BulgariaЗакон за авторското право и сродните му права (Copyright and Related Rights Act), Article 22б, Online Content-Sharing Service Providers
Copyright and Related Rights Act (Закон за авторското право и сродните му права, ЗАПСП, Zakon za avtorskoto pravo i srodnite mu prava) чл. 22б, ДВ бр. 100 от 1.12.2023 г.
In force since .
A notice and action rule binding private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Licensing, Disclosure
As of .
What it requires
- Obtain authorization from rights holders for the electronic access you offer to works your users upload, or be able to prove the conditions that avoid liability: all possible efforts to obtain authorization, all possible efforts to keep unavailable the works for which rights holders gave you relevant and necessary information, and prompt action on a sufficiently substantiated notice, with all possible efforts to prevent the works being uploaded again.
- If your service is genuinely new, show only all possible efforts to obtain authorization and prompt action on a sufficiently substantiated notice; once your average monthly visitors in the previous calendar year exceed 5,000,000, also show all possible efforts to prevent the future upload of the notified works.
- On a rights holder's request, give adequate information on how your practices work, and, where you hold an authorization, information on the use of the authorized works.
- Put in your terms and conditions an address and an electronic address for complaints, the time limit for deciding them, and the possibilities for permitted free use of works; decide each complaint without undue delay, give reasons for refusing one, and have a person review each decision to stop access to or remove uploaded content.
- Do not identify individual users in applying these rules, and process personal data only as the data-protection rules allow.
What this law does
Article 22б(1) of the Copyright and Related Rights Act has the provider of an online content-sharing service, not the user, perform the offering of electronic access to works its users upload, and the provider must obtain authorization from the rights holders for it.
Article 22б(5) makes the provider liable for offering access without the needed authorization unless it proves that it made all possible efforts to obtain authorization, made all possible efforts to a high industry standard of professional diligence to keep unavailable the works for which rights holders gave it relevant and necessary information, and acted without delay on a sufficiently substantiated notice to stop access or remove the works and made all possible efforts to prevent their future upload.
Article 22б(7) lets a genuinely new provider show only that it made all possible efforts to obtain authorization and acted without delay on a sufficiently substantiated notice. Under Article 22б(8), a provider in that position whose average monthly visitors exceed 5,000,000, calculated on the previous calendar year, must also show that it made all possible efforts to prevent the future upload of works for which it received notices.
Article 22б(9) requires the provider to give rights holders, on request, adequate information on how its practices work and, where authorization was granted, information on the use of the authorized works. Article 22б(10) keeps lawful uploads available and requires the provider to state in its terms and conditions the possibilities for permitted free use of works.
Article 22б(11) requires the provider to put in its terms and conditions, and to apply, quick and effective procedures for users' complaints and dispute resolution about access being stopped or works removed, with an address for complaints and a time limit, and a refusal of a complaint must be reasoned. Article 22б(13) has complaints decided without undue delay and subjects decisions to stop access to or remove uploaded content to human review.
Article 22б(16) excludes non-profit online encyclopedias, non-profit educational and scientific repositories, open-source software platforms, electronic communications providers, online marketplaces and business-to-business and personal-use cloud services from the definition of an online content-sharing service provider. Article 22б(4) disapplies Article 16(1) of the Electronic Commerce Act, the hosting exclusion, to the acts the Article covers.
Chapter four of the Electronic Commerce Act, with Article 16, was repealed by Paragraph 21 of the Act of amending the Electronic Communications Act.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app operates a social platform.