IT and Copyright: President of Russia addressed the leaders of G20 member states on copyright problem on the Internet

The President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev addressed the leaders of the G20 member states on a new concept concerning the use and protection of the results of intellectual activities on the Internet. Summit of G20 member states was running November 4-5 2011 in Cannes, France.

At the meeting with journalists the Head of the Russian state expressed an opinion that the address “was considered by colleagues”.

In his address, which was made public on November 3, Dmitry Medvedev called to create a new concept concerning the use and protection of results of intellectual activities on the Internet. The President highlighted that “digital technologies and global information networks have made a real breakthrough in information accumulation and exchange”. “The old principles of intellectual property protection established in a completely different technological context do not work any longer in an emerging environment, and, therefore, new conceptual arrangements are required for international regulation of intellectual activities on the Internet”, he stressed.

For these reasons Dmitry Medvedev proposed to deal with a number of tasks. The President is convinced that it is necessary to determine the limits of legitimate use of the results of intellectual activities by Internet users, and also monitor the observance of copyright and neighbouring rights on the Internet by information intermediaries and those who place the content, rather than ordinary Internet users. It is highly important to expand the opportunities of right holders to manage and exercise the rights to the results of intellectual activities on the Internet, to amend the way of obtaining a right holder's consent, and to design a legal instrument for exercising and protection of the rights of right holders to the results of intellectual activities on the Internet. Above all, Dmitry Medvedev called to enforce human rights and implementation of social mission of the State.

According to the President, firstly, “the State should establish a certain level of legal protection for the objects of copyright and neighbouring rights on the Internet and give a right holder an opportunity to choose a model of protection of his or her work that suits his or her interests best”.

Secondly, “a major element of a new approach to the protection of copyright and neighbouring rights could be the introduction of assumption that the use of objects of copyright and neighbouring rights on the Internet shall be considered free unless the right holder states otherwise. At the same time a minimum level of protection that will not require any declaration from the right holder must be established”, he believes.

Thirdly, “if found guilty, information intermediaries on the Internet (communications service providers, Internet website and domain name owners, etc.) should be held responsible for violation of copyright and neighbouring rights on general grounds, except for specifically established cases (e.g., if they were not aware or were not supposed to be aware of the illegality of content)”.

Dmitry Medvedev mentioned that “the abovementioned approaches call for creation of new legal, economic and technological mechanisms, which would meet the interests of all actors present on the Internet and provide right holders with the means to exercise and independently protect their rights”.

He expects that the implementation of these initiatives “will require amendments to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, other treaties that determine the modern international legal consensus (in particular, the Universal Copyright Convention, the WIPO Copyright Treaty), and, possibly, adoption of a new international treaty”.

To the address Dmitry Medvedev attached the Plan of Amendments to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.