Strengthening liability for copyright infringement

On the 6th of October the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted the draft law "On Amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses, the Criminal Code of Ukraine and the Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine on Liability for Violation of Copyright and (or) Related Rights."

The draft law was proposed to address some issues of copyright protection, namely:

• lack of an up-to-date system for marking copies of audiovisual works, phonograms, videograms, computer programs, databases, etc.;
• the need to strengthen the administrative and criminal liability for the violation of copyright and related rights.

Achieving the set goals will require changes to a number of codes of Ukraine. Currently, the project has been approved in the first reading and taken as a basis for further consideration.