OFFICIAL CEREMONIES AND FORMULAS OF UNCEREMONIOUSNESS

Abstract

The article analyzes legislative innovations that introduce significant changes in the regulation of copyright relations in addition to Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. It is assumed that the Government of the Russian Federation will form a list of musical and other works that are in one way or another connected with the events or period of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945. Such works can be used freely during festive and other events organized by public authorities, mandatory public television and radio channels, and all-Russian NGOs. Thus, the previously existing institution of public performance of musical works without the consent of the copyright holder and without payment of remuneration during official and religious ceremonies, as well as funerals, has received a radical expansion without amending Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.

Analysis of domestic and foreign practice of legislative regulation of the free use of works for the purposes of holding such events allows us to identify the main trends in the legal regulation of this institution. The logical and legal schemes of the legal structures applied in different countries demonstrate a high degree of similarity, thereby demonstrating the generally accepted level of exceptions to the author's rights, which, as stated in the Berne Convention, “does not prejudice the normal exploitation of the work and does not unreasonably infringe upon the legitimate interests of the author”. It seems that the main beneficiaries of the analyzed legislative innovation will be mandatory public television channels, which thereby gain competitive advantages over other television channels and producers of audiovisual content. They will be able to not ask the permission of the author or other copyright holder even for the inclusion of a work in a complex object (audiovisual work, multimedia work, etc.). In practice, this may lead to the fact that television channels will arbitrarily draw from the formed list and include in the content they create any fragments of feature and documentary films to which they do not have any intellectual rights, any phonograms and video recordings, any literary works, any works of fine art, etc.