Ukraine to Adopt Stricter Copyright Regulations

On February 1, 2011, the Ukrainian Parliament passed the Bill amending the acts on copyright and related rights. The amendments, expected to enter into force soon, will be introduced to the Law on Copyright and Related Rights, the Administrative Offences Code of Ukraine, the Civil Code and other legislative acts of Ukraine.

In accordance with the provisions of the draft Law on Copyright and Related Rights, No. 6523, a copyright owner will have the right to file a request with an Internet service provider to stop infringement in case the Internet service provider’s client infringes copyright owner’s rights. Within two weeks of the request, the Internet service provider is to warn the infringer to stop the infringement activity, e.g. remove the infringing material. If the infringer does not comply, the Internet service provider will be obliged to cut off Internet access to the infringing material or the web hosting service within two weeks from the date of the receipt of the warning. If the requirements of the copyright owner are not met, the Internet service provider will be liable along with the infringer. There are currently no proposed sanctions in the draft law.

A representative of the State Intellectual Property Service of Ukraine noted that this draft law will implement a special scheme according to which Internet access will be restricted to a specific item, e.g. the infringing movie, not to the whole website.

For more information, please contact Dina Kryvoshei or Maya Kryvoshei at our Ukraine office.

Source: Local text of the draft law; Liga.net, Ukrainian news portal