Protect copyright. Memo for web resource owners

As practice shows, copyrights are often subject to various violations, which makes it necessary to provide effective protection mechanisms for objects that are intellectual property. According to experts, it is copyrights that are most often violated, since a huge amount of information and a wide field of activity gives violators the opportunity to commit violations without any special consequences for themselves. In addition, situations often occur when, for some reason, it is impossible to track current changes in legislative framework, due to which violations may occur in an involuntary manner.

Let's consider what mechanisms are used to protect copyrights, and what needs to be done to avoid complications in the foreseeable future.

Copyright and its subjects

Copyright is a functional structure civil law, engaged in the regulation of legal relations closely related to the creation and further use of various objects of artistic, literary or scientific genres, as well as objects that fall under the category of trade fruits of fruitful creative or intellectual activity. The name itself " copyright"can be considered conditional, since the law primarily protects the interests of the copyright holder, and not the author.

Users rarely understand how to protect copyright for books, music and other works of authorship.

The original owner (subject) of copyright is the user who created a certain work through creative or intellectual work.

In his respect, not only a personal non-property right will be established, but an exclusive right to use his labor in any form, but subject to the requirement that this does not contradict the actual legislative framework. The original creation must contain the initials of its creator, who will be recognized as the author, unless otherwise proven in court.

In addition to the direct author, other users may act as subjects of law, to whom, under certain circumstances, the information may be transferred. exclusive rights on the result of creativity or intellectual work. The legislator defines such users as copyright holders. These may include:

Employers and representatives of the enterprise administration, subject to the rule that the creation was reproduced by an employee in the performance of duties related to the professional field. The entire result of intellectual work in this example will belong to the employer, and copyright protection is valid for this user.
Enterprises, including publishing houses, radio and television companies, media, etc. They receive the rights to further use the result of creativity with the subsequent use of the work.
Customers, if the final creation appeared as a result of appropriate agreements in which the creator acted as the executor of the order.
Ordinary users acting as heirs of users who have all possible copyrights. At the same time, it must be said that specific time limits are established for the heirs during which intellectual rights will be valid. The period will begin to count from the moment when, at the official level, the creation is transferred to the user as part of the hereditary values.

In Western Europe and the USA, some rather unique elements of the legal relationship between creators and copyright holders (authors) have become very popular. We are talking about organizational structures that provide management regarding property legal relations on a collective basis. In our country, this practice is just beginning to be introduced.

Legal basis and objects of copyright

Copyright is regulated in Russian Federation certain legislative standards. Until 2008, the law “On Copyright and Related Rights” was in force in our country, but over time this standard lost its validity, and as a result, the Civil Code, namely Part 4, became the basis for regulating legal relations in this area.

This functional element of the code is called “Rights to the results of intellectual activity and means of individualization.” In addition to direct copyright, this includes any related rights related to authorship, invention, integrated circuits, production secrets, confidential technological developments and much more.

In order for the updated standards to be as effective as possible, and their application to produce certain results, legislators studied previously existing standards and supplemented them with new provisions, in particular, directly affecting all the nuances that are noted during the interaction of the parties participating in the copyright agreement.

As for the object of copyright, it is a product obtained by a person after carefully performing actions related to creative or intellectual work. The law establishes that a specific product is an object of protection only if there is a requirement that an author who wants to protect his work has been identified. Article 1259 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation outlines certain human achievements that are recognized as possible objects of protection:

Literary works, including scripts, musical works and plays.
Choreographic developments and works of mimodramatic plan.
Creations of a visual nature, in particular films, commercials, and other audio and video visual products. Thus, the copyright of the song will also be subject to close attention from the state.
The result of artistic work, as well as architectural, urban planning and landscape projects that have certain unique characteristics.
Fruits of cartography, plans, diagrams, photographs, as well as products related to topographic and geographical surveys.
Works of a creative genre, if many sources were used to create them, and in addition the fruits obtained as a result of processing an existing work.
Computer programs, but on the condition that they are equated to literary or artistic creations and are copyrighted.

Some elements cannot be classified as copyright, and the law will not provide protection for them. These include information notices, official documentation accessible to a wide audience, elements of folklore nature, state signs and symbols, unrealized creative ideas and plans, if they were not previously assigned to a specific user at the official level, and much more.

Note that copyrights are not a priority for the legislator, and along with them, users can count on the protection of their interests if there are related rights affecting this industry.

Thus, we are talking about the reproduction of creations, the content of databases, broadcast messages, etc.

According to current legislative norms, certain legal features will be approved in relation to the author of a work recognized as a product of creative work:

Personal rights of non-property plan. This group does not take into account all financial aspects, and is represented by those rights that do not have any economic effect:

the right to recognize one's authorship;
right to use own name as proof of authorship;
protection of copyright from any illegal adjustments (distortions), and establishment of its inviolability; it will be impossible to make any adjustments to any creation without agreeing on this issue with the user, whom the legislator has determined as the creator (copyright holder).

The exclusive right to create, giving the citizen the opportunity to dispose of the object at his own discretion and use it in any available forms, with the mandatory requirement that they in no way affect legitimate interests. This right is valid throughout the life of the creator, and after his death, the heirs can use it for 70 years.
Other rights that constitute separate category. These include:

the right to receive a certain reward (in material form) for the created work;
access to objects of a figurative nature, the creator of the original object may be required to provide the opportunity to become more closely acquainted with the product in order to create the most appropriate copy;
if for some reason the author does not agree to the publication of his work and public access to it, he has the right to refuse publication at any time, but provided that no prohibitions on this action are specified in agreements with publishing houses and other third parties.

In order for the state to implement and establish specific mechanisms for copyright protection, it is initially necessary to confirm authorship.

This can often be accompanied by enormous difficulties, especially in modern society, which has access to social networks and a developed information system.

If with text documents everything is more or less clear, and it is quite easy to establish the authorship of a specific person, since copyright does not have significant amounts of plagiarism, but with photographic images everything is much more complicated. Let's look at a specific example of what is needed to determine authorship and confirm it regarding graphic images.

Thus, copyright protection on the Internet will take place taking into account certain parameters. We're talking about . If a photograph has been posted in the public domain, and initially there is no sign of authorship on it, you can confirm your exclusive rights only under certain circumstances:

The user must have the original source of the work. Regarding a photographic image, the role of the original can be a specific frame, a negative, an unprocessed photo, or the camera itself, on which there is a controversial frame.
The first public disclosure of the material must be under the name of the author. This means that the first publication must take place under the initials of the creator, or on his personal Internet resources, including a blog, personal page on social network etc. Then protecting copyright on the Internet will be as simple as possible.
Conducting an expert assessment, within which the attitude of a specific user to the creation of an item will be established.

Otherwise, certain difficulties may arise that will not make it possible to establish the real author of the original creation. Then you will have to go to court and provide a reasoned position on this issue, supported by a significant base of evidence.

Duration of copyright

Many users encounter a problem because they have no idea during what time period the creation will be valid. In this case, you need to turn to the legislation, namely Chapter 70 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. The standard identifies specific cases that are taken into account when determining the validity period of copyright.

During the specified time, only the user who has copyright or is recognized as the copyright holder can use the original work.

In general, regarding this issue, the law establishes the following limits:

The general duration of copyright is 70 years, and the countdown will begin from the moment the author of the original source died and transferred the rights to his creation to his heir.
If the work was the result of a fruitful collaboration between several authors, then the period will be counted from the moment of death of the last author.
It often happens that a work is published without attribution, or under a fictitious name. Then the period of 70 years will be counted from the date of publication of the document. If during this time the author decides to make information about himself public, then the time frame regarding copyright will be established on a general basis.
The situation when the work was published after the death of the creator deserves special mention, provided that the publication was made before the 70th anniversary of the author’s death. Then the 70-year period will be counted from the moment of first publication.
For WWII veterans and authors who worked during the specified period, the validity period will be extended by 4 years.

Methods of copyright protection

Many citizens do not know how to protect copyrights. In Russia, as in any other countries, copyright is one of the elements of protection. This means that the state will do its best to defend the interests of citizens who have exclusive copyrights to works. Like any element of protection, in order to implement the mechanisms you will need to go to court, and it is to judiciary will be assigned the responsibility to implement protective functions.

In order for the measures taken to be extremely effective, it is necessary to implement certain methods of copyright protection that will not only prevent violations in this area, but also, if necessary, help defend the interests of the owner whose rights have been violated:

Recognition of rights in relation to a specific user. At the highest state level, the exclusive right of authorship to a work assigned to a specific person will be secured. If the authorship is confirmed, even in case of violations, the attackers will not be able to escape responsibility and will be punished.
Preventing actions that pose a risk of infringement or directly violate copyright. Main mechanism this method there will be a ban on the distribution of pirated content and the removal of any copies published illegally.
Financial compensation for direct losses to users who have suffered from copyright violations. Thus, if the interests of the user were violated, and creative objects belonging to him appeared in illegal public access without his permission, the state will identify the violator and force him to pay compensation in monetary equivalent for actions that resulted in inconvenience, material losses, etc.
Seizure of counterfeit products published without appropriate permission from the original copyright owner. As part of the protection of users, the state has the right to conduct raids designed to remove unlicensed copies of products, as well as the equipment with which the work was distributed. With the help this mechanism, there is a chance that in the future similar offenses regarding this subject of authorship will be prevented.
Publication of information about the actual owner of copyright. The state, as confirmation of the user’s rights, may issue a decree according to which the subject of authorship belonging to it will be made public exclusively with the initials of the author or user who is the copyright holder indicated.
Compensation for direct copyright infringement. In relation to citizens who act as offenders, at the request of the copyright holder, penalties may be applied to compensate for moral damage caused to the author or his successor. The specific amount of the fee can be very diverse and range from 10 thousand rubles to 5 million rubles. Everything will depend on the value of the material, its scientific degree and popularity with consumers.

In addition to real actions and tools aimed at preventing any violations in the field of copyright, there are also various technical means aimed at protecting the interests of users.

We are talking about special computer programs that find unlicensed copies and, software, capable of offline blocking access to resources that contain counterfeit goods and much more.

Article 1299 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation determines that certain actions regarding the object of copyright are strictly prohibited, in particular:

elimination of any restrictions imposed on the work by its author, copyright holder or technical tool, controlling the legality of using the content;
transfer of technical instruments for temporary possession or free use to third parties if the potential lessee cannot guarantee the protection of users' copyrights, or intends to carry out certain illegal operations.

If these requirements are not met, then the primary rights holder has every right to demand immediate seizure of the equipment from the violator. In addition, he may demand compensation for moral damage, and if he suffered certain financial damage as a result of the violation, then also material damage.

Special copyright protection options

Each user who owns the right to an object of intellectual work is obliged to exercise the utmost possible vigilance and implement measures that will prevent its content from falling into the illegal possession of third parties. This is especially true for those users who receive certain cash dividends for the use or disposal of an object of authorship.

For such users, the state provides additional opportunities that will help protect them from further complications and prevent copyright violations:

Fixation of the trademark. All legal entities have the opportunity to establish their exclusive right to a certain trademark. To do this, it is enough to register it and set restrictions on use, mention, copying, etc.
Depositing a creation, that is, transferring it to safekeeping to a special organization. This practice is popular in Europe and the USA, and has recently been in demand in Russia.
User warning. The publication of a copyrighted object is accompanied by a notice of responsibility for illegal actions in its regard, related to copying, distribution, modification, etc. In this way they would defend their rights and warn about negative consequences.

You, of course, are the author of your works (both in Russia and abroad). By the way, from a legal point of view, authors include citizens whose creative work created not only musical works (your case), but also, for example, literary works, works of painting, sculpture, architecture, design...

As an author, you naturally have the exclusive right to your songs (we’ll talk about this below), the right of authorship (the right to be recognized as the author of a work), the right to a name (the right to use or allow the use of your work under your own name), the right to the inviolability of your works and the right to publish their songs.

As I understand it, you have already exercised the last of these rights by posting your songs on social networks.

As a copyright holder, you have the discretion to allow or prohibit others from using your songs (exclusive right). Keep in mind that you should not even set a ban, since the absence of a ban is not considered consent (permission). The use of your songs by others without your consent (permission) is illegal.

So, you don't need to register your work. What's next? You can sit like a dog in the manger (the exclusive right to a work is valid for the entire life of the author and 70 years after the death of the author) and perform your songs in person or (if there are those willing!) enter into a written agreement on the alienation of the exclusive right to your work.

By license agreement you can grant the other party the right to use your work within the limits established by the contract for a certain fee or free of charge.

If you do not wish to conclude an agreement for the alienation of the exclusive right to a work, then you will need to control the situation and make sure that no one dares to violate your exclusive right. And if your exclusive right to a work is violated (let’s say a certain person performs your songs without your permission, and even passing them off as their own), then you have the right to go to court to protect your exclusive rights and demand the suppression of the actions of the violator, the confiscation of the material media (if any), compensation for damages and publication of the court decision.

Keep in mind that instead of compensation for losses, you have the right to demand payment of compensation in the amount of 10 thousand to 5 million rubles (the amount is determined at the discretion of the court). This is a civil law way to protect your rights. However, it is also possible criminal liability for the violator of your rights. If, for example, a certain person, without your permission, produced counterfeit copies of your works, the cost of which exceeds 100 thousand rubles (large size), then the court can sentence him to imprisonment for up to 2 years (this is the maximum punishment). If we are talking about a particularly large amount (over 1 million rubles), then the maximum punishment can be 6 years in prison.

The urgency of the problem under consideration is obvious. Today, the RU zone is overflowing with materials that are not flawless from the point of view of copyright. There are many articles, books and other publications on the Internet that are posted without (and even contrary to) the consent of their authors. Many materials, in the process of being pulled across servers, lose the author’s last name or change it. Often original texts are subjected to barbaric editing and reduction.

I managed to trace the fate of several of my own articles, periodically defending my copyrights through legal methods. Today in print and electronic media mass media I have published more than 30 works.

Here’s an example: one regional newspaper compiled material from several articles by various authors, including mine, without even bothering to come up with an original headline, but using the title of the section on the website where these articles were presented.

On one home page I also found my work. The owner of the page, whom I contacted for clarification, replied that he received permission to post this article from the author (!) and even paid him for it. Like this...

Another case: a certain lawyer who provides services, including in the field of copyright, posted my articles on his website (“for his own needs”). It was difficult to argue with the servant of Themis, whose word “lawyer” was misspelled on the title page of the site!

Looking ahead, I will say that conflicts with the majority of violators have already been resolved, including with the payment of compensation established by law. But this is now, but a couple of years ago everything was different...

Resolving disagreements

Talking about my little experience in resolving disagreements, I would like to note that, as a rule, I did not “fight” with the owners of “home pages” that posted my material, except in cases where their copy was incorrectly edited or attributed to another author.

If the owner of the “home page” negotiated, corrected inaccuracies and indicated my authorship, then no further actions were taken against him. However, not all owners were distinguished by decency, so hosting providers sometimes had to be involved in the conflict.

I discovered the first counterfeit copy of my own article in the USA in 1999 among the Russian-language pages of Hack School on the Fortunecity Community website. Since I could not contact the owner of this “school”, I had to contact the upstream “site owner” (i.e. Fortunecity Community). A representative of the company asked to provide evidence of counterfeiting. Convinced of the validity of the accusation and that Hack School contained hacker information and related software, the provider closed Hack School two hours after presenting the evidence. And although the need for such a quick solution can be debated, yet another precedent has been created for successful international cooperation in the field of copyright protection.

Counterfeit copies have repeatedly been found on domestic servers that provide users with free space to post their pages. On sites where the owner’s address was indicated, negotiations were conducted directly, and often successfully. In cases where a private site did not have a return address, it was necessary to contact the hosting provider directly.

Sometimes, when asked to tell me the e-mail of the owner of the “home page” who published my material, or to send him a letter of complaint, they answered me: “it’s none of our business, decide for yourself,” or even more rudely. However, usually I managed to make company representatives more polite and accommodating, and eventually we came to an agreement, but the path to it was not close...

Experience in dealing with copyright violators suggests that before sending complaints to one or another site owner, you should prepare an evidence base (we will talk about it a little later). It was thanks to pre-prepared arguments that it was possible to find a compromise in the shortest possible time, without bringing the matter to trial.

Potential defendants put forward various theses about the legality of using materials, supported by considerations about “posting for one’s own needs”, using “dynamic pages”, etc. As a rule, companies, having studied the evidence provided of their copyright infringement, after relatively short negotiations on pre-trial stage, admitted the charges and paid compensation established by law.

Evidence base

In preparation for a possible trial, you should stock up on evidence. These (according to Article 49 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the RSFSR) include “any factual data on the basis of which, in the manner prescribed by law, the court establishes the presence or absence of circumstances justifying the demands and objections of the parties, and other circumstances that are important for the correct resolution of the case.”

By the way, it should be noted that 20 years ago the State Arbitration Court of the USSR and Supreme Court The USSR, clarifying the sources of factual data, clearly recognized documents obtained using electronic computer technology as written evidence.

Without considering the entire complex of preparing evidence, I want to dwell only on the most important and interesting points. First of all, believing that a potential defendant could easily remove a counterfeit publication, I prepared in advance printouts certified by employees of the search engines “Aport” (personal thanks to E. Kiriev) and “Yandex” (special thanks to E. Kolmanovskaya and A. Amilyushchenko).

In addition, when preparing for trial, it is advisable to obtain materials from the Center for Independent and Comprehensive Expertise and Certification of Systems and Technologies. At your request, a notary is authorized to appoint an examination.

When potential defendants appealed to the inapplicability of Russian law to Runet in general and online publications in particular, I introduced them to excerpts from a letter from the Ministry of Press, Television and Radio Broadcasting and Mass Media of the Russian Federation (MPTR, see the full text of the “correspondence”), which I received in answer to your request.

Ministry of Press about copyright on the Internet

Below I present my questions and the ministry’s answers to them, providing them with small author’s comments, which, however, can be skipped.

MPTR response:“According to the Ministry of Trade and Industry of Russia, a work of authorship (article) posted on a website on the Internet is an object of copyright if it constitutes a work in the sense of Articles 5, 6 and 7 of the Law of the Russian Federation “On Copyright and Related Rights”” ( hereinafter referred to as the Law).

Comment. Article 5 determines that copyright extends to works made public or not made public, but located in some objective form in Russia or abroad.

Article 6 states that “copyright extends to works of science, literature and art that are the result of creative activity, regardless of the purpose and merit of the work, as well as the method of its expression. Copyright extends both to published works and to unpublished works that exist in some objective form...”

It further states that, firstly, “copyright does not extend to ideas, methods, processes, systems, methods, concepts, principles, discoveries, facts” and, secondly, “copyright in a work is not related to the ownership of the material object in which the work is expressed.”

Article 7 provides an incomplete list of works that fall under the definition of “object of copyright”. The first in the list are literary works, which, in fact, are online publications. In any case, they in no way relate to the works specified in Article 8 that are not considered as objects of copyright (the list is exhaustive).

Thus, an electronic article is clearly an object of copyright with all the ensuing consequences.

Question: Is posting a work of authorship on a website considered publication?

Comment. It is advisable, using the law, to determine the difference in “promulgation” and “publication” of an article. So, in accordance with Article 4 of the Law:

“Publication of a work is an action carried out with the consent of the author that makes the work available to the public for the first time through its publication, public display, public performance, broadcast or other means.”

“Publication (release) is the release into circulation of copies of a work, phonogram with the consent of the author of the work, the producer of the phonogram in an amount sufficient to satisfy the reasonable needs of the public, based on the nature of the work, phonogram.”

The Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Russian Federation ignored the issue of publication. It's a pity! Not everything is certain here. The fact is that publication is carried out by providing free access to the material to an unlimited number of people, but without creating copies.

Thus, when posting other people’s materials on the site, they sometimes hide behind Article 18 of the law in question (“reproduction of a work for personal purposes without the consent of the author and without payment of royalties”), which states that it is allowed to reproduce a legally published work without the consent of the author and without payment of royalties solely for personal purposes.

As is known, posting an article on the Internet is publication, and the application of Article 18 (reproduction for personal purposes) gives rise to the absurd phrase “reproduction for personal purposes by publication.”

Question: When a user accesses a particular material located on an Internet site, his computer receives a copy of the material. It is this copy that the user sees on his monitor. Can the said copy be considered a “copy of the work”?

MPTR response:“A copy of a work of authorship obtained from the Internet is a copy of the work if it is recorded on the hard drive of the user’s computer, i.e. the copy is made in material form.”

Comment. An electronic copy of the article is recorded in a temporary directory on the user’s computer, from where it is reproduced on the monitor screen. Consequently, a “copy” appears, voluntarily or involuntarily, with all the ensuing legal consequences.

Question: Is a website a mass media, including “other media”?

MPTR response:“A website is a mass media if it falls under the criteria specified in Articles 2 and 24 of the Law of the Russian Federation “On Mass Media”.”

Comment. It's time to understand the relationship between the site and the media. So, in accordance with Article 2 of the said Law, “mass media means a periodical printed publication, radio, television, video program, newsreel program, other form of periodic dissemination of mass information.”

Accordingly, “mass information means printed, audio, audiovisual and other messages and materials intended for an unlimited number of people.”

The law also mentions specialized media: “A specialized mass media means a mass media for the registration or distribution of whose products this Law establishes special rules.”

The Law also contains Article 24 (“Other media”), which clearly states: “The rules established by this Law for periodicals apply to the periodic distribution of a thousand or more copies of texts created using computers and (or) stored in their banks and databases, as well as in relation to other media, the products of which are distributed in the form of printed messages, materials, images.

The rules established by this Law for radio and television programs apply to the periodic dissemination of mass information through teletext systems, video text and other telecommunication networks, unless otherwise established by the legislation of the Russian Federation.”

So, the definition of “mass information” is quite suitable for the content of sites, since it (including “audio, audiovisual and other messages and materials”) is certainly intended “for an unlimited circle of people.”

Is the website itself a mass media? Following the letter of the law - yes, since “periodic dissemination of mass information” serves one of the main purposes of many sites.

Studying further the text of the Law, a number of interesting but contradictory conclusions can be drawn. For example, service personnel the site can be considered as the editorial office of a mass media (Mass Media Law: “the editorial office of a mass media means an organization, institution, enterprise or citizen, association of citizens engaged in the production and release of mass media”), and the person responsible for the content of the server is as the editor-in-chief (“editor-in-chief means the person who heads the editorial office [regardless of the title of the position] and makes final decisions regarding the production and release of the mass media”) with all the ensuing legal consequences.

However, employees preparing information for the site, as a rule, are not journalists (I quote: “a journalist is understood as a person engaged in editing, creating, collecting or preparing messages and materials for the editorial office of a registered mass media, associated with it by labor or other contractual relations or engaged in such activities under its authority”), since not all domestic sites are registered as mass media.

Despite all of the above, it should be recognized that an impeccable legal mechanism for protecting copyright on the Internet does not currently exist. In addition, the idea of free distribution and copying of any information on the Internet, supported by part of the online community, has a detrimental effect.

Alas, this point of view has many fans and they operate with many (sometimes untenable) arguments. But from the current legislation of Russia there is an unambiguous conclusion that materials published on the site in electronic form are the subject of copyright and are protected by it.

Thus, the provisions of the Law “On Copyright and Related Rights” fully apply to electronic publications and, accordingly, the author has the right to expect compliance with its main provisions.

Arguments used by violators

Now I would like to dwell on the arguments most often used by violators and consider the degree of their consistency. So…

The posting of other people's materials on the website is sometimes justified by the right of reproduction for personal purposes, which does not require the consent of the author and the payment of remuneration, but this argument is untenable, since posting on the website implies its publication (for more details, see the commentary on paragraph 2 of the letter from the Ministry of Press).

Another argument used by the violators was based on Art. 19. The Law “On Copyright and Related Rights”, which states that it is allowed to publish material without the consent of the author and without paying royalties, but with the obligatory indication of the name of the author whose work is used and the source of borrowing.

Clause 3 of the article reads: “...reproduction in newspapers, broadcast or communication by cable to the public of lawfully published in newspapers or magazines... articles on current economic, political, social and religious issues or broadcast works of the same nature in cases where such reproduction, broadcast or cable communication was not specifically prohibited by the author.” This is debatable.

Firstly, “broadcasting”. According to Art. 4 of this Law: “Broadcasting is the communication of works, phonograms, performances, productions, broadcasts of broadcasting or cable broadcasting organizations for public information (including display or performance) through their broadcast on radio or television (except for cable television)...” .

Secondly, “communication by cable”. According to Article 4: “To communicate to the public by cable - to communicate works, phonograms, performances, productions, broadcasts of broadcasting or cable broadcasting organizations to the public by cable, wire, optical fiber or similar means.”

Thus, “report” means: “show, perform, broadcast or perform another action (except for the distribution of copies of a work or phonogram)...”, and “a copy of a work is a copy of the work made in any material form.” When information is disseminated from the site, copies appear (see the letter from the Ministry of Press and the commentary to it). Since instances arise, therefore, this is not a “message”, which means this point also does not apply.

Another interesting argument is the thesis about the use of so-called dynamic pages, when scripts are used that automatically copy texts (most often news) from various sites. If you post these texts on your website, then from a legal point of view this is a quotation, but in fact a reprint.

There are other arguments, but it is inappropriate to dwell on them now; their consideration is relevant in the context of a specific situation.

Liability for copyright infringement

As already mentioned, often a work of authorship published on an Internet site later appears in whole or in part on another site or in a printed publication, often under someone else’s name or without it at all and in an edition that is far from the original. In these cases, the copyright holder may demand, for example, recovery of damages from the infringer or payment of monetary compensation from 10 to 50,000 minimum wage (minimum wage).

Criminal liability: in accordance with Article 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, illegal use of objects of copyright or related rights, as well as misappropriation of authorship, if these acts caused large-scale damage, are punishable by a fine in the amount of 200 to 400 minimum wages or in the amount of wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of 2 to 4 months, or compulsory work for a period of 180 to 240 hours, or imprisonment for a term of up to 2 years.

And if the same acts are committed repeatedly, either by a group of persons by prior conspiracy or by an organized group, then the amount of the fine and the amount of collected wages (other income) are doubled; Instead of compulsory work, arrest for a period of 4 to 6 months can be applied, and imprisonment can be applied for a term of up to 5 years.

Administrative liability: in accordance with Article 150.4 of the RSFSR Code of Administrative Offences, sale, rental or other illegal use for commercial purposes of copies of works or phonograms in cases where these copies are counterfeit; or they contain information that may mislead consumers; or the copyright protection mark or related rights protection sign affixed by the legal owners of the rights on the copies is destroyed or changed, entails a fine on citizens in the amount of 5 to 10 minimum wages, and on officials in the amount of 10 to 20 minimum wages with confiscation of counterfeit copies .

The same actions committed by a person who, during the year, was subject to administrative penalties for one of the violations provided for in the first part of Article 150.4, entail a fine for citizens in the amount of 10 to 20 minimum wages, and for officials - in the amount of 30 to 50 minimum wages. with confiscation of copies.

Ways to protect online publications

The main ways to protect online publications include:

publication of the article on paper (the simplest and most reliable option, provided that the publication date is ahead of the appearance of the counterfeit copy);

notarization of a printout of the prepared article indicating the date and author;

documentary evidence of the existence of the article indicating the date and author (for example, send yourself the article by regular mail, a postmark will serve as proof of your authorship);

software and hardware protection (implies the use of a program designed to protect the rights and legitimate interests of authors of electronic publications online, by displaying publications in a way that precludes their copying and/or other unauthorized reproduction or modification). In this regard, see.

Other methods (not so much protection as putting pressure on the offender) include various public measures of moral influence (for example, the work of an Internet court, the results of which appear on the “Board of Shame”, and similar “exhibitions” of plagiarism).

In conclusion, I would like to note that the time has come to seriously think about the legal and technical protection of the interests of copyright holders.

Today, the imperfection of the legal framework in this area is sometimes compensated for by technical measures to protect the interests of holders of copyright and related rights. It is unlikely that such a position should be considered correct. I sincerely hope that over time, the inhabitants of the Internet will master civilized forms of using other people's materials.

Copying, reproduction, distribution, reprint (in whole or in part),
or other use of the material without the written permission of the author is not permitted.
Any violation of the author's rights will be pursued
based on Russian and international legislation.

Installing hyperlinks to articles is not considered a violation of copyright.

Copyright refers to the system intellectual rights the author, thanks to whose creative work a work in the field of literature, science, and various fields of art was formed. So, what does the phrase “copyright” mean?

Copyright and distribution of this concept

Now the term “copyright” fits into our daily life. The phrase “all rights reserved” is increasingly heard, and different types Copyrighted products occupy a large part of the current business. In addition, we are now faced with types of creativity that we could not even imagine twenty years ago. From all of the above, it follows that the growing importance of the concept of copyright can be explained by a significant expansion of its scope. Legislative protection of new forms of creativity has become the reason and catalyst for the active exchange of knowledge and, of course, strengthened the economic effect of copyrights.

What is copyright?

A number of copyright options are defined: they can be proprietary or not; exceptional or not. The person who has exclusive rights is the only one assigned the opportunity to exploit the work and distribute it publicly. It has the right to prohibit anyone from using the result of its own intellectual work - its work. Usually we are talking about the author in this case. If he did not sign a certain copyright agreement, by which he transferred his exclusive rights to new copyright holders. Persons who have a non-exclusive right to a creative work are given the opportunity to use it, if this is documented. If you can rest assured, all rights are reserved; the copyright agreement (if there are no such clauses) transfers non-exclusive rights. Non-property rights are those that exclude the ability to do what is done with property - purchase, sale, donation, transfer.

Nuances of copyright registration

The form of protection can be called copyright. This is a certain set legal norms, which are associated with the creation and dissemination of works of culture, science, and art. The purpose of the authors' desire to secure their rights is to prove that during the registration period the given subject of copyright is in an objective form, in which case all copyrights are already protected. When claims of authorship come up and the issue of copyright protection arises, such early action can be very helpful.

How copyright is defined and protected in the Russian Federation and other countries

The Protection of Literary and Artistic Works aims to protect copyright in all countries that have signed it. Accordingly, all works of authorship by citizens of the Russian Federation are under its protection, regardless of the country in which they were registered, or whether this was done at all. If we talk about copyright protection at the international level, then, as in Russia, registration is not required for them. If the author needs not just the fact that all rights are reserved, but proof that at the time of registration the work exists in an objective form, it is necessary to secure authorship in the Russian Society of Authors. For situations of copyright infringement, it is important to know that the proceedings must be conducted in the state where it was committed, in accordance with the laws of that state.

Copyright symbol

The fact that rights are protected is often indicated, particularly on various online resources, by a special “all rights reserved” sign. It is often used with the name of the person holding the copyright. They immediately indicate either the specific year when the material is published, or the time interval. A special graphic image that denotes copyright protection is the Latin letter C, which is placed inside a circle. This choice is due to the fact that it is the initial letter of the English term copyright (English copyright, from “copy” and “right”).

The fact that all rights are reserved on the site is sometimes indicated by the letter C enclosed in brackets - (c).

It should be noted that this sign in itself does not create additional rights. Its presence has nothing to do with licensing a creative work. The inscription “copyright - all rights reserved” is only a definite certificate of copyright. It seems to state the affiliation of a text or work. And vice versa - failure to place a sign does not mean at all that this intellectual property not protected.

Conditions of the author's right to the work

The emergence of copyright, as mentioned above, is interconnected precisely with the very fact of creating a work. Russian legislation does not contain a mechanism for securing copyright in a creation. The person who created the work is recognized as the author. He has: the exclusive right to the object, the right of authorship, the right to the name, the inviolability of the work, and its publication. Evidence that all rights are reserved, text or information through which it is possible to identify the author or copyright holder. Typically such data can be found on the original copy of the work. They may be attached to it, may be attached, or may be made public by means of a broadcast message and thus made available to the public.

Rights of the estate plan author

When all rights are reserved, the author has a range of character. He can reproduce his work, he can demonstrate it publicly, perform it, import it, distribute it by any convenient means, translate it, make adaptations, broadcast it for public viewing on television, broadcast it on air. It is better for the author, immediately after creating the work, to secure proof that he is its owner in given time. In case of encroachment, this will remove all questions. If this is not done and claims of authorship arise, the true creator can obtain evidence through a process such as escrow. Its result is a certificate that guarantees reliable protection of the author's rights on the Internet.

What to do if your photos or texts are republished on the Internet (or media) without your consent?

The theft of content on the Internet has become as inevitable as if your wallet was blown away by the wind into a crowd of hungry Africans. It seems that I stopped worrying about this a long time ago - I don’t like unnecessary worries. But the mind is vigilant, periodically tracks the stolen goods, and sometimes you have to explain to illiterate comrades that “ah-ah-ah, it’s not good to take someone else’s.” You look and it becomes easier for yourself and there will be a drop in the ocean of theft. Because actually publishing your text, photo, song without your permission is a violation of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

I’m describing here an old story that I once went through and which is still a template for me personally on what to do when I find my content on other people’s sites, taken blatantly without asking.

Somehow I discovered Nastya and I’s material on one of the copy-paste sites. I Googled it and it turned out that it had already been copied to about 20 similar sites, although it was posted a week ago.

On the same day, I sent letters to the domain owners demanding that they remove the material taken without permission. — Usually the owners’ contacts are in the “contacts” section, but sites that are known to steal content do not have contacts and have to be searched for using information about the domain owner.

For greater effect (if the site is an obvious content dump), you can send a letter directly to the hoster.

If there are no open contacts on the site where you found your content, then you can try to find them out by information about the domain owner. You can do this, for example, on these sites:

nic.ru/whois
www.reg.ru/whois

What to do next, what to write to the site owner

1.Ask to remove the stolen content.

Sample request text:

Hello, I ask you to remove the content copied from my site and posted on your site: (page address). The site (site name) contains a warning about the prohibition of using copyrighted materials, namely (quote): Full or partial copying of materials without the consent of their authors is prohibited. Unauthorized use of site materials entails administrative responsibility in the form of compensation in the amount of 10,000 to 5,000,000 rubles (Articles 1250, 1252, 1253, 1301 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

This warning text actually exists on my website.

In most cases, a request to remove my photos/text from the site works. But in 10% there are people who do not yet seem to know that it is impossible to take someone else’s property, while some are completely confident that it is possible. This is both an incorrect interpretation of Article 1276 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (Free use of a work permanently located in a place open to the public) and the still thoughtless mass habit of taking without permission and posting in large quantities photo without looking at the author on your social networks...

2.Ask again. In this case, I send the request again and this time I call it “Pre-trial Notice”, providing links to articles of the law.

3. Complain to your superiors. If this does not help, then you can complain about the stolen content to the owners of the territory in which it is published:

Administration of social networks (Vkontakte, YouTube, Facebook).
The hoster that hosts the site with stolen content.

Hoster is “the owner of the territory on which any site is located. You can find a hoster in the same place (described above) where we look for information about the domain owner. If we couldn’t find it there, then we find out the IP address of the domain and find the hoster through this IP.

Find out the domain IP address for example here: ipinfo.info/html/ip_checker.php

If these actions do not help, then you can prepare a package of documents to submit to court, as I once did.

Technical method to protect images from hotlinking

Today, the Internet is full of copy sites from other resources, which, among other things, can completely copy your content with all your links. You will most likely find them using these links and statistics.

It is almost impossible to find the owners of these sites. But you need to complain about these sites Google or close the images in a technical way:

Going to court for copyright protection

The next day after I sent out my letter to everyone requesting that the content be removed, all but one site deleted our report.

But in this case, the owner of the site, which, judging by the date of publication, was the first to steal the material, did not respond for several days and did not delete anything.

11th I certified the presence of my material on the website copypaste.ru with a notary on Oktyabrskaya Street, 33 Novosibirsk (it turned out that at the moment this is the only notary who certifies the presence of materials on the internet). It cost 4,000 rubles (in 2009!) and two days of time.

12th sent a letter of complaint to the owner of the website copypaste.ru with a proposal to look into pre-trial procedure. I sent a registered letter by mail (with notification of receipt) and plus a letter by email.

Email (text):

Good afternoon. I am a photojournalist who shot a photo story about life at the Novosibirsk landfill on such and such a date and year. I posted my photographic material along with the text of journalist Anastasia Biryukova (under her authorship and with her consent) in an electronic magazine: https://site/pages/svalka.html Eleven of my photographs along with the text were copied without my consent for your website http: //link

On the website https://site/ there is a warning about the prohibition of using copyrighted materials, namely (quote): Full or partial copying of materials without the consent of their authors is prohibited. Unauthorized use of site materials entails administrative liability in the form of compensation in the amount of 10,000 to 5,000,000 rubles (Articles 1250, 1252, 1253, 1301 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).

No one contacted the authors of the material (although it was very easy to do, the coordinates are indicated on the website), and the photographs (we will only talk about them in the future) did not indicate authorship. In addition, the photographs are posted with erased copyrights, although they are marked with copyright on the site and without these marks I prefer not to post photographs on the Internet.

I am attaching a letter of claim below.

Letter of claim. Text (can be used as a sample):

On the website http:// you own, namely, on the page http://link, eleven photographs about life in a landfill, the author of which I am, were unlawfully used and published.

In accordance with Article 1259 of the “Civil Code of the Russian Federation” dated December 18, 2006 N 230-FZ (hereinafter referred to as the Law), photographic works are objects of copyright. The author has exclusive rights in relation to his work, including the right to carry out and authorize the following actions (Article 1270 of the Law):

Reproduce the work in one or more copies;
- remake (rework) the work;
- publicly display the work (right to public display);
- distribute copies of the work in any way.

The management of your site did not receive consent/permission from me or my representatives for use, including publication of my works. Moreover, the photographs were published even without attribution (my right to name was violated).

Moreover, at my requests on the site forum http:// and via email, the material was not removed from the site.
Thus, there is an illegal use of my copyrighted works and a violation of the provisions and requirements of the Law. Physical or legal entity, which does not comply with the requirements of the Law, is a violator of copyright and related rights.

The author has the right to protect his rights in the ways provided for Civil Code Russian Federation. The author of works has the right to demand, at his own choice, from the violator payment of compensation instead of damages. Which ranges from 10,000 to 5,000,000 rubles for each photo (i.e., the minimum amount is 110,000 rubles, excluding costs of the claim). Compensation is subject to recovery if the fact of an offense is proven, regardless of the presence or absence of losses (Article 1301 of the Law).
I propose to resolve the current situation out of court. Considering the purpose of the topic of your site, I ask you to pay me compensation in an amount less than the minimum amount of legal compensation - 80,000 rubles.

Contact phone: mine
e-mail: mine

Otherwise, I reserve the right to go to court to protect my rights. The presence of material on your website, as well as the presence of requests for its removal, is recorded by a notary. A copy of this letter will be sent to you by registered mail with return receipt requested.

date, full name, signature

How it all ended

After 2 weeks, the management of the site on which my photographs were published received my letter with a pre-trial claim by mail.

Everything was resolved successfully - I placed an advertisement on this site for the requested amount of compensation. True, the advertising already worked due to photographs of other authors stolen from this site).

In my case, everything was settled before the trial. If there were a trial, the following should be prepared for it:

According to the rules, a claim must be filed against the owner of the site (or the publishing house or the founder of the media - if the photos are printed), i.e. to a legal entity. The claim is filed at the location of the defendant. Submitted to court following documents(in triplicate: for the judge, for the defendant and for yourself).

What is needed for court when protecting copyrights?

1. Statement of claim

2. A copy of the website page, certified by a notary (or a copy of a newspaper page - if the photo is printed).

3. A copy of the Claim Letter and postal notification of delivery.

4. A copy of the response to the Claim Letter.

5. Printed color photographs measuring 20x30 (taken without asking).

7. Receipt for payment of state duty. The amount of the duty is calculated according to Art. 333.19 Tax Code of the Russian Federation.

8. Petition for size reduction state duty and certificate of wages and other income. A certificate of income for six months is taken from your place of work.

9. Calculation of the amount of money to be recovered.

10. Certificate proving that the plaintiff is a photographer. It is done in free form - you can simply describe your photographic biography as advantageously and richly as possible: where you published, where you have personal pages (on which sites), etc. What and with what you shoot (what technique, the more descriptions, the better).