- Chapter I General Provisions
- Chapter II Protected and Non-protected Works
- Chapter III Authors and their Successors in title
- Chapter IV Rights of an Author
- Chapter V Restrictions on the Economic Rights of an Author
- Section 18. Principles of Restrictions on Economic Rights of an Author
- Section 19. Use of a Work of an Author without the Consent of the Author and without Remuneration
- Section 20. Use of a Work for Informational Purposes
- Section 21. Use of a Work for Educational and Research Purposes
- Section 22. Right to Reproduction of a Work for the Needs of the Visually Impaired and Hearing Impaired
- Section 23. The Use of Works for the Needs of Libraries, Archives and Museums
- Section 24. Reproduction of a Work for Purposes of Judicial Proceedings
- Section 25. Use of a Work on Public Display
- Section 26. Free Use of a Work in a Public Performance
- Section 27. Free Recordings for Ephemeral Use by Broadcasting Organisations
- Section 28. Reproduction of a Work for Technical Use in a Broadcasting Organisation
- Section 29. Restrictions Regarding the Rights of Reproduction, Translation, Adaptation and any other Transformation of Computer Programs
- Section 30. Ensuring the Interoperability of Computer Programs
- Section 31. Restrictions with Respect to Databases
- Section 32. Exhaustion of Distribution Rights
- Section 33. Temporary Reproduction of a Work
- Section 34. Blank Tape Levy
- Section 35. Remuneration for Reprographic Reproduction of Works
- Chapter VI Term of Copyright
- Chapter VII Rights to the Use of Works
- Section 40. Rights to the Use of Works
- Section 41. Licensing Agreements
- Section 42. Types of Licences
- Section 43. Form of Licences and Licensing Agreements
- Section 44. Term of a Licensing Agreement or a Licence
- Section 45. Territory in which a Licensing Agreement or a Licence is in Effect
- Section 46. Rental of a Work
- Chapter VIII Neighbouring Rights
- Section 47. Rightholders and Objects of Neighbouring Rights
- Section 48. Rights of Performers
- Section 49. Contract for Creation of an Audio-visual Work
- Section 50. Rights of Film Producers
- Section 51. Rights of Phonogram Producers
- Section 52. Use of Phonograms Published for Commercial Purposes
- Section 53. Rights of Broadcasting Organisations
- Section 54. Restrictions on Rights of the Neighbouring Rightholders
- Section 55. Term of Neighbouring Rights
- Section 56. Scope of Neighbouring Rights
- Chapter IX Special Aspects of Protection of Databases (sui generis)
- Section 57. Rights of a Maker of a Database
- Section 58. Rights and Obligations of Users of a Database
- Section 59. Restrictions to Rights of Protection of Databases
- Section 60. Term of Rights of Protection of Databases
- Section 61. Scope of Rights of Protection of Databases(1)
- Section 62. Protection of Rights of Makers of Databases
- Chapter X Collective Management
- Section 63. General Provisions for Collective Management
- Section 64. Scope of Rights of Collective Management Organisations(1)
- Section 65. Functions of Collective Management Organisations
- Section 66. Duties of Collective Management Organisations
- Section 67. Supervision of the Activities of Collective Management Organisations
- Chapter X -1 Mediators
- Chapter XI Protection of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights
- Section 68. Infringement of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights
- Section 69. General Principles for the Protection of Rights of the Copyright Holders and Neighbouring Rightholders
- Section 70. Attachment and Destruction of Infringing Copies
- Section 71. Liability for Infringement of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights and the Rights of the Makers of Databases
- Transitional Provisions
- Informative Reference to European Union Directives
Text consolidated by Tulkošanas un terminoloģijas centrs (Translation and Terminology Centre) with amending laws of:
6 March 2003;
22 April 2004;
8 February 2007;
6 December 2007.
If a whole or part of a section has been amended, the date of the amending law appears in square brackets at the end of the section. If a whole section, paragraph or clause has been deleted, the date of the deletion appears in square brackets beside the deleted section, paragraph or clause.
The Saeima1 has adopted and the
President has proclaimed the following Law:
Chapter I
General Provisions
Section 1. Terms Used in this Law
The following terms are used in this Law:
1) author – a natural person, as a result of whose creative activities a concrete work has been created;
2) work – the results of an author’s creative activities in the literary, scientific or artistic domain, irrespective of the mode or form of its expression and its value;
3) database - a collection of independent works, data or other materials, which are arranged in a systematic or methodical way and are individually accessible by electronic or other means;
4) fixation - the embodiment of sound or image into material form, which provides a possibility to communicate it to the public, perceive or reproduce it by means of a relevant device;
5) film - an audio-visual or cinematographic work or moving images, whether or not accompanied by sound;
6) film producer – a natural or legal person who finances and organises the creation of a film and is responsible for its completion;
7) phonogram – fixation of the sounds of a performance, other sounds or representation of sounds;
8) phonogram producer – a natural or legal person who or which takes the initiative and has the responsibility for the first fixation of the sounds of a performance or other sounds, or the representations of sounds;
9) rights management information - information provided by a rightholder, as well as a maker of a database, which identifies the rightholder, as well as the maker of a database and the object, and information regarding the terms and conditions of use of the object of copyright or neighbouring rights, as well as databases, as well as any numbers or codes that represent such information;
10) performer - an actor, singer, musician, dancer, or other persons who act, read, sing, play, or otherwise perform literary or artistic works or expressions of folklore, provide stage, circus or puppet performances;
11) distribution – an activity by which the original or copy of the copyright or neighbouring rights object is sold or otherwise alienated;
12) disclosure – an action by means of which a work is made available to the public for the first time, irrespective of its form;
13) publication – any action, by means of which copies of an object of copyright or neighbouring rights are made available to the public with the consent of the rightholder, observing the condition that the number of copies shall satisfy a reasonable public demand in conformity with the nature of object of copyright or neighbouring rights; performances of dramatic, dramatic-musical or musical works, demonstrations of audio-visual works, public readings of literary works, the broadcasting of literary or artistic works, demonstrations of visual works or erected architectural works shall not be deemed to be publication of an object of copyright;
14) communication to the public – any action by means of which, either directly or through a relevant technical device, a work, performance, phonogram or broadcast is made available to the public;
15) public performance – the performance, playing or any other use of any work or other object protected by this Law outside the usual family circle, either directly or by means of any technical equipment or process;
16) public lending – an action by the user of the original or a copy of the work of an author, the fixation of a performance, a phonogram or a film, by means of which the object of copyright or neighbouring rights is made available through the intermediation of a publicly accessible institution to an unlimited number of people for a limited period of time, not for the purpose of gaining direct or indirect economic or commercial benefit;
17) reproduction – the making of one or more copies, by any means and in any form and scale, fully or partially, of an object of copyright or neighbouring rights, also short-term or long-term storage in electronic form of an object of copyright or neighbouring rights or a part thereof, as well as the making of three-dimensional copies of a two-dimensional object or two-dimensional copies of a three-dimensional object;
18) reprographic reproduction – the making of facsimile copies of a work, by any means of photocopying, except printing. Reprographic reproduction shall include also be deemed the scanning or the making of facsimile copies by means of photocopying in an enlarged or reduced scale;
19) technological measures – technological protection measures (technologies, devices or the components thereof) used by a rightholder, as well as a maker of a database, which are normally used in order to restrict or prevent such activities with an object of copyright or neighbouring rights, as well as a database, which are not authorised by the rightholder, as well as the maker of the database. Technological measures shall be deemed effective where the rightholder, as well as the maker of a database control the use of an object of copyright or neighbouring rights, as well as a database through the application of an access control or a protection process (with encryption, scrambling or other transformation of the object of copyright or neighbouring rights or database work or a copy control mechanism, which achieves the protection objective);
20) original work of visual art - a work of graphic or plastic art (paintings, collages, drawings, engravings, lithographs, sculptures, tapestries, ceramics or glassware, photographs and similar) if they are made by the author himself or herself, or also copies of the work, which are considered to be original works of visual art. Copies of the work, which have been made in limited numbers by the author himself or herself or have been made with his or her permission, shall be considered to be original works of visual art. Such copies shall normally have been numbered, signed or otherwise appropriately designated by the author; and
21) seller of an original work of visual art – a merchant (also a commission agent) who performs an auction or whose undertaking is an art gallery, an art salon, a store, an internet store, an auction house or the like, in which an original work of visual art is offered for purchase to a customer.
[22 April 2004; 8 February 2007]
Section 2. Principles of Copyright
(1) Copyright shall belong to the author as soon as a work is created, regardless of whether it has been completed.
(2) Copyright shall apply to works of literature, science, art and other works referred to in Section 4 of this Law, also unfinished works, regardless of the purpose of the work and the value, form or type of expression.
(3) Proof of copyright ownership shall not require registration, special documentation for the work or observance of any other formalities.
(4) Authors or their successors in title may indicate their rights to a work by means of a copyright protection symbol, which shall be affixed in such a manner and in such a place so that it is clearly visible. Such a sign shall include three elements:
1) the letter “C” within a circle;
2) the name (designation) of the rightholder; and
3) the year of first publication of the work.
(5) Copyright has the nature of moral and economic rights.
(6) Copyright shall be governed by the same legal rights as personal property rights within the meaning of The Civil Law, but it may not be an object of property claims.
Section 3. Scope of Copyright
(1) Copyright to works that have or have not been communicated in Latvia, but which exist in Latvia in any material form, shall belong to the authors or their heirs, as well as to other successors in title.
(2) Copyright to works that are simultaneously published in a foreign state and in Latvia shall belong to the authors and their heirs, as well as to other successors in title.
(3) In accordance with Paragraph two of this Section, a work shall be deemed published simultaneously in a foreign state and in Latvia if it has been published in Latvia within 30 days after its first publication in a foreign state.
(4) Copyright to works that have been communicated in a foreign state in any material form shall be recognised as to citizens of Latvia and as to persons who are entitled to a non-citizen passport, or as to persons whose permanent residence (domicile) is in Latvia, as well as to the successors in title to such persons. Copyright to works that have been communicated or otherwise made known in a foreign state in any material form shall be recognised as to other persons, in accordance with the international agreements binding on Latvia.
Chapter II
Section 4. Protected Works
The objects of copyright, regardless of the manner or form of expression, shall comprise the following works of authors:
1) literary works (books, brochures, speeches, computer programs, lectures, addresses, reports, sermons and other works of a similar nature);
2) dramatic and dramatico-musical works, scripts and treatments of audio-visual works;
3) choreographic works and pantomimes;
4) musical works with or without lyrics;
5) audio-visual works;
6) drawings, paintings, sculptures and graphic art and other works of art;
7) works of applied art, decorative and scenographic works;
8) design works;
9) photographic works and works which are expressed by a process analogous to photography;
10) sketches, drafts and plans for buildings, structures and architectural works, models of buildings and structures, other architectural designs, city construction works and garden and park plans and models, as well as fully or partly constructed buildings and implemented city construction or landscape objects;
11) geographical maps, plans, sketches, and moulded works which relate to geography, topography and other sciences; and
12) other works of authors.
Section 5. Protected Derivative Works
(1) Without prejudice to the rights of authors as to the original work, the following derivative works shall also be protected:
1) translations and adaptations, revised works, annotations, theses, summaries, reviews, musical arrangements, screen and stage adaptations and similar works; and
2) collections of works (encyclopaedias, anthologies, atlases and similar collections of works), as well as databases and other compiled works which, in terms of selection of materials or arrangement, are the result of creative activity.
(2) Derived works shall be protected irrespective of whether the works from which they are derived or which are included within them can have copyright protection applied to them.
(3) Databases the creation, obtaining, verification or presentation of which has required a substantial qualitative or quantitative investment (financial resources or consumption of time and energy), whether or not they are the objects of copyright shall be protected pursuant to Chapter IX of this Law.
[22 April 2004]
Section 6. Non-Protected Works
The following shall not be protected by copyright:
1) regulatory enactments and administrative rulings, other documents issued by the State and Local Governments and adjudications of courts (laws, court judgements, decisions and other official documents), as well as official translations of such texts and official consolidated versions;
2) State approved, as well as internationally recognised official symbols and signs (flags, Coats of Arms, anthems, and awards), the use of which is subject to specific regulatory enactments;
3) maps, the preparation and use of which are determined by regulatory enactments;
4) information provided in the press, radio or television broadcasts or other information media concerning news of the day and various facts and events; and
5) ideas, methods, processes and mathematical concepts.
[22 April 2004]
Copyright Law
Protected and Non-protected Works