The social and
economic situation in Spain (especially the challenge of providing more
effective protection to creators, permitting the peaceful dissemination of
their creations by culture industries, and guaranteeing the whole of society’s
access to a plural cultural offer) led to the approval of the 23/2006 Act that amends the text of the Intellectual Property Act of 1996 (1/1996 Legislative Decree).
The growing discomfort of artists, authors and publishers over the high rates
of Internet piracy led the government, after a broad political and social
debate, to the adoption of the 2/2011 Act
on Sustainable Economy. It established the amendment of the Act on Services of the Information Society and the Intellectual Property Act. In the
first Act, safeguarding intellectual property rights becomes a principle
justifying the withdrawal of illegal content or the interruption of certain
services provided online. The second Act refers to the Commission on
Intellectual Property, under the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, as
the competent authority in mediation, arbitration and safeguarding intellectual
property, whose functioning was regulated by the 1889/2011 Royal Decree. The text enhances negotiated, extrajudicial
and voluntary solution for conflicts, as well as protects the rights of both
creators and citizens to have a legal, diverse and affordable supply of
cultural products.
In order to deal with the most urgent matters, in 2014, a new partial reform
was approved by the 21/2014 Act that
modifies the refunded text of the Intellectual Property Act, approved by
the 1/1996 Legislative Decree Act,
and the 1/2000 Act on Civil Procedure.
The three main novelties were: new mechanisms for the supervision of copyright
management societies; stronger instruments to react against intellectual property
right infringements aimed at encouraging the legal supply of cultural contents
in the digital environment; and a transitory revision of the concept of private
copy.
Moreover, the Act introduces two European Directives into the Spanish legal
system: the 2011/77/UE Directive, by
which the period of protection of the rights of performers and sound recordings
is extended with 20 years (thus, adopting the 70 years limit), and the 2012/28/UE Directive on orphan works
that allow certain uses of cultural institutions and public service
broadcasting organisations in the European Union. The Act also adapts the limit
of citation or reference within the realm of content aggregators on the
Internet, recognising the right of publishing companies and the authors of news
to be economically compensated by the exploitation of their contents.
Another controversial aspect of the Intellectual
Property Act has been, until recently, the establishment of a lump sum
payment on analogue, first, and digital support, later, on behalf of rights
holders. This fee was intended to compensate authors for private copying of
work that had already been disclosed. The heated debate on the Spanish “digital
canon” finished in December 2011, when it was abolished by the government (20/2011 Royal Decree Act). A year later,
the government adopted the 1657/2012
Royal Decree, which regulates the payment procedure of fair compensation to
the rights holders for private copying with a charge to the General State
Budget. This system, contrary to the European law, was reformed by the 12/2017 Royal Decree Act that modifies
the Intellectual Property Act of 1996
(1/1996 Legislative Decree) by which
payment of private copying is the responsibility of the manufacturers and
distributors of reproduction equipment. Natural and legal persons who justify
the professional destiny of the equipment and media, in addition to public
sector entities, are exempt from payment.
Also in matters of copyright and with the aim of introducing the 2001/84/CE Directive into the Spanish
legal system, the 3/2008 Act on
resale rights for the benefit of the author of an original artwork was passed
in December 2008. This Act includes a series of measures that address specific
problems: the fight against professional intrusion, the operation of the
Internet trade in works of art and the obligation of the Fund for Fine Arts to
deliver an annual report on the effectiveness of the Act. More recently, the 624/2014 Royal Decree has developed the
right for authors to get paid for lending their works in certain public
establishments.
The most recent reform, passed in April 2018 (2/2018 Royal Decree-Law), introduces into the Spanish legal system
two European Directives: the 2014/26/UE
Directive on collective management of copyright, related rights and
multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online use in the
internal market, and the 2017/1564
Directive that promotes access to culture for people with visual
disabilities.
Although copyright legislation is the exclusive domain of the central
government, the Autonomous Communities of Andalusia, Aragon, Asturias,
Catalonia, Extremadura, Galicia, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia and Valencia have
some local administrative powers to run their own registries under the aegis of
the state-run coordinating committee of the central copyright register
(Intellectual Property Register).
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