ПРОЄКТ ЗАКОНУ УКРАЇНИ «ПРО АВТОРСЬКЕ ПРАВО І СУМІЖНІ ПРАВА»: ЮРИДИКО-ТЕХНІЧНИЙ АНАЛІЗ

Abstract

Kosovych V. M. Draft Law of Ukraine on Copyright and Related Rights: legal and technical analysis. – Article. The article is devoted to the study of the possibilities of improving the mechanism of legislative support of intellectual property law in Ukraine, based on the need to fulfill the international obligations of our state to protect copyright. The object of analysis is the draft Law of Ukraine on Copyright and Related Rights, submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for consideration (registration number 5552-4 dated 09.06.2021). It is stated that the draft Law of Ukraine on Copyright and Related Rights (the Draft) is an important step in the development of the domestic legal framework in this area of relations. Legal and technical evaluation of the Draft gave grounds to note its high quality and overall compliance with the requirements of rule-drafting technique. At the same time, a detailed study of the articles of the Draft allowed to offer a number of recommendations for its improvement through the prism of the peculiarities of rule-making tools. These are the legal definitions used in the Project, the general requirements for the content, its linguistic and structural characteristics. It is proposed to amend the preamble of the Draft, which in fact outlines the subject of legal regulation of the law. The preamble is the introductory part of the law, which can define the historical preconditions and justify the need for its adoption, explain the purpose, outline the main tasks facing it, and so on. The preamble of the law cannot repeat the content of its other structural components. It is pointed out that Article 1 of the Draft provides reasonable definitions of special terms, for example: cable retransmission (paragraph 21); camcording (paragraph 22); cardsharing (paragraph 23); potpourri (paragraph 34); hosting service provider (paragraph 35); reprographic reproduction (reproduction) (paragraph 46); phonogram (paragraph 60); digital content (paragraph 63). Attention is drawn to some cases of noncompliance with the requirement that the wording of definitions should be short. For example, the definition of the term «broadcasting» seems too broad. In fact, it defines another term – «encoded signal». Several definitions do not follow the rule that the definition should not contain terms used in the defined term. The necessity of inclusion of the relevant international agreements of Ukraine in the list of normative legal acts, forming the legislation of Ukraine on copyright and related rights, specified in Art. 2 of the Draft, is justified. A high level of compliance with structural rules in the Draft was noted. Recommendations for more detailed numbering of individual articles of the Project, in particular, Part 10 of Art. 4, which combines different regulations within one part (without highlighting individual items, in the form of paragraphs), are proposed. It is concluded that this study is a contribution to the process of scientific and expert evaluation of an important bill and can be used in practice.