Moldovan parliament approves mechanisms of regulation of works made by unknown authors

Chisinau, 5 October /MOLDPRES/ - The MPs have adopted new regulations for the mechanisms which facilitate the use of orphan works through the transposition of the provisions of the European acquis in the field of copyright and related rights.    

Under the draft, the orphan works represents all those works – books, films, newspaper, magazine articles and other creation materials, which are protected through the copyright and related rights, but the author or rightsholder of which cannot be identified or localized, even if its diligent search was made.

The definition does not apply to the works brought to the knowledge of public in an anonymous form or under a pseudonym. The libraries, education institutions, museums, archives, public institutions in the cinematography field and the public radio and TV broadcasting institutions, institutions which can provide access to the cultural heritage and to facilitate the exploring of the national cultural or documentary heritage, have right to use orphan works.     

The draft also envisages that the holder of copyrights has right, at any moment, to put an end to the status of orphan work, benefiting from a fair compensation for the use of his/her work by the competent institutions.