Cabinet passed Draft Law amending the Law on Copyright and Related Rights

Podgorica, Montenegro (28 November 2019) --  "Amending the Law on Copyright and Related Rights have been addressed primarily with the aim of aligning the provisions of this law with the law of the European Union in the area of collective achievement of copyright and related rights, particularly the Directive 2014/26/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council since 26 February 2014, on the collective management of copyright and related rights and granting of authorizations to the territories of numerous countries for the right to use online music works in the internal market," Director General of the Directorate for Internal Market and Competition Biljana Jakić stated after the Cabinet passed the Draft Law amending the Law on Copyright and Related Rights at today’s session.

Director General Jakić emphasised that the directive in question for the first time, regulated in detail the issue of collective rights management at the EU level, both with respect to the rights of authors and holders of related rights and the obligations and authorizations of organisations for the collective exercise of rights and users of rights.

She added that the main effect of the adoption of this Draft Law will be the improvement of the system of the collective management of copyright and related rights in Montenegro.

Lastly, Director General Jakić informed the present about the most significant novelty that the Draft Law brings: boosted transparency in the work of collective management organisations in relation to both, the authors and holders of related rights, which represents and in relation to the users; increased monitoring of the competent authority to the work of organisations for collective management of copyright and related rights; boosted inspection control of unauthorised use of copyrighted works and subject matter of related rights; stricter misdemeanour policy; improvement of the process of concluding common tariff agreements, i.e. the agreements on fees for the use of copyrighted works and subject matter of related rights between collective management organisations and user associations, with the introduction of the obligation for the competitive authority to approve such agreements and the increased transparency in their conclusion; introducing the possibility of establishing a new consensual tariff if the previous was implemented for at least one year and changing of the provisional tariff established by competent authority, ex officio or at the request of a representative association of users or an organisation for the collective management of copyright and related rights; introducing an obligation for organisations for collective management of copyright and related rights to give the opportunity to fill a complaint and to provide effective and timely complaint procedures for their members and collective management organisations, on behalf of which they manage rights based on a representation agreement.

The key target groups that this Draft Law will affect are authors and holders of related rights, users of copyrighted works and related rights and organisations for collective management of copyright and related rights.

PUBLIC RELATIONS SERVICE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTENEGRO