Copyright in Serbia
by Saša Ilić • July, 2016

Moglo bi se reći da je u ovom delu sveta Jugoslavija, ona prva – Kraljevina, a naročito ona druga – socijalistička, predstavljala najozbiljniji period modernizacije i konsolidacije države, društva, pravnog poretka a samim tim i oblasti autorskih prava, koja je pre toga bila nepoznata (izvan Austrougarske monarhije). Kraj socijalističke Jugoslavije uzrokovao je u poptuni kolaps kako ljudskih, tako i autorskih i pripadajućih prava. Današnja Srbija, uostalom kao i sve ostale države proistekle iz Jugoslavije, mogu da crpe tradicije jedino iz zajedničke bivše države. Tako je i sa Zakonom o autorskim pravima koji je prvi put usvojen u Jugoslaviji 1929. godine. Jugoslavija je postala potpisnica Bernske konvencije 1930. godine i od tada je moguće pratiti razvoj autorskih prava u Srbiji i okruženju.
Godine 1937. osnovana je UJMA – Udruženje jugoslovenskih muzičkih autora, sa sedištima u Beogradu, Zagrebu i Ljubljani. Nakon osnivanja socijalističke Jugoslavije, uredbom njene Vlade formiran je Zavod za autorsko-pravno posredništvo. Zavod je imao centralu u Beogradu i sedišta u svim republikama. Takođe, imao je zadatak da štiti sve vrste autorskih prava. Četiri godine kasnije, Uredbom se ukida Zavod i poslovi zaštite autorskih prava prenose se na saveze i udruženja autora. Ubrzo dolazi do formiranja esnafskih udruženja, među kojima su poznata SOKOJ (Savez organizacija kompozitora Jugoslavije), Udruženja književnika i dr. Godine 1954. formira se Jugoslovenska autorska agencija koje se brinula o autorskim pravima sve do rata i raspada Jugoslavije početkom devedesetih godina.
Zakon o autorskim i pripadajućim pravima se tokom trajanja Jugoslavije i potom, u postjugoslovenskom periodu Srbije, menjao i usvajao više puta, i to: 1929, 1946, 1957, 1968, 1978, 1998, 2005, 2009. Vrlo često su transformacije i raspadi države uticali na postavljanje novog pravnog okvira za novi zakon, kao što je to bio slučaj 1998, ali i 2005 ili 2009, kada je trebalo „upisati“ u pravni sistem stanje nastalo posle Dejtonskog sporazuma, raspada Državne zajednice Srbije i Crne Gore ili nakon proglašenja nezavisnosti Kosova. No i pored toga Zakon o autorskim pravima u Srbiji ne funkcioniše još od 1991, kada su zabeležena poslednja sprovođenja ovog zakona u zaštiti autora i intelektualne svojine.
Poglavlje zvano devedesete godine, u Srbiji bi tek trebalo da se obradi sa stanovišta autorskih prava što se posebno katastrofalno odrazilo na one velike autore koji su u Jugoslaviji, na velikom tržištu stekli veliki ugled i obeležili jednu epohu svojim umetničkim delovanjem. U Srbiji je procvat sive ekonomije tokom devedesetih godina uslovio i period brutalne piraterije, koja se pre svega odnosila na muzičko i filmsko stvaralaštvo. Na muzici nekih jugoslovenskih bendova kao što su bili Azra, Haustor, Ekatarina Velika, Disciplina kičme, Leb i sol, Zabranjeno pušenje solidno su zarađivali kako kriminalni uzurpatori njihovih autorskih prava, tako i dileri zvučnih i video nosača na buvljim pijacama Beograda i okoline. Manji stepen piraterije zahvatio je književna dela, mada je bilo slučajeva kada su pisci pronalazalili piraterisana izdanja svojih knjiga kod uličnih prepordavaca.
Ovakvo stanje je nakon 2000, kada je došlo do promene autoritarnog režima u Beogradu, prebačeno u isntitucije koje su pokušale da uvedu red u oblast autorskih prava, ali se ispostavilo da se radi o dugom i mukotrpnom procesu koji neće biti dovršne sve do konačnog završetka pregovora o pristupu Srbije Evropskoj uniji, za koju je neophodno proći kroz 35 oblasti regulisanja odnosa, od kojih se Poglavlje br. 7 odnosi na intelektualna prava.  
Nezaštićenost autorskih prava u Srbiji je više nego očigledna u zoni elektronskih i digitalnih medija, gde je tokom dvehiljaditih godina vladala potpuna anarhija. Preuzimani su tekstovi po nahođenju i objavljivani bez ikakvih prava. Kuriozitet je bio kada je jedna pesma hrvatskog satiričara Predraga Lucića objavljena na jednom beogradskom informativnom portalu i pored toga što se u tom trenutku nije znalo ko je njen autor. U potpisu je stajalo da je taj parodijski književni tekst, koji je za temu imao političku stvarnost Srbije, „generisan na internetu“.
Izmene Zakona o autorskim pravima koje su usvojene decembra 2012. izazvale su, međutim, negodovanja kod nekih esnafskih udruženja, a naročito kod fotografa i novinara. Pokrenuta je peticija protiv ovih izmena kako bi se vratila osporena prava fotoreportera kao i autora tekstova u medijima. Glavni prigovor išao je u pravcu kritike tajkunizacije medija, čemu su ove izmene izašle u susret, omogućavajući da se preuzimaju sadržaji bez ikakve naknade.
Da je borba za poštovanje autorskih prava u Srbiji pionirski posao možda najbolje svedoči jedan sudski proces koji je nedavno okončan posle više godina. Naime, Privredni sud u Beogradu je prvi put u istoriji doneo presudu, na osnovu tužbe novotalasnog rok muzičara Dušana Kojića iz benda Disciplina kičme protiv Produkcije gramofosnih ploča Radio televizije Srbije, presudivši u korist originalnog prozvođača fonograma. Presuda je doneta na osnovu Zakona o autorskim i srodnim pravima u korist autora, koji na ovoj sceni deluje od 1981. godine, a za čija dela je naknadu svih ovih decenija ubirao isključivo izdavač. Ova presuda bi svakako mogla pokrenuti ozbiljne strukturne promene u srpskoj pravosudnoj praksi kada su u pitanju autorska prava. No svakako je sigurno da je sav napor na samim autorima, koji moraju da se izbore za dosledno sprovođenje zakona. Država to još uvek neće uraditi za njjih. Njoj je dovoljno da ispuni agendu iz Poglavlja 7 za pristup EU, koje uostalom još nije ni otvoreno.

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Copyright in Serbia

It could be said that the Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia – and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia before it – made the most substantial progress in this part of the world, going through rapid modernisation and stabilisation of the state, society and the legal system. Copyright protection, which was unknown until then outside of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, was included in the law for the very first time.  The collapse of socialist Yugoslavia led to the collapse of human rights, copyright and related rights. Today Serbia, as all other Yugoslav successor states, can only draw upon the legacy of the former federation state. The same applies to the Copyright Act which was passed for the first time in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in 1929. Yugoslavia signed the Bern Convention in 1930 and from that moment on we can observe the development of copyright in Serbia and the neighbouring countries.
The Association of Yugoslav Music Authors (UJMA) was established in 1937, with regional centres in Belgrade, Zagreb and Ljubljana.  After the Socialist Yugoslavia had been founded, the Copyright Agency was set up by the Government decree. The Agency had its headquarters in Belgrade and offices in all Yugoslav republics. Its role was to protect copyright in all domains of creative output. Four years later, with another decree, the Agency was closed and the task of copyright protection was passed onto various federations and associations of authors. Soon after, the first professional associations were established, such as the Yugoslav Music Authors Organisation (SOKOJ) and the Writers Association, to name just the most well known. In 1954 the Yugoslav Authors Agency was founded. Its main role was to protect copyright, and it lasted until the demise of SFRY in the 1990s.
The Copyright and Related Rights Act had been changed and passed many times during the existence of SFRY, as well as in post-Yugoslav period of Serbia, namely in 1929, 1946, 1957, 1968, 1978, 1998, 2005 and 2009. Very often the changes of borders and dissolution of states created the need for establishment of new legal frameworks and new laws. This was the case in 1998 when the legal system had to reflect the Dayton Agreement, or in 2005 after the disintegration of Serbia and Montenegro federation, or in 2009 following the declaration of independence of Kosovo. Regardless, the Copyright Act has not been observed since 1991, so authors’ rights and the intellectual property have not been protected in Serbia ever since.
The chapter called the 1990s in Serbia needs yet to be written with a special focus on copyright. The lack of copyright protection has had devastating consequences for the established authors, who made their name in Yugoslavia’s big market and marked an era with their creative output. The flourishing of the black market in Serbia in the 1990s led to a period of brutal piracy, primarily of music and film artworks. Those involved in usurping authors’ rights of the most popular Yugoslav bends, such as Azra, Haustor, Ekatarina Velika, Disciplina kičme, Leb i sol, Zabranjeno pušenje, etc, made good money by illegally reproducing and selling music CDs and DVDs on flea markets in Belgrade and elsewhere. Piracy of literary works was present to a less degree, although there were cases when writers found their works illegally copied and sold on the streets.
After the year 2000 and the toppling of the regime of Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade, the task of copyright protection was transferred to the authorities who have tried to regulate the copyright domain. It turned out that this process is a lengthy and a tiresome one. Therefore, it is not likely this process is going to be completed until the negotiations for Serbia’s joining the EU are completed. The negotiations involve all 35 chapters being opened and aligned, out of which Chapter 7 is specifically concerned with the intellectual property.
The lack of copyright in Serbia is glaringly present in the field of electronic and digital media. The 2000s were marked by total anarchy in this domain. Articles used to be reproduced as one saw fit, usually published without permission and/or without credits. To mention just one curiosity: a poem by Predrag Lucić, Croatian satirist, was published on a Serbian news portal, even though no one knew at the time who the author of the poem was. The poem in question was a literary parody of political reality in Serbia and it was simply followed by a comment that the text itself was “generated online”.
Changes introduced to the Copyright Act in December 2012 caused, however, strong resentment within certain professional associations, especially among photographers and journalists. The petition was initiated in order to reverse those changes and to regain the rights taken away from photojournalists and authors who publish their texts in the media. The main objection concerned the fact that the media were increasingly becoming owned by tycoons, who favour the changes (in the Copyright Act) that allow reproduction of content without any remuneration for authors.
A recently finalised court case, which lasted over many years, proved that the battle for protection of copyright in Serbia is a pioneering task. Namely, Dušan Kojić, music author and the frontman of Disciplina Kičme, a new wave band active since 1981, submitted a lawsuit against Serbian Radio Television record company. As a precedent, a court in Belgrade reached the verdict in favour of Dušan Kojić, the copyright owner. Invoking the Copyright and Related Rights Act the verdict was reached against the record company, who was the only benefactor over the last couple of decades, thus unlawfully making huge profit. This verdict could be a watershed and lead to significant structural changes regarding protection of copyright in Serbia. But surely, the authors themselves have to push for strict law enforcement - the state won’t do it on their behalf. At the moment, on its way to the EU, just considering the Chapter 7 guidance is sufficient for Serbia, even though the chapter itself is not being opened yet.
Translated by Svetlana Rakocevic