a work, made in any material form;
Substantial part of a work—any part of a work which on its own can be identified as a part of the work, by any person who is familiar with the work;
Distribution of copies of a work, phonogram (or videogram)—making the original or the copies of a work, phonogram (or videogram) available to the public (third persons) by sale, rental or lending for temporary use, or by other transfer of ownership or possession rights concerned, as well as by electronic information systems;
Reproduction—making of one or more copies of the whole work, phonogram (or videogram) or part of it in any material form and on any material carrier, including the form of a sound or visual recording, as well as its recording in the electronic (including digital), optical or other machine-readable form for permanent or temporary storage;
Reprographic reproduction—facsimile reproduction in one or more copies, in any dimension (enlarged or reduced) and in any form, of the original or the duplicate of a written or other graphic work by means of photocopying or by other technical means, except those connected with the application of printing type-forms; Reprographic reproduction does not include the storage or reproduction of the mentioned duplicate in electronic (including digital), optical or other machine-readable form.
Rebroadcasting—either simultaneous broadcasting of the program or subsequent broadcasting of the already transmitted and fixed program of a broadcasting organization, by another broadcasting organization;
Rental—transfer the original or the copy of the work, phonogram (or videogram) for possession and use, for a limited period of time and for direct or indirect profit-making purpose;
Audiovisual work—a series of interrelated images (with or without sound accompaniment), susceptible of being made visible and audible too (if accompanied by sound). Works expressed by cinematographic and other similar means (television films, video films, slide films, motion pictures etc.) are considered audiovisual works;
Public performance of an audiovisual work—showing of the images of a work in their sequence—(including—with the reproduction of the sounds accompanying it. Database compilation of data and other materials (articles, accounts, facts, etc.), systematized in machine-readable or other form, which by the reason of the selection or arrangement of its content, is a result of a creative work.
5. Copyright extends to works in the scientific, literary and artistic domains that are results of creative activity irrespective of the purpose and merits of the work as well as the mode of its expression.
Objects of copyright are:
— geographic, geologic and other maps, designs (plans), sketches and plastic works related to geography, topography, geology, architecture and other sciences;
— derivative works, particularly:
(a) translations, adaptations of other works (treatments, essays (abstracts), annotations, reviews, summaries (resumes), adapted works, arrangements, stage versions, cinematographic (audiovisual) adaptations and other transformations of works in the scientific, literary and artistic domains) which constitute the individual works in a sense of the paragraph 22 of the Article 4 of this Law;
(b) collections of works (encyclopedias, anthologies, databases) and other compiled or composite works that are, by the reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents, the results of a creative work;
— literary works, including scientific works, all types of computer programs (expressed in any programming language and form (including application programs, operation systems, source code and object code);
— works of painting, sculpture, graphics, design and other works of visual (figurative) arts;