Publishing Legislation Online Project (PLOP)

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

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Freedom to publish

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The Constitution of the Republic of Moldova of 29 July 1994.

Article 32. Freedom of opinion and expression

(1) All citizens are guaranteed the freedom of opinion as well as the freedom of publicly expressing their thoughts and opinions by way of word, image or any other means possible.

Article 33. Freedom to create

(1) The freedom to create scientific and artistic works is guaranteed. Creative work may not be submitted to censorship.

(2) The law shall protect the rights of citizens to their intellectual property, and to the material and moral interests related to various forms of intellectual creation.

The Law of the Republic of Moldova on the press nr. 243-XIII of 26 October 1994

Article 1. The freedom of the press

1. In the Republic of Moldova the freedom of the press is a fundamental right,

assented by the Constitution.

The state shall guarantee to all the persons the freedom to express their opinions and thoughts … by means of periodical publications and press agencies, which carry on their activity on the basis of political pluralism and in compliance with the legislation on copyrights.

(2) The censorship of any kind upon the periodical publications and the press agencies, entanglement in their activity and broadcasting of information shall be prohibited.

The Constitution of the Republic of Moldova of 29 July 1994.

Article 32

The freedom of expression may not harm the honour, dignity or the rights of other people to have and express their opinion. The law shall forbid and prosecute all actions aimed at denying and slandering the State or the people. Likewise shall be forbidden and prosecuted the instigation to sedition, war, aggression, ethnic, racial or religious hatred, the incitement to discrimination, territorial separatism, public violence, or other actions threatening constitutional order.

The Law of the Republic of Moldova on the press nr. 243-XIII of 26 October 1994

Article 4

The freedom of expression and the limits to publicity

(1) Periodical publications and press agencies shall be free to publish, pursuant to their own assessments, any kind of materials and information, taking into account that exercising this freedom is subject to several formalities, conditions, restrictions and sanctions provided by the law, which constitute necessary measures in a democratic society for the national security, territorial integrity or public security, preservation of order and prevention of crime, health protection, preservation of morals, protection of reputation or other rights in order to prevent the disclosure of some confidential information or to guarantee the authority and the impartiality of the judicial power.

Art. 7
Periodical publications and press agencies shall terminate their activity only upon the decision of the founders (co-founders) or the court of law in that respect. The General Prosecutor shall have the right to cease the activity of the periodical publication or press agency or to bring a legal action for the termination of their activity.

Preconditions for regular operation in the book sector

Law of the Republic of Moldova on entrepreneurship and enterprises

nr. 845-XII of 3 January 1992

Art. 1

(3) Entrepreneurship dealing with elaboration and creation of … pieces of art and literature or other objects representing an intellectual property should be regulated by the present Law and special legislation.

Art. 10

2. Entrepreneur (enterprise) has the right to undertake any sort of activity which is determined by the legislation only after obtaining state license on any stipulated activity.

The state licenses are issued by the Government, or by other public administration authority in charge*.

Art. 27

2. The enterprises shall be registered by the Chamber of state registration under the Ministry of Justice.

3. For the registration shall be collected the fee in the amount established by the Government.

4. The Chamber of state registration register the enterprise in the State Commercial Register.

5. The enterprises shall be obliged to register at the fiscal authority in order to obtain the fiscal codes.

Law of the Republic of Moldova on public associations nr. 837 of 17 May 1996

Art. 19

(3) The Charters of the public associations … shall be registered by the Ministry of Justice.

(9) For the registration of its Charter, the public association shall pay the registration fee in the amount of 3 minimum wages.

Art. 25

1. The Ministry of Justice shall hold the State Register for public associations.

Law on the state budget for 1999

nr. 216-XVI of 12 December 1998

Art. 24

2. The quantum of the fee for the licenses issued are set forth in the Annex nr. 17.

(5) The quantum of the monthly fee for the entrepreneur patent is set forth in the Annex nr. 17/1

Annex 17/1

4. For retail sale of books … disregarding the manner of commercialisation – 30 MDL (2,8 USD) per month.

Obligations for publishers

Law of the Republic of Moldova on entrepreneurship and enterprises

nr. 845-XII of 3 January 1992

Art. 7

The enterprise, in accordance with the legislation in force, shall be obliged:

To follow the rules of the market under the conditions of free competition, the rights and legal interests of consumers;

To ensure the proper quality of the works and services provided;

To obtain state licenses for a certain kind of activity, if any;

To pay into the budget, to employees, to creditors …

Art. 10

The enterprise shall be empowered to undertake any kind of activities, regulated by the legislation, only after the acquisition of state license for that kind of activity.

The state license are issued by the Government, or by other public administration authority in charge.

Law of the Republic of Moldova on copyright and neighbouring rights nr. 293-XIII of 23 October 1994

Art. 8

(2) In order to inform the public on his copyright, the holder shall be entitled to use the copyright notice which should be imprinted on each copy of the work and should consist of the following three elements:

(a) a circled capital letter C - ©;

(b) the name (or designation) of the holder of the exclusive copyrights;

(c) the year of first publication of the work.

The Law of the Republic of Moldova on the press nr. 243-XIII of 26 October 1994

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Art. 8

(4) … the price of the issued … publication is determined independently by its editor.

Art. 15

(2) The state publishing houses (printing houses) are obliged to send copies of the periodical publications to libraries and other institutions, according to the list approved by the Government.

Copyright

Law of the Republic of Moldova on copyright and neighbouring rights nr. 293-XIII of 23 October 1994

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Art. 1

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(2) This Law governs the relations that arise from the creation and use of literary, artistic and scientific works (copyright) …

Art. 2

Where an international treaty to which the Republic of Moldova is party contains rules different from those specifies in this Law, the provisions of the international treaty shall apply.

Art. 4

(1) This Law shall protect as copyright works of the mind created in the literary, artistic and scientific fields, expressed in any material form that permits their reproduction, whether they have been disclosed or not, and whatever their form, purpose, value or means of reproduction.

(2) An author shall enjoy exclusive rights upon his work by the sole fact of having created this work. Registration of the work or the carrying out of any other formalities for the existance and enforcement of the copyright shall not be required.

Art. 17

(3) Copyright runs … and for fifty years from the January 1^st of the next year as to the year in which the creator dies

Art. 25

(1) The author’s contract must define: the manner in which the work will be used (the concrete rights granted under this contract); the duration and the territory on which the rights are granted; the remuneration and/or the mode of its calculation for every proceeding of use of the work, order and terms upon which this remuneration is payable, as well as other clauses which will be considered essential by the parties.

(3) If no duration is specified in the author’s contract, the contract shall be held to run for three years from the date of signature – for the contracts for the use of works without changes and for five years – for the contracts for the use of adapted and translated works.

(4) The State Copyrights Agency shall draw up, in co-operation with the interested organisation, model of author’s contacts.

Taxes

Law on the state budget for 1999 nr. 216-XVI of 12 December 1998

Art. 25 For 1999, the income tax rate shall be established:

a) for legal persons – 28% from the taxable income.

Art. 26

1. In 1999 shall be exempted from the VAT:

9. – drafting, editing and polygraphic activity related to the book production for the

cultural, educational and scientific domains. The value added tax related to the expenditures resulting in book products is attached to the price cost of its production.

Annex 7 The list of merchandises for children exempted from VAT:

4. school textbooks, literature and periodical publications for children.

Import duties

Law on the state budget for 1999 nr. 216-XVI of 12 December 1998

Annex 10 The custom duty for imported goods and objects:

• library, press … items; manuscripts … - 5%
• textbooks and didactic materials – 0%

The Law on the custom duty nr. 1380-XIII of 20 November 1997

Art. 28

Shall be exempted from custom duty:

j) periodical publications, books related to the educational, scientific and cultural domains, didactic materials for preschool institutions, schools.

Favours from government

The Decision of the Government of the Republic of Moldova on the acquisition of books for the schools’ and public libraries

nr. 1194 din 09.12.98

1. The acquisition of books for the schools’ and public libraries are in competence of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture, from the funds allocated from the state budget:

Ministry of Education – 100 000 MDL

Ministry of Culture – 100 000 MDL

2. The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture … will select the titles and will establish the list of books to be acquisitioned and will distribute them for free to schools’ and public libraries.

The Law of the Republic of Moldova on means allocated from the state budget for the support of publication of national book nr. 1371-XIII of 5 November 1997.

Art. 2 (1) The national book publishing program financially supported by the state, shall include:

1. the works of the classic authors;
2. the most outstanding works of the contemporary (modern?) local writers;
3. books entered into the golden fund of the universal literature, including the books for children;
4. illustrated books for children;
5. books provided by the state educational standards;

Art. 9

(1) A part of the published books shall be submitted to the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Sciences in order to be distributed for free to the subordinated institutions, another part will be commercialised on the market. The quantity of the books to be commercialised shall not exceed 30% from the published edition.

The Decision of the Government of the Republic of Moldova on the establishment of the specialised library for commercialisation of textbooks and didactic literature

nr. 841 of 21 November 1994

For the purpose of centralised commercialisation of text books and didactic literature, the Government of the Republic of Moldova decides:

1. … to establish a specialised library.
2. In the specialised library will be commercialised textbooks and didactic literature, as approved by the Ministry of Education and Science and the prices will be set up in accordance with the legislation in force.

Non-profit allowances

Certain foundations (for example, SOROS), international programmes (for example, UNDP) and other entities (provided by the legislation in force) are exempted from VAT on such imported goods and services as: publications and textbooks meant to be granted as donations to the libraries, schools and universities etc.

Textbook allowances

The Decision of the Government of the Republic of Moldova on the provision with textbooks of the pupils in primary schools and gymnasiums

nr. 448 of 9 April 1998

2. In the Republic of Moldova the state education shall be provided with didactic literature subsidised from the state budget as follows:

1) shall be entirely subsidised (100%) from the state budget the provision with:

… textbooks and other didactic books designed for children preparation for school;

… textbooks, didactic materials … - for pupils from boarding (interned) schools.

2) Beginning with 1998-1999 academic year, for the pupils from the primary schools and gymnasiums shall be instituted the system of textbooks rent. The Ministry of Education shall fix the rental price.

3. The local public administration bodies will provide to the children from socially

vulnerable families special indemnities(compensations) for the payment of textbooks’ rental price and will assign from the local budget the necessary funds meant to cover partially or entirely the textbooks’ rental price exemptions.

1. The Regulation on the extra-budgetary fund for textbooks shall be approved (Annex

1).

Annex 1

2. The extra-budgetary fund for textbooks shall have the purpose to accumulate and manage financial means collected(compiled) from the textbooks rents and shall be affiliated to the Ministry of Education.

1. The accumulated financial means … shall be exclusively directed to the textbooks

manufacturing. The assets accumulated in the textbooks fund will be put to use only from 2002, when the re-editing and the manufacturing of new textbooks will be initiated.

2. The financial means of the Fund shall be accumulated from the following sources:

1. rental prices collected form pupils:
2. budgetary means transferred in order to cover the discounts in rental prices

awarded to the children from socially vulnerable families;

3. donations; etc.

CPD wishes to acknowledge the help of Ms. Violeta Frunze.