The Public Information and Copyright Policy Group of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania organized a meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization WIPO and Lithuanian institutions defending intellectual property rights online on 19th of June, 2019.
The meeting was attended by WIPO Mr. Thomas Dillon, Legal Counsellor, Building Respect for IP Division, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva, Ms. Maria Fredenslund, Director, RettighedsAlliancen, Copenhagen, Denmark, INAC, RTCL, IPC at the MoU of the Republic of Lithuania, representatives of courts, copyright collecting societies, other stakeholders.
The meeting focused on the current situation, sharing good practices on how to defend online copyright in one or another country.
During the meeting, INAC also shared good practices, advocacy trends, possible solutions and perspectives. We have provided possible complex remedies by combining the removal of illegally published works, blocking of websites, international cooperation, education of Internet users. In our opinion, only such a complex way can change the market situation and the Internet in essence. The discussion was very lively and we all discussed for a long time how to change the situation basically, because for more than a decade the situation has not really moved from the point of death, or the existing measures do not produce the desired results.
Having assessed the experience in other countries, we can say that Lithuania is really the leading EU in the field of defense, we have a strong legal base, Lithuania has ratified international conventions, joined and implemented the directives on copyright protection online. In essence, the whole system is great, all it takes is that foreign companies proclaiming Lithuania as one of the largest pirate states that target foreign creators are right to promote their rights in Lithuania.
The basis of the rights of action is the functioning of the rights holder or his authorized representative, his actions to protect intellectual property rights, to seek compensation for the damage suffered, to eliminate and prevent such violations.
In principle, if there is no action by right holders, neither law enforcement nor any other authority can take any action to defend the rights of another. This was reminded of WIPO representatives.
And, of course, Lithuania is not responsible for the great scale of piracy. Lithuanian companies are defending their rights well enough. As international organizations have the impression that our country has a high level of piracy, we recalled that they can defend their rights in our country and thus contribute to the transparency of the Internet.
At the meeting, the follow-up principle of “Follow the money” was analyzed, including the possibility to incorporate it into Lithuanian law. Replacing Lithuanian Copyrgiht Act Art. 78, these principles were included in the initial stages but were subsequently deleted from the law. After a certain period of time and following the ongoing processes, we see that this provision of the law is still needed and will probably be discussed again.
Representatives of WIPO after analysis of the submitted information should submit recommendations to Lithuania, which will also be analyzed, and will be evaluated for further action and strategy.
INAC.LT, 2019