BelarusLaw on Copyright and Related Rights, Database Right and Software Exceptions
Law No. 262-Z of , arts. 14 and 39, on Copyright and Related Rights (as amended)
In force since .
A database right rule binding public and private bodies.
- Obligation class
- Licensing
- Audit expectation
- none
What it requires
- Do not copy, reproduce, or otherwise use a protected database's compilation structure, or another copyrighted work it contains, beyond archival copying or another free-use ground this Law recognizes, without the rightsholder's authorization.
- This Law has no text-and-data-mining exception or opt-out mechanism, so a training use resting on none of the Law's free-use grounds needs the rightsholder's authorization.
- Expect a rightsholder to be able to elect statutory compensation of one to fifty thousand base units per infringement instead of proving actual loss.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
In the frameworks
- NIST AI RMF
- MAP 4.1Approaches for mapping AI technology and legal risks of its components – including the use of third-party data or software – are in place, followed, and documented, as are risks of infringement of a third party’s intellectual property or other rights.
Our reading of where this law's duties sit in each framework. It never says that running a control meets the law. How we read a framework against the law
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionYes
Criminal exposure note
Criminal Code art. 201(2): illegal distribution or other illegal use of a copyrighted work, related right, or industrial property object, committed within a year after an administrative penalty for the same violation or yielding income in a large amount (five hundred or more base units), is punishable by community service, a fine, restriction of freedom for up to three years, or deprivation of freedom for up to two years; art. 201(3) raises this to a fine, arrest, restriction of freedom for up to five years, or deprivation of freedom for the same term where the act is repeated, committed by a group, committed by an official using their position, or causes damage in a large amount.
Statutory damages
Law No. 262-Z art. 56(2) lets a rightsholder elect, instead of proving actual damages, court-determined compensation of one to fifty thousand base units per infringement, based on the nature of the violation; this is a single court-determined range for the infringement rather than a per-victim amount. At the base unit's current value of BYN 45 (Council of Ministers Resolution No. 651 of , in effect from ), the floor of that range is one base unit; the ceiling is fifty thousand base units, BYN 2,250,000 at that rate.
- As of
- Currency
- BYN
- Per person minimum
- 45
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Courts and other competent bodies, on application by the author, performer or other rightholder (Law No. 262-Z art. 56(1)).
Settledness
- As of
- Open questions
- Does the protection of a database as a "составное произведение" (compilation work) under article 14 of Law No. 262-Z reach an automated extract of its records that reproduces neither the selection nor the arrangement of the whole database, when article 14 excludes the contained data from the protection?
What it makes you log
Logging duty
Article 14 protects a database as a compilation work and states that the protection does not extend to the data it contains, and article 39(1) lets a lawful holder copy a database only for archival purposes or as a replacement, destroying the copy if the possession stops being lawful. The Law has no text-and-data-mining exception and no reservation mechanism, so it carries no miner's record to keep, and neither article requires a log, register or retained record of use.
- Kind
- None
- As of
What this law does
Article 14 protects a database as a compilation work, and expressly states that this protection does not extend to the data or other information the database contains, so Belarus's database right is compilation-only rather than a sui generis right in the underlying data.
The Law's free-use chapter (arts. 32 to 39) has no text-and-data-mining exception or reservation mechanism; article 39 lets a person who lawfully possesses a copy of a computer program or database copy it only for archival purposes or to replace a lost, destroyed, or unusable lawfully acquired copy, not to build a training corpus.
Using a copyrighted database's compilation structure, or another protected work, to train an AI model therefore ordinarily requires the rightsholder's authorization unless one of the Law's other free-use grounds, such as quotation for research or informational purposes, applies. A rightsholder may sue for infringement and elect statutory compensation instead of proving actual loss.
Illegal distribution or use of a protected work committed after a prior administrative penalty for the same conduct, or that yields a large gain, is also a criminal offence under the Criminal Code.
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app crawls the web or trains models.
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