Opłaty reprograficzne w polskim prawie autorskim jako forma zarządzania kulturą

Abstract

Reprographic fees in the Polish Copyright Law as the form of managing culture The development of new information technologies results in the infringement on the author’s economic rights as a consequence of permitted personal use by means of reprographic equipment, audio recording equipment, tape recorders and video recorders. The fees imposed on the producers and importers of the reprographic equipment have become an attempt to counteract this phenomenon both in the European Union law and in the Polish Copyright Law. Under the Polish Copyright Law, the organizations for collective management of copyright or related rights, to whom the minister responsible for the matters of culture and protection of national heritage grants permission for carrying on activities in a given field of exploitation, acting under the provisions of the law on associations are obligated to collect reprographic fees and distribute such fees further to the entities authorized to receive them. The literature argues about the character of these fees. The article draws attention to the danger connected with the functioning of e-learning and highlights the changes in the legal solutions, relating these solutions to the content of the European Union law and the case-law of the Constitutional Tribunal.