On July 22, 2024, the President of Russia signed Federal Law No. 190-FZ “On Amendments to Part Four of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation” (Federal Law). The amendments establish the procedure for the use of works whose author or right holder is unknown (“orphan” works).
According to the Federal Law, orphan works may be used under a non-exclusive license, even if their copyright holders are unknown.
The Federal Law provides that orphan works will be managed by a state-accredited collective rights management organization (“CMO”). The amendments also provide for the creation of a unified register of orphan works, the functioning of which will be managed by an accredited CMO.
A conclusion that there is no information about the right holder and he is assumed to be unknown will be made by the CMO if
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the name or title of the right holder is not identified
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the name or title holder is identified, but there is no information about his residence or legal address that allows to contact him.
The Federal Law determines that a person interested in the use of an object of copyright and related rights must take measures to search for the right holder of the work. If such a search is unsuccessful, the interested person has the right to apply to the CMO to obtain the right to use the work.
Upon receipt of an application for the use of an orphan work from an interested party, the CMO shall verify that the author is indeed unknown and that the applicant has taken all measures to identify and search for the right holder.
If the CMO finds that the right holder of the work cannot be identified, an announcement on the search for the right holder shall be published on its official website. After 30 working days, if the right holder still does not appear, information about the work is entered into the register of orphan works, the amount of remuneration for the use of the work is calculated, and a license agreement is concluded with the applicant.
It should be noted that the remuneration for the use of the work will be sent to a nominal account, the owner of which is the CMO. Monies owed to unknown rights holders will be held in such an account until the rights holder is discovered.
If the rightsholder provides the CMO with information about himself or herself, the organization will provide the rightsholder with an opportunity to receive the funds, subject to confirmation that such person is indeed the rightsholder.
The Federal law will take effect on October 21, 2024.