Novelties in copyright protection in Serbia

The legal protection of copyrights in Serbia has, for a number of years, been not only a legal, but also a question of economy. Inadequate copyright protection has discouraged our authors from creating works which would bring them material satisfaction, alongside the spiritual one. Copyright protection is a multidimensional problem. On the one hand it is necessary to create social circumstances in which a work of art, as a form of intellectual property, will be regarded as any other form of property. The condition of social awareness has, hitherto, recognized copyrights and other forms of intellectual property more as virtual property, considering its protection a whim of the author/creator of such intellectual property. The second problem is related to the inadequate legal protection, which has not included, up to now, all forms of copyrights. Apart from that, this legal protection has not legally been coordinated, which has led to more difficult copyright protection. The third dimension of copyright protection refers to the insufficient application of passed laws, which is a problem that mars other legal fields, as well. One could also speak of the fourth dimension of the problem of copyright protection, which has to do with advanced techniques that enable abuse or illicit use of copyrighted works. The latest changes in Law on copyright and related rights have complemented the domestic legal sources from this area. These changes have paved way for the criminal-legal protection of a wider range of copyrights. These changes have also adequately arranged the issue of legal protection of the authors of scientific, literary and other works, as the issue of their unauthorized copying has become the object of this protection.