Bill For The Amendment of The Copyright Act Introduced

On 18 March 2004, the Finnish Government introduced bill HE 28/2004 to the Finnish Parliament aiming to implement the Digital Copyright Directive (2001/29/EC). The Directive should have been implemented in every member state by 22 December 2002, and the Commission has filed an action against Finland for failing to implement the Directive in time (case C-56/04, Commission v. Finland).

The bill proposes amendments to the Copyright Act and the Criminal Code. Some of the proposed amendments are of national origin and not related to the Directive. Along with the said bill, the Government also introduced another bill – HE 29/2004 – for the approval of the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty.