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INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW

The Royal decree-law 12/2017, of 3 of July, for which modifies the Law of intellectual Property (Royal Legislative decree 1/1996, of 12 of April) will come into force the 1 of August of 2017. The regulatory rule of the intellectual property protects the author's rights in Spain, being, amongs them, the right that legitimates its author to authorise or forbid the production of copies of his/her work.

However,  this right finds as a limitation the private copy, derived of the Managerial 2001/29/CE of the European Parliament and of the Council. As a countnerpart, the headlines of the rights on the work reproduced will have to receive a equitable compensation and it would be a part of the general budgets of the State. In this sense, the recent European and national juidicials pronouncements have left  the current regulation of the equitable compensation for private copy with no validity, remaining in force the right of reproduction for private copy.

Therefore, there are diverse novelties regarding this issue, derived of the replacement of the current model of equitable compensation derived of the general Budgets of the State for a model based in the payment of an amount to satisfy by the manufacturers and distributors of equipment, devices and supports of production:

Precision in punctual aspects of the definition of the limit of private copy [art. 31.2.b)].

• The development of procedimental aspects to do an effective compensation: the creditors will be the authors and publishers of the works; and the debtors will be the equipment manufacturers on Spain, acting as commercial distributors, as well as the purchasers of this equipments outside of Spain for its commercial distribution.
• The juridical instrument where the issue of the payment of the equipment will be concretised, as well as the amount of money that will have to be paid, will be an  Order of the Ministry of the Presidency and for the Territorial Administrations
• A system of expection and refund, applicable to those cases where those who had  credited the equitable compensation, and had justified the right to its refund because they use the work exclusively for a professional use or because they export it outside of the European Union. 

This situation in which the rule that established the payment of the equitable compensation was made through the general budgets has lost its validity has caused that the headlines of rights of property do not have any system that allows them to compensate the damage of the rights ceased because of the private copies. Besides, it produces a incompliment of the European Right and, therefore, requires an immediate legislative action using a procedure of urgency tramitation of  parliamentary laws.