Copyright’s infringement on the internet is a widely spread practice. There may be a huge variety of reasons for such behavior – starting from a lack of creativity and finishing with fraudulent intent.
For the purposes of ceasing the copyright infringement newly adopted legislation on IP may be the answer.
The possibility of blocking illegal content on the internet was introduced in Ukrainian legislation with the Law On state support of cinematography in 2017.
Good news is that it is no more necessary to go to court as soon as you find out that somebody uses your copyright works and/or objects of related rights.
An alternative way of resolving the dispute between you and the unscrupulous user is sending him a claim with a request to disable access to the IP works you need to secure. The claim itself is called a take-down notice. A respective name – notice-and-takedown procedure – is granted to the procedure conducted.
The main aspects of notice
Only attorney-at-law, admitted to the Ukrainian Bar, has a right to send a notice.
A claim may be sent to (a) website owner, (b) web-page owner, and/or (c) hosting provider.
Having received the claim, the website owner should within 48 hours from the receipt of a claim disable access to the Digital Information and notify the claimant and hosting provider of the measures taken.
Refusal to comply with the claim is also permissible, as long as the website owner notifies the claimant and hosting provider within 48 hours of the receipt of a claim, as well as provides reasoning for such refusal, namely:
(1) the claim is filed not in compliance with the requirements above;
(2) the website owner has copyright to such Digital Information;
(3) the addressee of the claim is not the website owner.
In some cases, it is much more sensible to send a claim directly to the hosting provider. Before that, it has to be made sure that the website owner has not disabled access to the Digital Information or the website and WHOIS database does not contain the contact information of the website owner.
In such a case, the hosting provider shall, within 24 hours of receipt of a claim, send a copy of the claim to the website owner. No reply within 24 hours grants a right to the hosting provider to disable access to the Digital Information.
There are fines for infringers who denied to disable access or provide testimony of copyright.
For the first time, it will cost them 8 500–17 000 ₴. Repeated infringement leads to seizure of 17 000 – 34 000 ₴.