Copyright Law of The Soviet Union - 1961 Fundamentals

1961 Fundamentals

In 1961, the copyright law of the Soviet Union was completely restructured. For the first time, copyright law was incorporated into the federal Civil Code and no longer formed a separate piece of legislation. On December 8, 1961, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR passed the Fundamentals of Civil Legislation, which entered in force on May 1, 1962. The eleven articles of Chapter IV of these Fundamentals covered the copyright law. The overhaul of the copyright law was to settle doctrinal disputes by clarifying the old law and to adapt the law to the current practice. Again, these new Fundamentals of Civil Legislation formed a statutory framework only (what is called a loi-cadre in French, or a Rahmengesetz in German); the fifteen Union republics then passed their own legislation in conformity with this union-wide framework. New republic laws entered in force in all republics in 1964/65; in the RSFSR, the new Russian Civil Code, including the copyright provisions of chapter IV, became effective on June 11, 1964. All these republics' laws were very similar, there were only minor differences.