(1) Copyright and related rights, the protection of these rights and the liability for their infringement are regulated by the Constitution of the Republic of Moldova, international treaties to which the Republic of Moldova is party, this Law and other normative acts.

(2) This Law regulates the relations arising in the creation and exploitation of literary, artistic and scientific works (copyright), performances, phonograms, videograms and broadcasts of broadcasting organizations (related rights), as well as other rights that are recognized in connection with intellectual activity in the field of literature, art and science.

(1) Where an international treaty to which the Republic of Moldova is a party lays down rules other than those provided for in this Law, the rules of the international treaty shall apply.

(2) Foreign natural persons and legal entities whose works or objects of related rights are protected by an international treaty to which the Republic of Moldova is a party shall enjoy protection equivalent to that granted by this Law to natural persons or legal entities of the Republic of Moldova (national treatment).

(3) This Law shall apply to all works and objects of related rights protected by international treaties to which the Republic of Moldova is a party, which, at the time of the entry into force of the corresponding treaty, have not entered the public domain in their country of origin as a result of the expiry of the term of protection previously granted and which have not entered the public domain in the Republic of Moldova as a result of the expiry of the term of protection previously granted.

The following terms are used in this law:

author - natural person through whose creative activity the work was created;

database - a compilation of data or other materials, whether or not protected by copyright or related rights, whether in machine-readable or other form, arranged systematically or methodically and accessible by electronic or other means;

communication to the public - transmission by air, including by satellite (broadcasting), cable or other means of images and/or sounds of works or subject-matter of related rights in such a way that the images or sounds can be perceived by persons not belonging to the usual circle of a family and close acquaintances in places where, without the act of transmission, they would not be able to perceive the images and/or sounds. The communication of encoded signals is an over-the-air or cable transmission (public communication) if the means of decoding are provided to the public by the over-the-air broadcasting organisation or the cable broadcasting organisation respectively or with its consent. Re-transmission by over-the-air (re-broadcasting) or cable which is not made simultaneously with the original public communication or which includes changes (dubbing, subtitling, insertion of advertisements) is considered as a new act of public communication by over-the-air or cable;

public performance - exhibition of the original or copy of a work, directly or indirectly, by means of projection of the image of a work, by slides or other means, on a screen or in any other similar way (except for communication by air or cable), in which the work, copy or image thereof is exhibited in a public place or in any other place from which it can be perceived by persons not belonging to the usual circle of family or close acquaintances. The public showing of an audiovisual work involves the non-consecutive showing of isolated images of the work, since the consecutive ordinary showing of images of an audiovisual work constitutes public performance;

distribution - the putting into circulation, by sale or by any other means of transfer of ownership, whether for consideration or free of charge, of the original or copies of a work or objects of related rights, as well as their public offering;

broadcast of a broadcasting organisation - a broadcast created directly by the broadcasting organisation or, at its request and from its own financial resources, by another organisation;

folk expression - a creation consisting of elements characteristic of the traditional cultural heritage, manifested and perpetuated by the community or individuals, reflecting the traditional artistic heritage of the community;

phonogram - an exclusively aural impression of any performance, work or expression of folklore, its sounds or representations, with the exception of aural impressions included in an audiovisual work;

printing (recording) - the fixation, by any means and in any manner, of sounds and/or images or representations thereof on any material medium, including electronic, which permits their perception, reproduction or communication;

rights management information - any information, provided by the rightholder, identifying the work or other object protected by this Law, the author or other rightholder or information on the conditions of exploitation of the work or other protected object, as well as any figures and codes representing such information;

performer - an actor, singer, musician, dancer, conductor or any other person who presents, recites, sings, plays, dances or interprets in any other way a work, folkloric expressions or performances of any kind, including variety, folk, circus, puppet or marionette shows;

public performance - the presentation of works, performances or phonograms by stage representation, recitation, song or other means, whether live or by various devices, means or processes (excluding public communication), in places accessible to the public or in any other places where the works, performances or phonograms may be perceived by persons not in the usual circle of family or close acquaintances;

lending - making available publications in any format for use, through publicly accessible institutions, for a limited period of time and without direct or indirect economic or commercial advantage;

rental - making available for use, for a limited period of time and for direct or indirect economic or commercial advantage, of a work or subject-matter of related rights;

technological protection measures - use of any technical equipment or components thereof, which, by its natural operation, is intended to control access to works or objects of related rights, preventing or limiting actions that are not authorized by the holders of rights protected by this law. Technological measures shall be considered effective when the exploitation of a work or other subject-matter protected by this Law is controlled by the rightholders through the application of an access code or a protection process, such as encoding, encryption or any other transformation of the work or other protected subject-matter, or through the application of a copy control mechanism, which, if not circumvented, fulfil the protection objectives;

work - the result of original intellectual creation in the field of literature, art and science, irrespective of the means of creation, the concrete manner and form of expression, its value and importance;

audiovisual work - a work consisting of a sequence of coherent fixed images, whether or not accompanied by sound, producing the impression of movement, intended for visual and auditory perception (if the images are accompanied by sound) by means of a particular device;

collective work - a work created by several natural persons - whose contributions form an indivisible whole, so that it is impossible to identify each person's contribution - on the initiative and under the direction of a natural or legal person who is to publish the work under his or her name;

phonogram producer - a natural or legal person on whose initiative and under whose responsibility, including financial responsibility, the first printing of the sounds of the performance, other sounds or representations of sounds is made;

producer of audiovisual works - the natural or legal person on whose initiative and responsibility, including financial responsibility, the audiovisual work is created;  

producer of videograms - natural or legal person on whose initiative and on whose responsibility, including financial responsibility, the videogram is printed;

computer program - a set of instructions, commands and/or codes expressed in any form or manner, intended to operate a computer to achieve a particular purpose or result. The term "computer program" also covers the program stored in the computer memory, the material accompanying a program created, the preparatory material obtained in the process of developing a program provided that it is designed and expressed in such a form that the preparatory material can subsequently result in the development of the computer program. The computer program may be expressed in any language, either source code or object code;

publication - offering copies of a work, performance, phonogram, videogram or broadcast to the public, with the consent of the author or other owner of copyright or related rights, in a sufficient number to meet the reasonable needs of the public;

interactive making available - making a work or subject-matter of related rights available by wire or wireless means, including the Internet or other computer networks, in such a way that any member of the public can access them from any place and at any time of their individual choice; 

reproduction - the making of one or more copies of a work or subject-matter of related rights, whether directly or indirectly, temporarily or permanently, by any means or in any form, including for the purpose of audio or video printing and/or storing a work or subject-matter of related rights on tangible or electronic carriers;

Reprographic reproduction - the reproduction in facsimile (exact copy) of the original written or graphic work, in full size, enlarged or reduced, by means of photocopying or any other similar technical means other than editing. Reprographic reproduction does not include the fixation of the work in electronic (including digital), optical or any other mechanisable form;

retransmission - the simultaneous broadcasting, by wire or cable, by one broadcasting organisation of the broadcasts of another broadcasting organisation by wire or cable;

satellite - any satellite operating in frequency bands which are reserved under telecommunications law for public communication (transmission over the air) of signals for reception by the public or which are reserved for private point-to-point communication. At the same time, in the latter case, the circumstances in which reception of the signals by members of the public takes place must be comparable to those in the former case;

exploitation - any action relating to the use in any form and in any manner of objects of copyright, related rights or other rights protected by this Act;

videogram - the first printing of images, whether or not accompanied by sound, regardless of whether or not it represents an audiovisual work.

(1) The State Agency for Intellectual Property (hereinafter - AGEPI):

a) shall contribute to the development and implementation, within the limits of its competence, of the appropriate policy for the protection, exercise and enforcement of copyright, related rights and other protected rights in accordance with this Law, international commitments and national interests of the Republic of Moldova;

b) submit proposals to the Government, ministries and other central administrative authorities when the undertaking of certain measures necessary for the implementation of the policy referred to in letter a) does not fall within its competence;

c) collects the necessary information, carries out training activities and consultations for informing ministries, other central administrative authorities, judicial authorities and other institutions, right holders and users about the importance and legal and practical aspects of the protection, exercise and implementation of copyright, related rights and other rights protected by this Law, elaborating and distributing for this purpose information materials, organizing information campaigns and actively collaborating with the media;

d) participates in the elaboration of draft normative acts on the protection, exercise and implementation of copyright, related rights and other rights protected by this Law;

e) represent the Republic of Moldova in international and regional organizations in the field of copyright, related rights and other rights protected by this Law;

f) establish and maintain, in accordance with the legislative and normative acts, mutually beneficial cooperation relations with similar offices, agencies and research institutions, with other organizations from other countries working in the field of copyright, related rights and other rights protected by this Law;

g) receives and examines applications for registration of copyright and related rights objects, registers and issues, on behalf of the State, certificates of their registration;

h) to approve, monitor and supervise the activity of collective management organisations of copyright and/or related rights;

i) issue control marks in accordance with the law.

(2) AGEPI shall establish the Mediation and Arbitration Commission specialized in the field of intellectual property, which shall examine and settle disputes assigned to their competence under the special laws in the field of intellectual property, including under the provisions of this Law, as well as disputes in the field of collective management of copyright and related rights. The Mediation and Arbitration Commission specialized in the field of intellectual property shall operate in accordance with the regulations approved by the Government.