Civil law methods of protection of copyright and related rights: legislative innovations

The legislation of Ukraine establishes civil law methods of protection of subjective copyrights for the purpose of preventing their violation, as well as restoration in case of violation or dispute. The specified methods ensure the realization of the right to protection, guarantee compliance with the subjective right.The article carries out a comparative legal analysis of the previous and currently valid versions of the Law on civil law methods of protection of copyright and related rights, and on this basis it is revealed which existing problems have been solved and to what extent the proposed amendments are consistent with other provisions of the law and correspond to the general European integration vector development of Ukrainian legislation.Changes made to the civil law methods of protection of copyright and related rights can be evaluated from both a positive and a negative standpoint. On the positive side: special methods of protection were agreed with the provisions of the Central Committee of Ukraine, which made it possible to overcome legislative conflicts; terminological inconsistency was also eliminated, thanks to the replacement of the term «counterfeit copies» with the term «pirated copies»; adopting judicial practice, the legislator determined that when applying such a method of protection as publication in mass media of data on committed violations of copyright and/or related rights and court decisions regarding these violations, such publication should be carried out at the expense of the violator; defined this way of protecting copyright and/or related rights as «reimbursement» provided for by the legislation on copyright and related rights.At the same time, the legislator excluded specific methods for detecting copyright and/or related rights violations and their prevention — this refers to inspection and obtaining information about violations and third parties involved in copyright and related rights violations. They are proposed to be excluded from material and included in procedural legislation, which is inconsistent with the structure and content of procedural legislation, and therefore these provisions should remain as specific ways of protecting copyright and related rights.