The criminal remedies were introduced to the Criminal Code in 1968 and later in 1995, when the Parliament adopted amendments to the Criminal Code. The latter happened under the influence of international organisations that insisted on the adoption of more effective measures by the Bulgarian legislation to combat infringements.
CNRA provides for administrative remedies, along with the civil ones, for the cases of infringement of the rights it protects. These remedies consist of certain powers of the Minister of Culture and customs authorities to undertake certain administrative actions in the event of infringement of copyright and neighbouring rights.
In accordance with Article 95 of CNRA, a person who infringes the copyright or a neighbouring right under this Act shall owe a compensation to the holder of copyright or the person to whom the user right has been exclusively granted.
These are actually the only rights owned not by a natural person, but by a legal entity102. The broadcasts of radio-television organisations are the protected subject matter. A television programme may contain various works: literary, musical, dramatic, etc. which are granted copyright protection.
The protection of producers' rights is important as it has a certain artistic and creative nature100. It is related to the choice of work to be fixed, the selection of performers, the proper arrangement, rehearsals with the performers involved in the fixation in phonograms, and finally, the fixation itself, which results in the production of the phonogram.
The law provides a comprehensive definition of the term "performing artist". According to Article 74 of CNRA, "A performing artist is a person who presents, sings, plays, dances, recites, acts, directs, conducts, comments upon, dubs into another language or otherwise performs a work, circus or variety act, a puppet show or a work of folklore".
International sources79: • Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting organisations Gazette No.: 111 from 26.02.200480.
Chapter Eleven "i" of CNRA contains provisions on multi-territorial licensing of online rights in musical works.
In 2014, the EU adopted Directive 2014/26/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on collective management of copyright and related rights and multi-territorial licensing of rights in musical works for online use in the internal market Text with EEA relevance.
Since the very emergence of copyright protection, it has been settled that the term of protection must correspond with the author's life. Later, the term of protection was extended beyond the author's life.
