The Bulgarian parliament adopted amendments to the Bulgarian Law on Copyright and Related Rights to transpose Directive (EU) 2019/790 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market and amending Directives 96/9/EC and 2001/29/EC (the DSM Directive) and Directive (EU) 2019/789 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 laying down rules on the exercise of copyright and related rights applicable to certain online transmissions of broadcasting organisations and retransmissions of television and radio programmes, and amending Council Directive 93/83/EEC (the CabSat Directive) into Bulgarian national law.

The most significant changes are the following:

• Additional rules and regulations on broadcasting, transmission, and retransmission of works have been adopted, in harmonization with the CabSat Directive, keeping up with the emerging technologies and new services ancillary to the traditional broadcasts, such as simulcasting and catch-up TV;

• The liability regime, established by the widely debated Article 17 of the DSM Directive, has now been implemented, meaning that online content-sharing service providers are now obliged to obtain permission from rights holders when offering electronic access to copyrighted works uploaded by users, with an elaborate set of exceptions and conditions;

• ‘Exceptions’ (uses that don’t require the right holder’s authorization) have been elaborated: among others, caricature, parody, and pastiche are now explicitly included in this category, along with a coincidental inclusion оf a work in another material; further, a number of exceptions and limitations have been implemented for uses of text and data mining technologies, illustration for teaching in the digital environment and for the preservation of cultural heritage;

• The 10-year maximum restriction on the term of license agreements has been abolished;

• In terms of remuneration for copyright and related rights holders, ‘fair and proportionate’ has become the new statutory remuneration requirement, and new contract modification mechanisms have been adopted;

• A new revocation option allows authors to revoke the exclusivity of their agreements, in addition to the existing right to revoke the agreement itself, if their work has not started exploitation within two years, provided no exploitation starting deadline was specified. This can be done under specific prerequisites and conditions;

• There are new transparency and reporting obligations for licensees: they should now, with some exceptions, give an account of the work’s use to the respective authors or performers, including in the event of sublicenses;

• The regulation of publishing contracts now covers contracts with authors of literary translations;

• The author of a publicly funded scientific literature work now reserves the right to publicize that work in educational or scientific repositories for non-profit purposes once it has been accepted for publication by a publisher, as long as they mention the publisher;

• Related rights over press publications are introduced for their publishers;

• Mediation rules and procedure have been expanded.

The amendments take effect on December 1, 2023, except for the transparency and reporting provisions, which will come into force on December 3, 2024.

By: Kliment Markov

For more information, please contact Kliment Markov at our Bulgaria office.