Bulgaria adopts EU law giving publishers neighbouring rights over publications

Following the transposition of the DSM Directive (EU) 2019/ 790 into an amendment to the Bulgarian Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act (CNRA), press publishers (i.e. news publishers and agencies) are now granted neighbouring rights to authorise, prohibit, and make their publications available to the public via online use by information society service providers (ISPs). Press publishers are defined as service providers who, in the course of their economic activity, publish press publications under their own editorial responsibility and control. A press publication primarily contains literary works of a journalistic nature but may also include other subject matter such as photographic works and audio or video material. A press publication contains information on news or other subjects for the general public and must be published by a press publisher in a medium on paper or on a website.

In line with the recitals and Title IV, Chapter 1 Rights in publications of the DSM Directive, the CNRA provides a list of exceptions. Press publishers rights do not apply to:

• private or non-commercial uses of press publications by individual users;
• reproduction of the mere facts reported in press publications;
• use of individual words or very short extracts of press publications;
• hyperlinking;
• works published in scientific or academic periodicals;
• blogs and websites that provide information as part of an activity that is not carried out under the initiative, editorial responsibility and control of a service provider.

A national specific is the definition provided in it. 24 of paragraph 5 of the of the Supplementary provision to the CNRA. “[V]ery short extracts of press publications” refer to the title of the publication together with up to the first 100 consecutive characters of text, which may be accompanied by a preview image in a small format with a resolution of up to 128 by 128 pixels and part of a sound file or a video clip of up to three seconds. The DSM Directive does not provide a definition for “very short extracts”. Such extracts could be used without the press publisher’s consent. It remains to be seen whether this definition will be considered to be in line with the DSM Directive since such terms of a provision of EU law must normally be given an autonomous and uniform interpretation throughout the EU.

Press publishers’ rights will continue for two years (calculated from 1 January of the year following the year of the publication). The rights will not apply to press materials first published before 6 June 2019.

Notwithstanding the two-year duration of the press publishers’ rights, those rights cannot impede the further use (including online publishing) of works whose term of protection has already expired.

Authors of works included in a press publication are entitled to a share of the revenues received by the press publishers for the use of their press publications by the ISPs. The press publishers and the authors are free to negotiate the distribution of the revenues. If the parties have not agreed on the distribution of the licence fee, 20% will be allocated to the authors of the works and 80% will be allocated to the press publisher.

The reuse of press publications in the digital environment is considered an important source of revenue for press publishers. The new neighbouring rights aim to ensure the sustainability of the publishing industry and foster the availability of reliable information. Publishers are entitled to manage their rights individually or through a collective management organisation (CMO). It remains to be seen which model will prove to be more effective in Bulgaria.

For more information on the amendments to the Bulgarian Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act, contact your regular CMS advisor or local CMS experts Anna Tanova and Maxim Hristov.