Discovering and Enforcing Copyright Online
Discovering an author’s rights online splits into two questions: how to prove authorship in a digital environment, and how to stop an infringement. The Georgian law answers both: the presumption of authorship (Article 10) and the deposit of the work at Sakpatenti (Article 9-1) prove provenance, while the forms of infringement (Article 58) and the public information of the collective-management organization (Article 66-10) give the instruments of enforcement. This page explains the whole chain of online protection.
Proving Authorship — Articles 10 and 9-1
With a digital work the first question is authorship. The presumption works: a person properly indicated as the author on the original or a copy is deemed the author unless the contrary is proven — the rule extends to a pseudonym where the author is universally known by it. For anonymous works or unknown pseudonyms, the publisher is deemed the author’s representative until identity is revealed. The confirming instrument is deposit: the author or other holder of copyright may deposit the original or a copy with Sakpatenti, and the person indicated in the certificate is deemed the author or right holder unless the contrary exists. The deposit date fixes the chronology of a digital dispute — and it is often precisely this chronology that decides whose content it is.
The deposit procedure carries several conditions: the applicant must respect the copyright and other rights of other persons connected with the submitted work; the accuracy and reliability of the documentation submitted to Sakpatenti are the responsibility of the applicant; where the work is submitted by an heir, successor or other holder, the application must be accompanied by a confirming document, and where deposit is made through a representative — by a document confirming representation. Information connected with a deposited work may become public at the demand of the author or the other right holder; a fee is paid for deposit, determined by a decree of the Government of Georgia.
What Online Infringement Is — Article 58
In the online environment the enumeration of infringements is set by the same law: the unlawful use of a work, performance, phonogram, videogram, broadcast or database; the alteration or deletion of rights-management information without the right holder’s consent — including distribution knowing of the alteration; the circumvention of technological measures; the production, import, distribution, sale, rental or advertising of a technology, device or component created to enable circumvention; the offering and rendering of services aimed at neutralizing technological measures; and the failure of a hosting provider to perform the obligations established by this law — the exact content of those obligations being determined by the relevant norms of the law. The last item is decisive for online enforcement: a platform that does not perform its obligations itself becomes an infringer. Infringement entails civil, administrative and criminal liability.