Publishing Legislation Online - Poland

The Legal Background of the Book Sector in Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and Central Asia

POLAND

Excerpts Of Texts From Laws Relevant To The Book Sector Translated Into English

Art. 54: “ Everybody is free to speak and obtain and disseminate information”.

Art. 1: “ The press, according to the Polish Constitution, is free to speak and execute the right of citizens to be informed in a reliable way, including the right to transparent public life and social criticisms.”

Art. 2: “ State authorities [...] should assist the press in the execution of its functions and tasks. This includes facilitation of operation of newspapers and journals editorial offices of different programs, scope and political views.”

Art. 4 (1): “ State authorities, state enterprises and other state entities and in the realm of social-economic activities cooperatives and private enterprises, are obliged to inform about their activities.

Art. (2): “ The refusal of the information can be justified only by the existence of the state secret or other secret protected by law.”

Art. 4 (3): “ The refusal of information should be submitted in writing if so required by an editor in chief. It should be submitted to the editorial office in three days since the refusal took place, the entity that refused the information delivery should be stated, and so should be the date when the refusal took place, the name of the editorial office asking for the document, the subject of the information refused and reasons of the refusal.”

Art. 4 (4): “ Such a refusal, as mentioned in (3) [...] can be taken to a higher authority and then the administrative court (Naczelny S¹d Administracyjny) when the formalities provided by the Press Law and for the administrative decisions are not complied with as stated in the Administrative Proceedings Code of 1980.”

Art. 4 (5): “ Provisions of (1)-(4) are applied to the trade unions, local government, and social organizations should disseminate information when they act in the state realm or when they act in the public sphere, accordingly.”

Art. 4 (6): “ Provisions of (3) and (4) are not applied to the governmental bodies and administration of justice.”

Art. 5: “ Every citizen is free to speak and criticize and according to these principles can inform the press.

Art. (2): “ Nobody should suffer from a damage or an accusation because of informing the press if not otherwise provided in law.”

Art. 6 (2): “ The state authorities and should respond to the press criticism without undue delay, not later than one month after they had been criticized by the press.

Art. 6 (4): “ Collecting of criticizing material should not be hindered and the press criticism should not be suppressed in any other way.”

- ‘the press’ as periodical publications, which are not homogenous, that are published at least once a year and have a permanent title or name and that have a stated data, newspapers and journals, news services, telexes bulletins, radio and television programs and cinema news shows and all existing and future mass media, including broadcasting stations and wire broadcasting centers, disseminating periodical publications in print, by visual means, sound transmission or by other dissemination means; the notion of the scope of the press covers the editorial staff as well.

- newspaper is a printed periodical or sound or visual transmission that is published more often than once a week.

- journal is a printed periodical that is not published more often than once a week but at least once a year, such sound or visual transmission included.

Art. 1: “ The Act regulates prevention and fighting of the unfair competition on the market [...].”

Art. 11: “ Unfair competition act is dissemination, disclosure or use of someone else’s information which is a business secret or acquiring of such information if these acts are impediments to the vital interests of the entrepreneur.”

Art. 23 (1) “ Who acts against obligations toward an entrepreneur and disseminates trade secret to the third person and uses it in the course of own activities on the market, when such a dissemination causes serious damage to the entrepreneur, is submitted to the monetary penalties, limitation of freedom or the prison sentence up to two years.

(2) The same sanctions apply to somebody who after obtaining the trade secret, disseminates it to another person [...].”

Art. 2 (1): “ ‘State secret’ is the information stated in the list of secret information in annex 1, which illegal disclosure could cause a serious threat to the basic interests of the Republic of Poland, its independence and inviolability of its territory, defense, safety of the state and citizens or a matter which can endanger such interests to at least serious extent.

Art. 2 (2): The ‘official secret’ is the information which is not a state secret, it was acquired on duty, which illegal disclosure could cause damage to the state interest, public interest or the interest of a citizen or an entity protected by law.”

Art. 8 (1): “ A publisher can be a legal or physical entity or other entity. Among others publisher can be a state authority or a state enterprise, political organization, trade union, cooperative organization, local government organization, other social organization or the church and other religious association.

(2): The political organization, trade union, state enterprise, cooperative organization, local government organization, other social organization and the church and other religious association can be a publisher or publish through other publishers.”

1) the official publications of the state including Dziennik Ustaw and Monitor Polski,

2) the parliamentary reporter Diariusz Sejmowy and other parliamentary reports and local government councils reports,

3) case reports and other justice administration publications of the same character

4) diplomatic and consular agency or international organizations [...] publications.”

Art. 20 (1): “ Publishing of a newspaper or a journal needs to be registered in the county court in accordance with the headquarters of the publisher. Registration proceeding follows the Civil Proceedings Code.

1) a title of the newspaper or journal and their editorial office headquarters’ address,

(3) The statements of the court regarding the registry of the newspaper or a journal are justified in writing only when requested.

(4) The publishing can be started if the court has not decided on the registration in 30 days from the moment of the application.

(5) Changes in data required to be enclosed to the application have to be reported to the court without undue delay.”

Art. 21: “ The application for the registration can be denied if the data required by law is missing from the application or if the registration encroaches the right to another press title.” Art. 22: “ The court can suspend publishing for the stated time but not more than for one year if at least three times a year a crime was committed on the columns of the newspaper or journal.” Art. 23: “ The registration is invalid if the newspaper or journal is not published for one year from the day of registration or if there is a one-year break in publishing activities if the editorial office did not apply for the continuation of rights it had from the moment of from registration.”

Art. 27 (1): “ Every copy of the periodical printed matter, agency services or other similar printed matter should bear in a visible and customary place:

Art. 38 (1): “ Civil responsibility for the law infringement caused by the publication of press material is incurred by the author, editor or another person that caused publication of such material; the responsibility of the publisher is not excluded. [...].”

Art. 45: “ Publishing of the journal or magazine without its registration or when its suspended - is subject to a monetary penalty or the limitation of freedom sanction.”

Art. 23a: “ The formalities needed for the registration and the form of the registry will be provided in an executive act of the Ministry of Justice.”

Art. 1: “Undertaking and conducting of the economic enterprise is free and permissible for all when the legal requirements are followed.”

2) notification of the tax authorities, for income tax purposes about establishing of the banking account

Art. 3 (1): “ The entrepreneur is obliged to fulfill legally stated conditions of conducting of the economic activities concerning to human life protection as well as other conditions stated by provisions of construction law, sanitary condition law, veterinarian law, fire-fighting law and environmental law.”

Art. 8: “ Undertaking of economic activities by physical entities and entities that are not legal entities should be, with exception of Arts. 9-11, registered [...].”

Art. 12: “ The publisher’s headquarters and the place where the economic activities are undertaken have to be marked outside.”

Art. 14: “ The following taxpayers are exempted from the tax: 1) whose worth of sale of goods as well as worth of export of goods or service is less than 80.000 PLN in a fiscal year.

a) printed books and leaflets (ex PCN 4901), with the symbol ISBN as regulated in other provisions,

5a. The tax rate 0 %, mentioned in (5), is applied only to the goods produced by poligraphic methods.

5b. The special periodicals, mentioned in (5) point 1 b) and point 2 b), are the periodicals with the symbol ISSN regarding the wide scope of cultural, creative, educational, scientific and popular scientific, social, professional, and methodical, regional and local issues, and for blind people and people with impaired sight, published not more often than once a week, in the form of separate issues (numbers) under the common title, which are not supposed to be finished, published regularly, not more than 15.000 copies at the edition.

7. The Finance Minister in cooperation with Culture and National Heritage Minister and Minister of Education creates, in the form of the executive act, the list of the special magazines, mentioned in (5) point 1 b) and point 2 b) and (5b) and the conditions of VAT 0 % rate application.” This is The Executive Act of the Ministry of Finance of December 22, 2000 r. regarding the list of special magazines on which the VAT tax rate is 0 % and the conditions of its application.

Art. 18 (2): “For the goods [...] mentioned in Annex 3 the VAT tax rate is 7 % (press).

Art. 19. 1: “ The tax, with exceptions of Art. 21 and 22, is: 1) from January 1st, 2001 to December 31^st 2002, - 28% of the tax basis.”

Art. 21 (1) point 1: “ Tax on the income gained takings on territory of Poland by the tax payers, which are mentioned in the Art. 3 (2):

1) [...] as a result of copyright and neighboring rights is stated on the level of 20 %.

art. 3 (2): “ Tax payers, which have their headquarters or the board of directors’ seat, are submitted to the obligation to pay tax only with regard to the income gained on the territory of Poland.”

a) within its noneconomical statutory aims, in this realm church do not have to keep documentation required by the Tax Ordinance.

b) from other activities of the church - in the part regarding religion, education, science, culture, charity [...].”

2) takings from the personal artistic, literary, scientific [...] educational and journalistic [...].

Art. 22 (9) point 3: “ Cost of gaining of some takings is stated in the following ratio to the gained takings:

3) from the title of using and disposing of copyright and neighboring rights as stated in other provisions by their creators 50% [...]

(10) When a tax payer proves that the cost of gaining the takings are higher than calculated by using the percentage norm stated in (9), the costs are calculated in the amount of the costs factually incurred.”

Art. 27: “ Tax income, with the exception of Art. 28, 29, 30 and 44 (4), is calculated from the tax basis according the following scale:

Art. 41 (1): “ Physical persons who are entrepreneurs and legal entities and other entities, that pay the persons mentioned in Art. 3 from the title mentioned in Art. 13 point 2 [...], from copyright and neighboring rights as stated in other provisions [...], including the rights purchase, are obliged as tax payers collect, with exception of (4), income tax payment in advance in the amount of 20% of the due sum minus cost of gaining the takings in the level stated in Art. 22 (9) [...].”

(2) The payers are obliged to collecting the advance payment sums from the title of the creation of works or service contracts, which are mentioned in Art. 13 point 2 [...], if a tax payer declares, that his services are the part of his economic activities, [...].”

The Art. 2 (1): “ a publisher’ is a “legal entity, other independent entity which is not a legal entity or a physical entity that publishes works in the territory of the Republic of Poland. There is a legal presumption that the entity whose name is stated as a publisher on the copies of the publication, is the publisher.”

The Art. 2 (2): “ a ‘publication’ is a work reproduced by any means to be disseminated including, a printed matter as books, brochures (leaflets), newspapers, journals, and other publishing material and poster, plans, graphs, tables, drawings, illustrations and notes; audio and/or visual works as records, tapes, cassettes, slides, micro-films, micro-fiche; digital works or computer programs.”

Art. 3: “ The publisher that disseminated publicly issues of publications on the territory of Poland or abroad, [...] is obliged to render to the libraries designated by law the number of copies stated in the Act (obligatory copies) without payment, as stated in Art. 5 (1)-(3).”

(2) “ Such an obligation has the publisher that publishes a publication in Poland for a foreign publisher.”

(3): “ Persons that are mentioned in (1), are obliged to render to the libraries designed by law obligatory copies:

5) works, which had not been disseminated before, including such that stopped to be secret or confidential.

(4): In case of the publication in different editorial standards the obligation of obligatory copies rendering applies to the publication of the highest standard.

(5): The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage provides in the executive act for the list of the libraries that have a right to obtain obligatory copies of the publication rules of copies submission of every kind of publications, rules and mode of their rendering.

Art. 4: “ Persons, that are mentioned in Art. 3 (1) and (2), are not obliged to render obligatory copies:

1) printed matter intended exclusively for the purpose of official use of the state authorities, local government, army; intended for internal use of political organizations, social organizations, and other organizations if this purpose is stated before they were printed,

4) printed matter, sound and/or visual fixed on any carrier or by any means for the personal use,

(2) The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage can exempt some other works than stated in (1) from the obligation of rendering obligatory copies to the designated libraries.”

Art. 5 (1): “ There is an obligation to render two copies of a publication to the National Library and the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow.

(2) There is an obligation to render one copy of any official journals of the governmental administration should be submitted to the Sejm (Parliamentary) Library in Warsaw.

(3) There is an obligation to render one obligatory copy to all libraries designated by law.

(4) The libraries mentioned in (1) have to keep the submitted copies in their archives for ever.”

Art. 6: “ The National Cinema Archives in Warsaw renders one obligatory copy of a cinema or a television film. Fulfilling this obligation is a film producer’s duty. Provisions of Art. 2 (1) and Art. 3 (2) and (4) are applied accordingly.”

Art. 7: “ The obligatory copies submitted to the libraries designated by law are exempted from a postal fee.”

Art 8 (1): “ Who does not fulfill the obligation of rendering the obligatory copy to a designated library or the National Cinema Archives is subject to the monetary penalty.

(2) The proceedings in the cases mentioned in (1) is carried out according to the proceedings on petty crimes.”

The Act on the List of the Libraries that Obtain the Obligatory Copies and the Course of their Rendering of 1997

§ 1: “ The list of the libraries that obtain the obligatory copies and the number of such libraries is stated in annex 1 to the act.”

§ 2 (1): “ The publisher is obliged to render the obligatory copy in the following time limit: the National Library in 5 days, and to other libraries in 14 days from the moment of finishing the process of publication production.

(2) The producer film and television film is obliged to render the National Cinema Archives the copy of the film in 14 days from the moment of finishing the process of the film production.”

Act on the Rates and Detailed Principles and Proceedings of the School and University Textbook Grants Dealing on 1999.

§ 1: The grants for school or academic textbooks are given from the state budget, in the limits stated in the annual state budget.”

(2) In case of publication of the first issue of specially costly textbooks the rate [..] can be increased up to 10 %.”

§ 3: “ The publisher that applies for the grant, that is mentioned in § 2, submits:

1) an application for a grant for the textbook according to the form in the annex 1 or 2 of the act.”

§ 10: “ After the publication of the textbook the publisher accounts for the money spent on the textbook publishing according to the form from annex 4 to the act, accompanied by the bill and a sample copy.”

VI. Publishing allowances of the Ministry of the Culture and National Heritage

1) covering in full or partially the costs of publishing of editions of the works, which are exceptionally important for culture, science and the editions for the blind.”

The Act on the Levies on the Creativity Promotion Fund on the Copies of the Works in the Public Domain and the Detailed Principles of the Payments from the Fund and the Principles on Granting Scholarships and Social Assistance from the Fund of 1994

§ 1: “ [..] the publishers of works in the public domain have to pay the levy to the Creativity Promotion Fund:

1) in the amount of 8 % from the income earned if the books are sold by the third person,

2) in the amount of 6 % from the income earned if they the are sold by the publishers directly, [..]

4) in the amount of 5 % of the from the income earned when such works are literary classics, a part of school curriculum, are in Braille or have academic character and are issued in limited number of copies.”

§ 3 (1): “ The interested publishers can apply for a grant for publishing from the Fund of the Act.”

§ 12: “ The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage constitutes the Committee on financing and co-financing editions [...], that gives opinion on grant applications from the Fund.”

§ 11 (2): After acquainting with the submitted proposals and with notified remarks regarding them the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage decides on dealing the grants.”

The Polish Law on Copyright and Neighboring Rights (hereafter as the Copyright Act) of 1994.

Art. 1: “ The subject of copyright is every indication of creativity of individual character, in any manner, fixed in any mode, regardless of its worth, its appropriation and the mode of expression.”

Art. 36: Taking into consideration of the exceptions stated in the act, the term of the copyright protection is 70 years:

Art. 16: “ Unless the act states otherwise, author’s moral rights protect not limited by the time limit and not to be renounced or disposed author’s bond with his work [...].”

2) works that are first published on the territory of Poland or simultaneously on this territory and abroad or

Art. 51 (3): “ Import of the copies that are on the market on the territory of the state, which signed the free trade area agreement with Poland, is not the copyright infringement.”

Art. 23 (1): “ Personal use of the disseminated work is permissible without permission and remuneration of the author.”

2) reproduce [..] one copy of published works that are not available on the - for the purpose of their collections protection and making them available free of charge.”

Art. 12: “ [...] an employer is a copyright owner of the work created by the author under the employment contract, from the moment of obtaining of the work within the provisions of the employment contract aim and common intention of the parties.”

Art. 14 (1): [..] the scientific institution has the right to the first publication of the scientific work of its employer, who created the work under the employment contract.”

41 (3): “ The contract provisions regarding all future works [...] of the author are void.”

Art. 44: “ In case of seriously unjust disproportion between the remuneration of the author and the benefits of the copyright purchaser, the creator can demand due increase of the remuneration by the court.”

Art. 53: “ The contract of the copyright cession should be in writing under the rigor of invalidity.”

Art. 67 (5): “ The contract of the exclusive license should be in writing under the rigor of invalidity.”

Art. 79: “ The author can claim from the person, that infringed his copyright, forbearance of such infringement, the submission of the gained profits or the payment double, and in case of the willful infringement, triple amount of the appropriate remuneration in the moment of its claiming; the author can claim compensation for the damage as well, if the accused person was guilty of the infringement.”

Arts. 115-123 provide for criminal sanctions for the copyright infringement (willfully up to 5 years of imprisonment).

Art. 5 (5): “ The foundation can run the business within its statutory aims. If the foundation runs the business, its property intended to be used for the business purposes, cannot be worth less than 1.000 PLN.”

Art. 34: “ The association can run the business in line with other legal provisions. The income gained from the association business can be used only to fulfill its statutory aims and cannot be distributed among its members.”

Polish Customs Code of January 9, 1997 is published in Dziennik Ustaw 97.23.117. According to the custom tariff of the Act of the Council of Ministries of December 15, 1998 (Dziennik Ustaw 98.158.1036) as amended the autonomous custom duty on books, newspapers and journals is 25 % of their worth for customs purposes if the country where they are imported from is known to the authority. The custom duty is doubled if the country of the origin is not known. However, Poland is a member of the WTO since 1995 (Dziennik Ustaw 95.98.483) and thanks to it the custom rate on books, journals and newspapers is 0 % in trade among all WTO members (conventional customs duty). Poland is also a Party to the Lake Success Convention of 1950 (Dziennik Ustaw 72.6.33).

The Act on Regulating the Quantity or Quality Norms of Imported Goods that are Exempt from Custom Duties and Restricting the Right to Custom Exemptions on Certain Goods Transported by Persons after Crossing the National Border of 1997.

§ 1 (1): “ It is duty free to import: [...] 4) things that are customary gifts, that are mentioned in Art. 190 § 1 point 4 of the Custom Code, to the worth limit of 70 EURO equivalent.”

Publishing Legislation Online Project (PLOP)