The Law 4481/2017 in Greece: the Adaptation of the Provisions of the EU Directive 2014/26 and New Possibilities of Copyright Protection on the Internet

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Olga A. Bogdanova

PhD in Philology, Editor of the 1st category at the Chair of Foreign Journalism and Literature, Faculty of Journalism, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

e-mail: otheodorova@gmail.com

Section: Media Law

The protection of copyright and related rights on the Internet is now one of the urgent problems of legislation. Considerable changes in this field took place in Greek legislation in 2017. The new law 4481/2017 on Collective Management of Copyright and Related Rights, Multi-Territorial Licensing in Musical Works for Online Use in the Internal Market and Other Issues Falling Within the Scope of the Ministry of Culture and Sports for the first time introduced into Greek legislation the provisions of the Directive 2014/26/EU on Collective Management of Copyright and due to this served as a step to bringing national legislation in line with all-European one. The law 4481/2017 complemented the law 2121/1993 on Copyright, Related Rights and Cultural Matters and for the first time in the history of Greek legislation assigned a special section (clause 66 E of the law 2121/1993 on the Sanctions for Infringements of Copyright and Related Rights on the Internet) to the protection of copyright and related rights on the Internet. In addition, in correspondence with article 52 of the law 4481/2017, holders of rights obtained for the first time the possibility of the out-of-court examination of infringement of their rights on the Internet, and a special Committee for the Notification of Copyright and Related Rights Infringement on the Internet was established to this end. These possibilities have been implemented in practice since September 2018. The law 4481/2017 for the first time emphasized the role of specific categories of online intermediaries (internet access providers or hosting service providers) and website owners while excluding end users (i.e. persons who are engaged in reproduction, uploading, downloading, peer-to-peer activity, streaming or cloud computing). As a result, the new procedure makes it possible to accelerate considerably the process of considering the cases about the infringement of author’s rights on the Internet. But the legal nature of the Committee for the Notification of Copyright and Related Rights Infringement on the Internet is defined in the new law with insufficient clarity. Together with other gaps, this might threaten the efficiency of its work and trust to the new procedure. The problems of legislation concerning copyright and related rights in Greece, including the protection of copyright and related rights on the Internet, have not been considered in Russian scientific literature so far. This testifies to the scientific novelty of the present article. The data presented are introduced into scientific use in Russia for the first time so that the article fills a lacuna that has existed in this field of scientific knowledge.

Keywords: media law, copyright, copyright protection, the Internet, Internet legislation, Greek media
DOI: 10.30547/vestnik.journ.2.2020.167186

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