The key legal regulation directly governing publishing activity in the Czech Republic is the Non-Periodical Publications Act No. 37/1995 Coll. and alongside it Decree No. 252/1995 Coll., which acts as an implementing decree for some of the provisions of the former. Other regulations, which do not include any direct mention of publishing activity also apply to this type of activity. Among such regulations we count the Trades Licensing Act No. 455/1991 Coll., Literary, Scientific and Artistic Works Act (the copyright law) No. 35/1965 Coll. as amended by subsequent regulations, and also some general regulations, most importantly the Civil Code, Commercial Code, Value-Added Tax Act, and the Customs Duty Act.

The Non-Periodical Publications Act specifically governs what is to be considered a non-periodical publication and lists some essential responsibilities of publishers, such as providing every non-periodical publication with some basic information, the so-called imprint, without which the publication cannot be publicly distributed. It also governs the responsibility of publishers to submit a specific number of deposit copies to selected libraries, and introduces the term regional deposit copy, which is to be submitted to locally competent state scientific library specified by an implementing decree. Under this Act, the publishers must also make the so-called offer of purchase of every non-periodical publication to selected libraries (Decree no. 252/1995 Coll.) It also sets sanctions for neglecting responsibilities included in this Act. These sanctions, when applied, are understood to constitute an income for the administrative body that issued them, i.e. the district administration office.

Essentially, legal guarantees for publishing activities are the same as legal guarantees for any other type of business activity. Publishers publishing non-periodical publications either as natural or legal persons are not treated differently. All publishing entities require a trade licence issued according to the Trades Licensing Act No. 455/1991 Coll. This type of business is listed as non-regulated notifiable trade, i.e. no special formal conditions must be fulfilled prior to the issue of a trade licence and the general obligation applies to submit, along with the request for the issue of a trade licence, an abstract from the criminal record of the person responsible for the publishing activity in order to confirm its legal integrity.

The only problems experienced in this field have been related to the definition of this type of trade, since no clear distinction was made between publishing (nakladatelska) activity and publishing (vydavatelska) activity. From the point of view of entrepreneurial business, these two terms should be merged.

NB: In the Czech language a different meaning used to be assigned to publisher of books, that is nakladatel and publisher of periodicals, that is vydavatel. This difference still survives in written texts.

Suspension of the sale of a book can be proposed by an administrative body - district administration office - competent for the publisher’s place of business, when intercepting a book which does not include the imprint required by the law. This issue, however, is treated insufficiently by the Non-Periodical Publications Act, which only states that a publication lacking the legally required information (imprint) cannot be publicly distributed. For this, the district administration office can impose a fine, it is not, however, entitled to take any further steps in the matter.

The suspension of sales of a book can also be proposed by the public prosecutor, if the book’s content constitutes the committal of a crime, such as the defamation of race, nation, etc.

The suspension of sales of a book can also be proposed by a person who is the copyright owner, in cases where the book has been published without this person’s consent or where plagiarism is concerned. By this person we understand the author or his/her representative, or, as the case may be, an organisation involved in the collective management of copyright, as well as the legal copyright inheritor.

The specified person can request the suspension of sales of a book by submitting a proposal for the issue of a so-called preliminary measure, by the means of which the distribution and sale of the book in question would be suspended. This proposal is submitted to competent court, representing the exclusive authority in reaching a decision on the suspension of the sale of a particular book.

Reasons for which a book can be suspended are only specified by general regulations. Criminal law includes a list of criminal offences and the committing of any of the listed criminal offences through the content of a book is a reason for the sale of the book to be prohibited. The Civil Code includes a provision involving the protection of personality. Should the content of a publication represent a violation of the right for the protection of personality, it can also be considered a reason to prohibit the sale of the book.

In the course of the legal proceedings that may follow, the publisher against whom the proceedings are conducted may argue that the measure and the means by which the sales of the book were suspended was not executed in accordance with the law. Only the court can reach a final decision in this matter. Should the court reach a decision stating that the measure was not declared in accordance with the law, the publisher would then be entitled to claim damages or loss of profit from the person who caused its incompetent prosecution.

Before establishing a publishing house or a bookstore, the entrepreneur - publisher, distributor, bookseller - is required to be entered as a legal person into the relevant register. If the publisher is an entity founded according to the relevant provisions of the Commercial Code no. 513/1990 Coll. as amended, such as a co-operative, limited liability company, co-partnership, or joint-stock company the entry should be made in the trade register with publishing (vydavatelská, nakladatelská) activity as the description of activity. If the publishing entity was founded under the so-called Association Act, it should be entered in a register kept by the Ministry of the Interior and the description of its activity would be included in its articles. Where a natural person is concerned, the appropriate business licence is necessary. In order to publish books, each publisher must be in possession of a trade licence for this type of activity. The trade is non-regulated notifiable and as such the issue of a licence only requires the fulfilment of general conditions specified by the Trades Licensing Act, such as having reached the age of 18 years, being eligible for performing legal acts and legal integrity certified by an abstract from the person's criminal record. Qualifications, capital or market demand are not decisive in having the opportunity to perform this type of activity. An administrative fee is charged for the issue of a business licence, currently in the sum of CZK 1,000.

With the publishers' register no longer in use, the National Library of the Czech Republic is now in charge of keeping evidence of publishing entities (since 1/1/1996).

Publishers’ Responsibilities and Regulations

Besides the entirely general responsibilities of a publisher included in the general legal regulations applicable to all entrepreneurs, such as the Commercial Code - Act No. 513/1990 Coll., Civil Code No. 40/1964 Coll. as amended by subsequent regulations, Literary, Scientific and Artistic Works Act (the copyright law) No. 35/1965 Coll. as amended by subsequent regulations, Trades Licensing Act No. 455/1991 Coll. as amended by subsequent regulations, Income Tax Act, Value-Added Tax Act, Accountancy Act, Customs Duty Act, etc., the responsibilities of publishers of non-periodical publications are also governed by the above mentioned Non-Periodical Publications Act No. 37/1995 Coll. This Act specifies the properties of the imprint, so that each non-periodical publication must include the title of the work, name or names of authors, where known, or unless their mention has not been expressly disallowed by the author/authors, or, as the case may be, the pseudonym/pseudonyms of the authors, publisher’s identification (i.e. business name and place of business or the first name, surname and permanent residence of the person who has published the non-periodical publication in question), the year when first published if known, in cases of translated works the work’s original title with the specified publication from which the translation has been made, the copyright owner, International Standard Book Number where allocated, and business name and place of business or, as the case may be, the first name, surname and permanent address of the person who has produced the non-periodical publication in question and the year in which the publication was published.

The issue of the so-called deposit copies, i.e. copies which are submitted free of charge at the publisher's expense, is treated directly by the Non-Periodical Publications Act, which specifically lists all the recipients of these deposit copies, such as the National Library of the Czech Republic, Moravian Library and the library in Brno and State Scientific Library in Olomouc. Besides this the Act also includes the authorisation for the Ministry of Culture to issue a decree specifying the libraries that, according to the place of business of a publisher, will become the recipients of the so-called regional deposit copies. It must be considered a special particularity of this Act that it includes a provision according to which a copy of every publication written in Braille is to be submitted to K.E.Macan’s Library and Printing Office for the Sightless in Prague.

The Act is also concerned with the responsibility of the so-called offer of purchase. This means that the publisher must offer one copy of each publication for the purchase by libraries specified in an edict issued by the Ministry of Culture. While admittedly being a bit awkward, this system should secure access for selected libraries to up-to-date book production, providing, of course, they are able to afford it.

The market prices of individual non-periodical publications fall within the category of non-regulated prices and contract prices apply to them. In practice, publishers inform the distributors or booksellers of the recommended price of the publication. Price thus recommended, however, is not enforceable.

Copyright is governed by Literary, Scientific and Artistic Works Act (the copyright law) No. 35/1965 Coll. as amended by subsequent regulations. The Czech Republic is a member of numerous international copyright arrangements, especially the Bern Treaty On the Protection of Works of Literature and Art from 9 September 1886 in the revised Paris wording from 24 July 1971, as well as the General Copyright Agreement from 8 September 1952 in the revised Paris wording from 24 July 1971.

As far as the duration of copyright protection is concerned, a period of 50 years protection following author’s death applies in the Czech Republic. One of the essential features of Czech copyright is the principle of reciprocity, according to which foreign authors enjoy at least the same protection as Czech authors where reciprocity is assured.

Collective Management of the Copyright Act No. 237/1995 Coll. has been passed, according to which certain organisations, once provided with a licence issued by the Ministry of Culture, can operate so-called collective management of copyright for a specified field. This involves the granting of permission for use of works and collecting fees in return for this use of works on behalf of their authors and other copyright owners according to the copyright law.

As far as the regulation of contracts with authors is concerned, provisions of §22 of the copyright law deal with the contract on the distribution of a work, while Article 3 of this paragraph specifies the information to be included in such a contract: it must include the extent and the manner of the distribution of the work, the time when it is going to be distributed, the author’s fee, the author’s co-operation, the period of time for which the contract is being entered into and the commitment of the user that the distribution of the work will be carried out at its own cost. The latter condition of the above list may seem to us today to be particularly outdated, it is, however, also very difficult to conform to the provision of stating the extent of the distribution of the work, i.e. its total impression.

The copyright law treats the publishing contract as a special type of contract on the distribution of a work and deals with it in §24 and following. Through this contract the author grants the publisher permission for the publication of a verbal, musical-dramatic or musical work, work of fine art or photographic work, and the publisher agrees to publish the work at its own cost, provide arrangements for its distribution and pay the author his/her fees.

The author is guaranteed the right of author’s alteration, he/she also has the right to demand from the publisher, in the duration of the publishing contract, that should the work come out of print it would be published again and should the publisher refuse within a given period to draw up and sign a contract on the new publication of the work, the author has the right to enter into an agreement on the publication of this work with another publisher.

Taking into consideration the arrangements that apply in the European Union, a change of the duration of copyright protection is being considered from 50 to 70 years.

The taxation policy applies to publishing activities firstly by the means of income tax, secondly through value-added tax. Income tax is governed by Act No. 586/1992 Coll. as amended by subsequent regulations, value-added tax rates are governed by Act No. 588/1992 Coll. as amended by subsequent regulations. The rate of value-added tax for non-periodical publications (books, brochures) is 5%. From what has been said it is clear that this tax itself does not influence the price of a book to any great extent. Substantive influence on the price of a book must be attributed to the price of the material, i.e. the price of paper, as well as printing services including printing presses. Under currently valid regulations, copies presented free of charge cannot be written off against taxation, since the value of such gifts can only be subtracted from the net profit. The publisher can profit to a limited extent from the sale of copies under the so-called compulsory offer of purchase. As far as deposit copies are concerned, as specified in the above mentioned Non-Periodical Publications Act, these copies are added to the publisher’s costs. Publishers’ and booksellers’ incomes depend directly on the market’s purchasing power, with value-added tax constituting just one of the relatively insignificant factors that influence the price of books.

Author’s fees represent a very important factor that the publisher of non-periodical publications must take into account when deciding whether or not to publish a particular title. They can greatly influence the final price of a book, especially where foreign authors whose works are translated into Czech are concerned, demands for author’s fees can rise to considerable amounts.

According to the Exemption of Goods from Import Duties Decree No. 136/1998 Coll. and a list of goods specified therein, books are not exempt from the payment of import duties.

No official state arrangements for the encouragement and support of book publishing and distribution are in existence in the Czech Republic. In theory, it would be possible to receive some support in favour of book culture, i.e. for the benefit of publishers as well as booksellers, from the State Fund for the Support and Development of Culture. The financial resources in this fund, however, are practically non-existent and no support from this source can be counted upon until its existence is revitalised. Libraries are either incorporated into the Ministry of Culture budget or fall under the locally competent administrative bodies, their activity thus depending on the opportunities provided by their individual budgets. Libraries with central regional scope of activity, such as the National Library of the Czech Republic, Moravian Library, the Library in Brno and State Scientific Library in Olomouc are legally entitled to receive the so-called deposit copies free of charge at the publisher’s expense.

Neither reduced postal rates, nor lower interest rates apply. An opportunity exists for individual municipalities to support libraries, or, as the case may be, booksellers, from their budgets although not in the sense, however, of their business interest, but for example to purchase publications of regional significance. Such activity, however, is limited by the local budgets and very important role is played by the local representatives who determine how the budget is going to be divided as it is up to them to decide what resources, if any, they allocate to book culture.

In this chapter we must also mention the activities of various foundations and funds, such as the Czech Literary Fund Foundation, supporting important literary activities by organising various competitions and giving awards to winners. Titles thus awarded, whether original or translated literature, have a bigger chance of succeeding on the book market.

Generally, we can conclude that state support of book culture in the Czech Republic, involving production, distribution and sale is negligible.

As far as textbooks intended for the use of teaching pupils and students of primary schools, especial primary, ESN, assistance, secondary and special schools, and pupils of primary school preliminary classes, as well as training schools are concerned, in order for any textbook to be included on the list of textbooks it must receive approval from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Physical Education of the Czech Republic, according to Act No. 29/1994 Coll. The publisher requests the granting of this approval and, once granted, it is valid for 6 years, although its validity can be extended. Inclusion of a textbook on this list practically represents, from the point of view of the publisher, guaranteed sales for that textbook.

In the sphere of copyright the approach to textbooks receives no special treatment. According to §15, Article 2, Letter c), however, so-called substitute legal licence can apply, according to which a person who uses parts of published works to a reasonable extent, entire small published works, reproduction copies or imitations of works or parts thereof in a textbook or teaching aid, if author and source are stated, does not require author’s consent and is exempt from the payment of author’s fees. This licence, however, can only be used in a very constrictive manner, not extensively, in order to prevent its abuse or straightforward copyright infringement.