The Bill of Law on the Amendment of Certain Laws dated 16 November 2021 has been submitted to the Presidency of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. It is envisaged that a total of 38 articles will be amended in the Bill of Law regarding many laws. The Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works is included in the 38-article Bill.
The Bill of Law, it is foreseen that the regulation in LIAW article 72 titled “Preparatory actions to render protective programs ineffective” will be changed completely. All works, performances, phonograms, productions and publications are included in the regulation, which is provided by expanding the scope of the article and sanctioning preparatory actions aimed at rendering protective programs ineffective.
Changes envisaged in LIAW Article 72 with the Bill of Law:
- Article 72, “2. The heading of the article regulated as “. Preparation Actions Which Aim at Circumventing Protective Programs”, it has been changed to “Disabling technological measures”. This change would be in place due to the expansion of the substance content.
- In the justification of the Bill of the Law, in Article 72 of the Law No. 5846, which is foreseen to be amended, the regulation, which is provided only for computer programs and sanctioning the preparatory actions aimed at inactivating the protective programs, was made to cover all works, performances, phonograms, productions and broadcasts with the Law Proposal. specified to be rearranged. With this regulation, it is aimed to punish those who trade or promote products and tools to neutralize the technological measures envisaged by copyright holders to prevent unauthorized use. It has also been stated that this regulation complies with the EU Directive 2001/29/EC.
- An expanding amendment regarding criminal liability in Article 72 of the Law is envisaged. Pursuant to Article 72 of the Law, “Producing, offering for sale, selling, or possessing software or technical equipment intended to disable additional programs created for the purpose of preventing unlawful duplication of a computer program, or for personal use, is punishable. However, in the Bill of Law, it is foreseen to punish the acts that aim to neutralize the effective technological measures provided by the application of protection methods such as access control or encryption or a reproduction control mechanism in order to control the use of works, performances, phonograms, productions and broadcasts in order to protect the rights in this Law.
- In the context of criminal liability, only the scope of the acts will be expanded, and the sanction of “six months to two years in prison” will remain the same for the acts within the scope of the article.