The History of Copyright Legislation in Latvia
The first important international legislative copyright act is the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, which was laid down in 1886. It has been amended several times. The Convention defines no registration, copyright sign or any other formality needed to prove the authorship. It also sets the principle of national treatment, which means that the rights of international authors are protected on the same grounds as the rights of national authors.
Before Latvia gained independence in 1918 the Copyright act of Russia was in force with all main copyright principles included.
Although in 1920s Latvia was not a Member State of Berne Convention the copyright provisions were included in bilateral and multilateral trade treaties – hence Latvia had not ratified the Berne Convention, its trade treaties contained regulations that directly agreed with the Convention.
The first Latvian copyright act "The author's right law" came in force in 15 of May 1937. Nevertheless, there was no organization to enforce the law.
Latvia joined the Berne Convention in 15 of May 1938 and it was in force in territory of Latvia till the occupation in 1940.
During the Soviet Union time in Latvia the Universal or Geneva Copyright Convention was in force. Nevertheless, authors had a very rare chance to control the use of their works. Usually there was no permission requested from author for use of the work, there was no private enterprises or state authority to administer the rights of authors. Even though after the WW II in Latvia functioned department of USSR Copyright organization the main opinion was that "art belongs to nations" therefore everyone could free and without any restrictions use works without paying remuneration. As USSR had not joined the Berne Convention the rights of foreign authors were not observed as well.
After Latvia gained its independence in 1990 the first law on protection of authors, performers, producers and broadcasting organizations was adopted in 11 May 1993 and was called "On copyright and neighbouring rights". There were plenty of disadvantages since the European or Roman rules were mixed with Common Law rules.
Latvian Copyright Agency, which was subjugated to Ministry of Culture, acted from the end of 1991 till June 1993.
In 1992 AKKA (Copyright and Communication Consultations Agency) was registered.
In 1993 LAA (Latvian Copyright Agency) was registered.
Both agencies united in 1995 creating one Collecting Society AKKA/LAA (Copyright and Communication Consultations Agency/ Latvian Copyright Agency).
Since 1993 Latvian legislative system gradually improved and state undertook new commitments.
In August 1995 Latvia rejoined the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, thus guaranteeing the copyright protection in Latvia both for national and international authors.
In August 1997 Latvia acceded to the Geneva Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms.
In August 1999 Latvia acceded to the Rome Convention.
The Constitution of Latvia – Satversme – was complemented with a chapter on human rights on October 15 1998. Article 113 asserts that the State admits the freedom of scientific, artistic and other creativity and protects the rights of authors.
Latvian Administrative Code and Criminal Law were amended and regulations on mechanism of penal sanctions in case of copyright infringement were implemented.
In 2000 Latvia acceded to WIPO Treaties.
For the period of 1997 – 1999 lasted the work on the new Copyright law. It was first decided to amend the previous law "On Copyright and Neighbouring rights" harmonizing it with EU directives. However the number of recommended Articles was larger than the number of Articles in effectual law and it was chosen to frame a new law, which was entitled as "Copyright Law". It came in force in April 6 2000.
The "Copyright Law" covers the bundle of rights defined in the Berne Convention, Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms, TRIPS Treaty, WIPO Treaties, and EU Directives.
In comparison to the old law there was no redundant terminology included.
The new "Copyright Law" clearly states the principles of copyrights, which is basis of the protection of copyrights. The law also defines who is the owner of copyrights, what copyrights refer to and the character of copyrights. Copyrights refer to literary, scientific and artistic works; also to unfinished works, insignificant of the goal and value of the work or nature of its expression. It is important that there is no special registration or any other formality needed to verify copyrights.
The term of protection of copyrights is being extended from 50 to 70 years. In compliance with transitional provisions the term of protection refers to all works and authors protected at the day the new law came into force.
The protected works are:
- literary works (books, brochures, speeches, computer programs, lectures, addresses, reports, sermons and other works of a similar nature);
- dramatic and dramatic-musical works, scripts and treatments of audio-visual works;
- choreographic works and pantomimes;
- musical works with or without words;
- audio-visual works;
- drawings, paintings, sculptures and graphic art and other works of art;
- applied works of art, decorative and scene-painting works;
- design works;
- photographic works and works which are expressed by a process analogous to photography;
- sketches, drafts and plans for buildings, structures and architectural works, models of buildings and structures, other architectural designs, city construction works and garden and park plans and models, as well as fully or partly constructed buildings and implemented city construction or landscape objects;
- geographical maps, plans, sketches, and moulded works which relate to geography, topography and other sciences;
- and also derivative works: translations and adaptations, revised works, annotations, theses, summaries, reviews, musical arrangements, screen and stage adaptations and similar works; and collections of works (encyclopaedias, anthologies, atlases and similar collections of works), as well as databases and other compiled works which, in terms of selection of materials or arrangement, are the result of creative activity.
