Lecture
The sources of copyright law, like those of civil law generally, are the international treaties of the Russian Federation, the laws and other legal acts of the Russian Federation, and business customs. Under the Constitution of the Russian Federation and the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the sources of copyright law are particular articles of the Civil Code, articles of other federal laws adopted in accordance with the Civil Code, and also decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation, and acts of ministries and other federal executive authorities on civil-law matters relating to science, literature and art that do not conflict with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and other federal laws. At present, in addition to the Civil Code, copyright relations are governed by the Law of the Russian Federation of 9 July 1993 "On Copyright and Related Rights", which came into force on 3 August 1993 (as amended on 19 July 1995 and 20 July 2004), the Law of the Russian Federation of 23 September 1992 "On the Legal Protection of Computer Programs and Databases" (with amendments and additions of 24 December 2002 and 2 November 2004), and a number of decrees of the President of the Russian Federation and resolutions of the Government of the Russian Federation. Among the international treaties of the Russian Federation, the most important as sources of copyright law are the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 1886 (in the Paris text of 24 July 1971), which entered into force for the Russian Federation on 13 March 1995, and the Universal (Geneva) Copyright Convention of 6 September 1952, which has been in force for Russia in its original text since 27 May 1973 and in its 1971 text since 9 March 1995.4 In addition, the sources of copyright law include the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization of 14 July 19675, and the Convention Relating to the Distribution of Programme-Carrying Signals Transmitted by Satellite, signed in Brussels.
The general principle applies to copyright relations that, if an international treaty of the Russian Federation establishes rules other than those provided for by civil legislation, the rules of the international treaty apply (Article 7(2) of the Civil Code). Entrepreneurial activity in the fields of science, literature and art may also be governed by business customs, that is, rules of conduct that have taken shape and are widely applied by entrepreneurs, that are not provided for by legislation, irrespective of whether they are recorded in any document (Article 5(1) of the Civil Code).
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