Ar pagal Lietuvos Respublikos baudžiamojo kodekso 192 straipsnį galima baudžiamoji atsakomybė asmeniui, komerciniais tikslais platinančiam nuorodą į kitoje internetinėje svetainėje ar serveryje esančias neteisėtas literatūros, mokslo ar meno kūrinių (įskaitant kompiuterių programas ir duomenų bazes) ar gretutinių teisių objekto kopijas?
Aganauskas, Edgaras |
Magistro baigiamajame darbe siekiama nustatyti, ar pagal Lietuvos Respublikos baudžiamojo kodekso 192 straipsnį galima baudžiamoji atsakomybė asmeniui, komerciniais tikslais platinančiam nuorodą į kitoje internetinėje svetainėje ar serveryje esančias neteisėtas literatūros, mokslo ar meno kūrinių (įskaitant kompiuterių programas ir duomenų bazes) ar gretutinių teisių objekto kopijas. Šiam tikslui pasiekti iš esmės siekiama išanalizuoti kelias pagrindines problemas. Dalis intelektinės nuosavybės teisės teoretikų teigia, kad intelektinės nuosavybės objektai negali būti platinami elektroninėje erdvėje. BK 192 straipsnyje baudžiamoji atsakomybė numatyta už neteisėtų intelektinės nuosavybės objektų kopijų platinimą, todėl, visų pirma, reikia išsiaiškinti, ar intelektinės nuosavybė apskritai gali būti platinama elektroninėje erdvėje. Atsižvelgiant į tai, pirmame skyriuje yra analizuojama minėta teoretikų pozicija bei vertinami tokios nuomonės argumentai tarptautiniame kontekste, pateikiant atitinkamus kontrargumentus ir prieinant išvados, kad intelektinė nuosavybė gali būti platinama ir elektroninėje erdvėje, taigi tuo pačiu ir tai, kad už tai galima ir baudžiamoji atsakomybė. Antra, magistriniame darbe atskleidžiamos nuorodų platinimo elektroninėje erdvėje ypatybės, jų ryšys su intelektine nuosavybe. Be kita ko, antrame skyriuje siekiama išsiaiškinti, ar nuorodų platinimu galima tiesiogiai įgyvendinti/pažeisti išimtines intelektinės nuosavybės subjektų teises. Tuo tikslu pateikiama ir lyginama įvairi užsienio bei tarptautinių teismų praktika, įvairių šalių doktrinos, analizuojama, ar nuorodų platinimas atitinka teisės teorijoje įtvirtintus savarankiško teisės pažeidimo bruožus. Atskleidus, kad nuorodų platinimas gali tiesiogiai pažeisti objekto padarymu viešai prieinamu teisę, toliau darbe siekiama atskleisti šios teisės pasireiškimą dviejų kitų teisių: viešo paskelbimo ir platinimo, kontekste. Paskutiniame skyriuje iš esmės yra apibendrinami viso tyrimo metu gauti rezultatai, juos susiejant ir sulyginant su galiojančia Lietuvos Respublikos baudžiamojo kodekso redakcija, analizuojant nusikaltimo sudėtį bei gaunant išvadas, kad nuorodų į kitoje interneto svetainėje ar serveryje esančias neteisėtas intelektinės nuosavybės objektų kopijas platinimas užtraukia baudžiamąją atsakomybę, kuomet asmuo platindamas nuorodas pažeidžia autorių platinimo teisę, tačiau tik tais atvejais, kai nuorodas platina komerciniais tikslais, žinodamas apie intelektinės nuosavybės kopijų neteisėtumą, ir tik tais atvejais, kai intelektinės nuosavybės kopijų, esančių nuorodoje, vertė siekia 100 MGL.
The main aim of this work is to answer the question whether a person could be held criminally liable under the Article 192 of a Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania for distribution for commercial purposes of hyperlinks leading to illegal copies of literary, scientific or artistic works (including computer software and databases) or an object of related rights placed on another website or server. It must be mentioned that there are two main problems in answering this question. Firstly, a doctrine of copyright law does not solidly state that a distribution of intellectual property right could be exercised in digital area, so it is not clear whether a person could be held criminally liable under the Article 192 of a Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania when he distributes very intellectual property or not. Secondly, states worldwide do not update their legal acts depending on the improvement of technologies, births of the new facilities and infringements related with intellectual property in digital space. As the result of this there is a legal uncertainty whether a distribution of hyperlinks could infringe copyrights and which copyrights it could infringe. Also, talking about criminal liability, because of that it is not clear if the distribution of hyperlinks, as a criminal act, correspond to the composition of the ones, provided in criminal codes or other legal acts, and whether a person could be held criminally liable for distribution of hyperlinks that lead to the illegal content of intellectual property. According to these problems, this work is divided into three main chapters in each of them analyzing a single problem. In the first chapter of the work, it is being analyzed if very intellectual property could be distributed in digital space. Article 192 of a Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania states that a person is held criminally liable if he on commercial purposes distributed illegal copies of literary, scientific or artistic works (including computer software and databases) or an object of related rights. According to that by analyzing Lithuanian Copyright act, Lithuanian modern language vocabulary, the author of the work firstly finds out that intellectual property mentioned above and its copies could be expressed in digital form. Later the author clearly defines the concept of “distribution right”, explains that the mandatory element of the distribution right is a transfer of ownership or control right of that object to another person, also that the distribution right could be understood as an offer of intellectual property to the public with an opportunity to purchase it. After that the author criticizes a position of the theorists of copyright law who state that distribution right could not be exercised in digital space because (1) the objects of intellectual property are relative to material form (they must be tangible), (2) the transfer of intellectual property in digital space is called communication to the public, but not distribution (because no tangible object was transferred), and also (3) the first sale doctrine (exhaustion of the distribution right) is only applied to tangible intellectual property. The author provides the opposite arguments to this and comes to a conclusion that distribution right could be exercised in digital space too, so in a case of infringement, a criminal liability is possible. Secondly, the aim of the second chapter is to ascertain if distribution of hyperlinks that leads to illegal intellectual property placed on another website or server could infringe copyrights and if yes, which of them. At the beginning it is revealed what is hyperlink, explained its connection with intellectual property. Later the author provides different views of legal doctrine, courts practice at an international extent concerning about infringements made by providing hyperlinks. Mostly courts worldwide state that provision of hyperlinks do not directly infringe copyright and a person could only be held secondary liable, as he just contributes to an infringement made by third parties. At this point the author presents courts decisions with different approach, also review the view of the opposite, analyzes if a provision of hyperlinks to illegal intellectual property satisfies the all specifications required for infringement of civil right. The author comes to a conclusion that a person who provides hyperlinks makes intellectual property available to the public, so he can infringe either distribution or communication to the public right. It must be said, that these rights can only be infringed when hyperlink makes intellectual property available to a new audience compared to the one which could have accessed it without the hyperlink. Nevertheless, when a person distributes the hyperlink with a knowledge about illegality of intellectual property or does it on commercial purposes the criteria of a new audience is not necessary. It must be mentioned that in all cases hyperlink must be publicly provided in order to infringe copyrights. Moreover, in the final chapter, when it is already known that distribution of hyperlinks can directly infringe copyrights, it is being investigated whether these infringements could cause criminal liability under Article 192 of a Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania. The author compares how different states regulate copyrights infringements with their criminal law, also analyzes which of them directly regulates copyrights infringements made in digital space. The main attention is given to Lithuanian regulation by investigating whether infringement made by distributing hyperlinks that leads to illegal intellectual property correspond to the composition of criminal act described in Article 192 of a Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania. After the detailed analysis, the author comes to a conclusion that a person could be held criminally liable only when he infringes distribution right by providing hyperlinks on commercial purposes with a knowledge of illegality of intellectual property and only then when a value of illegal copies of intellectual property is not less than 100 MSLs. In all other cases, even copyrights are infringed, the criminal liability is not possible.