Plagiarism and piracy as types of copyright infringement in the creative industries

Abstract

The article examines the concept of violations in the creative industries. It analyses thetypes of infringements that are most common in Ukraine. The main focus is on the analysis ofthe concepts of plagiarism and piracy in Ukrainian legislation and some EU countries.Accordingly, the Laws of Poland and Germany on Copyright and Related Rights do notcontain a definition of plagiarism. Since there is no legal definition of plagiarism, and the phenomenonof plagiarism is quite widespread, the only option for legislative regulation is judicialpractice. In Germany, for example, the concept of plagiarism as an infringement of copyrightapplies not only to literary works but also to works of other art forms. Therefore, byanalogy, it is concluded that plagiarism as an infringement of copyright and/or related rightsin the creative industries is committed not only in the literary or scientific field, but is alsopossible in other art forms, in particular: music, art, choreography, jewellery and costumejewellery, architecture and advertising.The situation is similar with regard to the definition of piracy. In Poland, piracy is usedmainly as a colloquial term. However, it is one of the most common crimes committed onthe Internet. In the German scientific literature, there are different interpretations of theconcept of piracy. Under the German Copyright and Related Rights Act, an author mayprohibit (revoke) the unauthorised posting of his or her work on the Internet. The SwissFederal Law on Copyright and Related Rights provides for a similar provision.However, the purpose of piracy differs from the purpose of plagiarism. In the case ofpiracy, the infringer seeks to gain material benefit and does not intend to create any identificationbetween him or her and the unlawfully used object (pirated film, computer programor database, etc.). In the case of plagiarism, the opposite is true. The infringer wantsconsumers to identify it with the misused intellectual property.Therefore, it is concluded that there is no single, comprehensive and generally accepteddefinition of plagiarism and piracy. The statutory definition of plagiarism and piracy enshrinedin part 2 of Article 53 of the Law differs significantly from the European approachesconsidered.