Draft amendments to the Copyright Act
have recently been submitted to Parliament to remedy two instances
where the Czech law is not compliant with EU legislation:
- making hotel operators liable once again to pay royalties in
respect of TV sets in hotel bedrooms (this exemption was heavily
criticised when first introduced in 2005 as clearly contrary to EU
and domestic copyright law, as the ECJ later confirmed)
- removing the requirement for collecting societies to be
Czech-based in order to be active in the Czech Republic (again this
was notified to the Czech Government by the EU Commission as being
contrary to EU principles of freedom of establishment and freedom
of service provision)
Law: draft amendment of sections 23 and 97
Copyright Act, no. 121/2000 Coll., as amended; SGAE v Rafael
Hoteles, ECJ C-306/05