Serbia to Adopt Optical Disk Law to Curb Piracy

A public discussion on the draft of Serbia’s new Law on Optical Disks took place at the Serbian IPO in December 2010, gathering representatives from the IPO, relevant government ministries, the Serbian copyright protection organization SOKOJ, along with other interested parties engaged in the activities related to the contents of the draft law. The draft law, designed to help combat piracy in Serbia, is expected to enter the parliamentary procedure in the first half of this year.

The draft law prescribes conditions for the manufacture of optical disks and the production parts thereof, import and export of production parts and the equipment used in connection with the production of optical disks, as well as copying for commercial purposes, export, import, trade and distribution of optical disks.

The draft law also prescribes that no person can engage in the manufacture of optical disks and/or in the manufacture of equipment used in connection with the production of optical disks without previously obtaining license and the manufacturer’s code.

The draft law deals with various aspects of licensing for the manufacture of optical disks. For instance, the Serbian IPO will be authorized to issue the license, duration period of which is two years. However, the license can be renewed for an indefinite number of times upon filing a request with the IPO and paying the prescribed fee. The IPO will also be in charge of managing the manufacturers’ codes registrar in electronic form and assigning the codes to licensees.

The draft law also contains the interpretation of the rules, including a thorough explanation of reasons for adopting this law as well as estimates of financial assets necessary for the implementation of the law.

The draft law explicitly states that it was modeled on the corresponding laws in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Ukraine and Montenegro.

For more information, please contact Tijana Milijanovic at our Balkan Regional Office.

Source: PETOŠEVIĆ, Serbian IPO