Abstract

The article provides a comprehensive analysis of the large amendment passed on 20 November 2015 of the Copyright and Related Rights Act of 4 February 1994. That amendment was aimed at introducing significant changes as regards permitted public use as a result of implementation to the Polish law of a part of 2001-20012 EU copyright directives. The authoress discusses changes connected with so-called “educational licenses” which are disadvantageous for many cultural institutions since they exclude them from those licensees. The analysis also tackles the problem of documentation studies which were removed from the copyright law by the amendment. The effects of this legislative move are broadly analysed by the authoress with many practical examples. In particular, the effect of the amendment on documentation studies, required consent of the authors, copying fragments of works and the need to pay the fees has been stressed

Moreover, the article raises the problem of the prominent part of the amendment, namely the possibility of using so-called orphan works by cultural institutions. In particular, this concerns the works which have not been included for permissible use and what such exclusion means in the practice of copyright law application.