The National Electronic Mass Media Council (NEPLP) will be able to restrict and block pirate websites in order to better protect the works of Latvian authors and promote the legal use of content. This is foreseen in the amendments to the Copyright Law adopted by the Saeima in the final reading on Thursday, 12 December. 

The amendments will complement the copyright framework by restricting access to websites that unlawfully publish content subject to copyright or related rights. In future, authors will be able to turn to the NEPLP if their rights are infringed and their works are published illegally on the internet. The amendments to the Law will also allow the NEPLP to restrict, going as far as even blocking illegal and harmful websites. Until now, individuals had to go to court to restrict pirate websites.

“This is just one step that we need to take to promote the legal use of content, in particular to protect the works of Latvian authors against illegal use,” said Leila Rasima, Chair of the Human Rights and Public Affairs Committee of the Saeima, which is responsible for the amendments.

The rate of illegal use of music, films, books and computer programs in Latvia is currently high, and existing procedures to combat it have proved ineffective due to being time-consuming and costly. The NEPLP needs this authority to better help in the fight against copyright infringement. Changes are also needed to promote the legal use of content, as previously highlighted by the Ministry of Culture.

Ivars Āboliņš, Chair of the NEPLP, told MPs earlier that these powers would help the NEPLP protect the works of Latvian authors. He gave the example of a case where two days after the premiere of a Latvian film, it was freely available on the internet and no one in Latvia had the power to take action against this pirate site. Theoretically, the police could do so, but in practice it just does not happen, Mr Āboliņš emphasised.

In 2020, Latvian internet users were the most frequent consumers of illegal content in the EU – doing so 13.9 times a month (12.5 in Estonia and 11.5 in Lithuania; the EU average being 5.9 times a month), according to a study conducted by the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

Meanwhile, a study by the Ministry of Culture shows that in 2021, 15% of people had used pirated video streaming sites in the last six months. Of these, 42.5% used these sites regularly - at least once a week.

Saeima Press Service