As from January 1, 2023, copyright owners and singers of the Republic of Moldova cannot benefit from compensatory payments from the import of equipment now that the new law on copyright and related rights took effect. The authorities established a list of the equipment on the import of which compensatory payments are collected, but these cannot be collected even for the positions included in the list owing to the outdated customs codes that are no longer used, said representatives of the national association “Copyright”.

In a news conference hosted by IPN, author Eugen Turuta, doctor habilitate of technical sciences, said the works protected by the Law on Copyright are posted online, on servers of different companies with or without the permission of authors. If this is done without the permission of authors, these cannot know that their works are being used and distributed. The copyright is violated not because the works are placed on a server, but because these are used/downloaded by private individuals. It goes to images, videos, films, songs, etc.

“In practical terms, the authors or singers cannot effectively examine and control each individual use of their works. That’s why the competent courts of the European Union decided that the authors will not follow each individual violation of copyright, but will receive a payment for the violation of these rights, which will be collected as a percentage from the duties paid on the import of equipment used to reproduce the given works. It goes to the mobile phones, mp3 players, TV sets, tape recorders, etc. The Law on Copyright and Related Rights of 2010 stipulated this,” explained Eugen Turuta.

This payment was collected by the collective management organizations whose members received the compensatory payment. But in June 2022, when the new draft law was being discussed at Government level, a concrete list of equipment for which that percentage will be collected was proposed and it was also suggested decreasing this payment from 3% to 0.3%.

“90% of the compensatory payments, before the new Law on Copyright took effect, were collected on the import of mobiles, cellphones with the customs code 851712000. But the new nomenclature that took effect on January 1, 2023 does not stipulate such a customs code. This customs code was replaced with a new one, while cellphone was replaced with smartphone. So, no payment in favor of copyright owners and singers of the Republic of Moldova will be collected on the import of cellphones as from January 1, 2023,” stated Eugen Turuta.

The head of “Copyright” Liviu Știrbu said the new law promoted by the State Agency on Intellectual Property created an unprecedented situation for all the copyright owners. Not only the national copyright owners, but also the foreign artists are this way affected.

Note: IPN News Agency gives the right of reply to persons who consider they were touched by the news items produced based on statements of the organizers of the given news conference, including by facilitating the organization of another news conference in similar conditions.