System for managing copyright in Moldova is blocked, experts

The national copyright management system in Moldova is fully blocked, said the director of the National Copyright Office Iurie Badicu. He told a news conference that the State Agency on Intellectual Property Protection (AGEPI) one year ago drafted a bill with amendments to the Law on Copyright. Though it was approved by the Government, the bill remained blocked at the stage of public hearings, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to Iurie Badicu, the project is not promoted owing to the interests of decision makers. Interakt Media managing director Tudor Darie said that the Law on Copyright contains an article that violates the people’s rights. It says that when a website contains a link to another site where there is a work that infringes copyright, both of the sites are blocked. Tudor Darie explained that in such a case the copyright is respected, but the rights of hundreds of users of sites are violated. The bill suggests blocking only the work so that the site continues to function. Ana Chirita, executive director of the Association of Private ICT Companies, said that the bill ensures the implementation of the European standards in administering copyright, based on correctitude and transparency. Viorica Nagacevschi, specialist in copyright, said that there are five collective management operators that collect honorarium from all the users of copyright. The bill proposes not issuing licenses by categories of users (radio, Internet, TV, retransmission by cable), but for copyright (copyright of the composer and text author) and for related rights (rights of singers and producers of phonograms). This way, there will be only two organizations. Singers Adrian Ursu and Aura told the same news conference that this bill will help to faster identify those who illegally use songs. “We try to change things so that every singer is paid fairly, according to promotion and copyright,” said Adrian Ursu. The Law on Copyright and Related Rights came into force on January 1, 2011.