Copyrights and CC>Interviews, Analyses, Commentary

04.05.2006 Bosnia and Herzegovina was notorious, during the last decade, as a country in which the most ruthless copyrights violations took place. You could see, for example, the latest Holiwood production on local television stations even before they were available at American cinemas. According to the information presented by DANI magazine (December 10, 1999), only 10 percent of the total sale of recorded music was legal, while the remaining sales were made on the black market.

03.05.2006 Under intensive pressure by the EU and the U.S., Serbia and Montenegro fully approximated its body of legislation in the field of copyright and associated rights’ protection with European legislation. It endows the same legal status to the domestic authors with foreign counterparts anywhere in the world, including the length of protection and the rights to which an author is entitled.

03.05.2006 Macedonian Law on Copyright and Associated Rights was adopted by the Sobranie of the Republic of Macedonia (the Parliament) in 1996. After several rounds of changes and amendments, dictated primarily by the demands of the international organizations and, above all, the European acquis communautaire in the field of protection of intellectual property rights, the Law today doesn't differ at all from similar regulations in the other countries of the Balkans or Europe, for that matter.

28.04.2006 While Creative Commons has entered, is practiced and regulated in the other countries in the region and the world - in Kosovo its application still depends on individuals' desire to push it forward.

28.04.2006 The Croatian Law on Copyright and Associated Rights was adopted in 2003, and is harmonized with the majority of international treaties in that area, as well as with EU directions and recommendations. This was confirmed through the screening of legislation in the area of intellectual property rights and copyrights, conducted under the auspices of negotiations on Croatian membership in the EU, in February of this year. The only objection on this Law refers primarily to the inefficient implementation.

28.04.2006 The copyrights in Albania are protected by law and is statutory in article 58 of the Albanian Constitution. On the other hand, Albania is signatory of a series of international conventions and treaties (the Bern, Rome, Geneva, Paris conventions) and member of OMPI (Organisation Mondiale de la Propriété Intellectuelle) as well.