Albania: Still a Matter of Enthusiasm
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The copyrights in Albania are protected by law and is statutory in article 58 of the Albanian Constitution. On the other hand, Albania is signatory of a series of international conventions and treaties (the Bern, Rome, Geneva, Paris conventions) and member of OMPI (Organisation Mondiale de la Propriété Intellectuelle) as well.
One of the conditions that Albania has to meet to be able to sign the Agreement on Association and Stabilization (AAS) with the EU, is to improve the package of Laws regarding copyrights and intellectual property rights. This project was included in the “National Plan of Legislation Approach”, in accordance with EU standards, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2008. The Alb-author association was established in December 2002, with the goal to protect the authors’ moral and economical rights from abuses presented by pirates, crime rings and even State Authorities that often retain their paternalist approach to copyrights. Alb-author is also member of CISAC (International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) and BIEM (International Organisation Representing Mechanical Rights Societies) protecting in this way the copyrights for Radio, Television, musicians, editors etc... . After a prolonged discussion and negotiations, the situation in Albanian TV broadcasters and other visual media was settled, and a National Committee was established to supervise and sanction the copyright violations perpetrated by Albanian TV stations. However, just like in other SEE countries, copyright violations happen often. One such case was the copyright violations of Albanian films produced by “New Albania” Production Company. For more details, visit the web-pages of Alb-music. Starting last year, Alb-author has requested from the Albanian Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports to establish a Bureau of Copyrights and still works with authorities for legislation in that direction. Very interesting is the initiative of the research students, addicted on internet and technology that offer voluntary assistance and documentation in their web portal Pr-Tech developped on Open Source software. Web designers can find the answer for all problems in this portal under auspices of Creative Commons (Attribution-Share Alike) in Albanian language. Pr-Tech is a non-profit organisation whose goal is to serve the Albanian nation with news in computing, technology and science, as well as bring closer the technological and scientific community that plays an important role towards bringing our part of South East Europe on its feet. Pr-Tech also provides tutorials, papers and assistance in the field of Computing. Pr-Tech is an open organisation which is made up of computer and technology enthusiasts, generaly professionals and students in the field. Others initiatives for GPL in Albania can be found at Wikipedia Free Encyclopedia, Open Office in Albanian, Alb Science, etc… The first attempt to translate the GNU General Public License into Albanian was made in January 2002, at the Alblinux portal. This is an unofficial translation and does not legally state the distribution terms for software that uses the GNU GPL but this translation helped Albanian speakers understand the GNU GPL better. |
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