Issues of legal regulation of collective management of copyrights and related rights in Ukraine

Abstract

The article analyzes the problematic issues of legal regulation of collective management of copyrights and related rights, which exist under the 2018 Law of Ukraine “On effective management of property rights of copyright holders in the scope of copyright and (or) related rights”. It is noted that the adoption of this Law was an important stage in the development of Ukrainian legislation in the scope of copyright and related rights in the direction of its approximation to the standards of the European Union on the activities of collective management organizations. This has significantly implemented the main provisions of the Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council № 2014/26/EU into the national legislation of Ukraine. At the same time, the analysis conducted in the article allows us to state that the Law also contains some controversial provisions that require theoretical understanding and development of proposals for further improvement of legal regulation of collective management of copyright and related rights. It is proposed to replace the title of this Law with a more precise and concise one – “On the collective management of copyright and (or) related rights”. It is emphasized that this Law should consistently take the position that the object of collective management is property copyright and related rights. In order to
 implement the provisions of Directive № 2014/26/EC, a position was expressed on the expediency of enshrining in national legislation the possibility of right holders to transfer their copyright and related rights to management not only to collective management organizations but also to other independent organizations. Attention is paid to the expediency of returning to the representative model of relations between collective management organizations and rightsholders. It is noted that in the text of the Law the term “contract on permission to use copyright and (or) related rights” should be replaced by “license contract”, specifying that collective management organizations can only grant non-exclusive licenses.