Russian Parliament May Suspend Reform Of IP System

The ongoing reform of the Russian system of intellectual property may be suspended, due to recent criticism of some of its aspects by the Russian Parliament (State Duma).

According to an official spokesman of Sergey Naryshkin, head of the Russian State Duma, the national Parliament is unhappy with the recent proposal of the Russian government to abolish the non-contractual collective management of intellectual property rights in Russia.

The Russian State Duma believes that implementation of this idea will negatively affect the local copyright holders, who would no longer be able to receive their royalties, due to their inability to control the use of their works in Russia and abroad (on television, radio, in restaurants, movie theaters, and so forth).

A spokesman of Naryshkin believes that this initiative will also have a negative impact on broadcasters, who will have to sign hundreds of licensing agreements with a large number of organisations, each of which dictating its own conditions. The most negative effect would be observed in the case of radio stations, whose repertoire will be strictly limited to products with existed licensing agreements.

The latest initiative of the Russian government involves the complete refusal of the existing scheme of non-contractual collective management of intellectual property rights.

In accordance with the current scheme, the existing associations for collective management of copyright collect royalties for the benefit of authors, (and even those authors that are not aware of the existence of such associations).

According to the latest proposal of the Russian government, these associations will operate only under the direct contracts with authors and rights holders. According to Alexei Volin, deputy communications minister of Russia, implementation of this initiative should raise the transparency of the current system of copyright management in Russia.

In the meantime, in addition to the Russian State Duma, the latest state initiative has also been criticised by some leading Russian analysts in the field of copyright and authors.

According to Sergei Fedotov, general director of the Russian Authors’ Society, the existing scheme ensures the best protection of the interests of authors in Russia.

“The contractual system, which is currently used in many western countries, is not a panacea,” Sergei Fedotov commented. “Full transition to the contract system, which is lobbied by the government returns authors to a situation of chaos of the 1990s, when there were hundreds of copyright societies in Russia, many of which were under the control of criminals, who steal the authors’ money.”

“In addition,” he said, “excessive number of such organizations may lead to tariff dumping and the decline of authors’ fees. Furthermore, the government may find it difficult to implement a control for such a large number of organisations.”

At present, there are several associations for collective management of rights in Russia, among which are the Russian Authors’ Society (RAO), the Russian Union of Right-holders (CPR), the All-Russian Intellectual Property Organization (AIPO). In 2013, RAO has collected 4.4 billion roubles royalties, of which 3.2 billion roubles were transferred to authors. The results for 2014 are not disclosed.

In the meantime, in addition to this, the Russian Parliament plans to assess other initiatives of the Russian government in the field of intellectual property. One in particular is the granting of so-called global licences to operators in exchange for freely downloading content from the internet, which has also sparked criticism from some leading Russian analysts in the field of intellectual property.

There is a possibility that the Russian Parliament may introduce a veto on the latest initiative of the Russian government on 1 November, according to the press service of the State Duma.