The authors accuse the organizers of the Olympics in piracy, while the deputies change the law

It is obvious to everyone that laws in Russia are adopted impulsively. Whenever information appears in the media that something out of the ordinary happened, another speaker elected by the people appears, who begins to actively wave his hands in the walls of the State Duma and push through another law prohibiting the existence of any phenomenon. Of course, all such initiatives are taken in defense of the public interest. It is only a pity that the caring people elected, day and night thinking about how to protect the poor Russian people, are spending their precious energy unreasonably. The need for copyright reform, which has long ceased to meet the needs of society, is increasingly paid attention to various IT specialists, lawyers, video bloggers, authors and users. In early February, the Pirate Party of Russia,Campaign for copyright reform in the digital age . This is another attempt by civil society to attract widespread public attention to copyright issues that are being heard today with new relevance.

However, at times it seems that it is completely impossible to move the immovable copyright legislation, formed in the 19th century. But we see how easily it is possible to make appropriate changes to existing laws when it comes to the interests of public authorities and major lobbyists from the media business. So this time, a new bill was promptly introduced in connection with the scandals of copyright infringement during the Winter Olympics in Sochi.


Krapivner against the organizers of the Olympics

First to violate their copyrightsaid the co-authors of the unofficial anthem of the Olympics from Yekaterinburg . Roman Krapivner, the author of the lyrics of the song “Again in Russia”, infringed on the rights, said that without his permission the track was published as part of the “Sochi 2014 Olympic Games Official Album”. It was

originally assumed that the collection would be distributed free of charge, but what was the authors’ surprise when they found that the organizers also sold the popular album via iTunes, without paying a penny to the authors. On the album, the original track was presented by Valeria , the copyright and related rights to which, according to the authors, were also not transferred.



When we first saw this disc with Anna, we were really stunned! Our composition (already performed by Valeria) was in first place in this collection! It could mean only one thing - our Olympic hit was recognized as the best and most important among all ten hits-winners! ”

Bringing the track to the public and selling it at a price of 15 rubles. in the Apple service performed by Valeria, is obviously a violation of the exclusive rights of the authors.

Currently, the authors are making a decision to appeal to the court in connection with the violation of their exclusive rights.

Zemfira against the organizers of the Olympics

The second scandal over copyright infringement during the Olympics was a public statement by Zemfira, who accused Channel One CEO Konstantin Ernst of violating her copyright for the song “Want” during the opening ceremony of the XXII Olympic Winter Games. Zemfira believes that her rights have been violated, because She didn’t give consent to play the remix on her track.

However, her statements were countered by her that Article 1277 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation provides that without the consent of the author or other copyright holder and without payment of remuneration, the public performance of a musical work during an official or religious ceremony or funeral is allowed.

However, some lawyers commenting on this situation came to the conclusion that the opening ceremony of the Olympics is not an official ceremony, but is part of a commercial event, as provided for the sale of tickets, and therefore the requirements of authors and artists can be fully justified. But even if you agree with this, in both cases, the authors have very little chance of success under the current Russian legislation governing the collective management of copyright, because the organizers of a public event do not need to conclude agreements with the authors. RAO and WIPO can collect money for the use of works forcibly and without preliminary conclusion of an agreement with the authors and artists themselves by virtue of Article 1222 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Therefore it is believed

Deputy Seleznev defended Ernst and the organizers of the Olympics


However, the deputy from the LDPR faction Valery Seleznev decided to cover the rear of power, and in a radical way limit any further claims of authors and artists in the event of such cases. On February 21, he introduced a bill to the State Duma providing for the expansion of cases of free public performance of musical works. So, according to the bill, when carrying out events with the participation of senior statesmen, it is allowed to perform musical works without the consent of the author and without paying him compensation. Mr. Seleznev intuitively understands that something is wrong with copyright today, but unfortunately, he thinks in the wrong direction. The adoption of such a bill is meaningless. It will not help either the authors or the artists. At the same time, the proposed amendment to the law introduces a very strange condition under which senior government officials (and who they are, the bill does not disclose) are separated from all other content users and may violate copyrights in their own corporate parties and parties. And what will be the next step? The establishment of other exceptions to civil, administrative and criminal liability for senior officials? Really