Author’s rights in the Internet space will be regulated by the new law. Work on the draft law on electronic commerce is coming to its end and it is planned to make it effective as from 2018. However, service providers do not agree with the current version of the law.
According to the draft law, illegal content can be removed from the Internet, on the basis of the author’s complaint, only by the Internet provider. Moreover, if the author’s right are violated, the right holder is entitled to institute a lawsuit directly against the service provider and then the payment of the fine, provided for by the law, may be imposed on the latter.
In Caucasus Network we were told that it should not be the function of an internet provider, as a conductor, to remove materials from a web-page.
“We think that it should not be the obligation of an internet provider, as a conductor, to evaluate legality of products and make a decision on their appropriateness”, – claims the representative of Caucasus Online.
Sakpatent is also involved in the development of the draft. At the agency, we were told that private sector positively evaluates development of the draft law, however, at the present stage, the work on the issue of observing the law without damaging the interests of any of the parties is ongoing. Nikoloz Goglidze, Chair of Sakpatent, states that service providers will be given a reasonable timeframe for solution of technical issues.
“We must provide a transition period to the violators of the author’s rights, to allow them make their performance legal with no risk. On the other hand, we should give reasonable time to service providers to complete all the technical arrangements”, – states Nikoloz Goglidze.
