Cap. 415 Art. 7Nature of copyright in an audiovisual work, database, literary, musicalandartistic work.

(1) Copyright in an audiovisual work, a database, a literary, musical or artistic work shall be the exclusive right to authorise or prohibit the doing in Malta in respect of the protected material in its totality or substantial part thereof, either in its original form or in any form recognisably derived from the original of any of the following:

(a) the direct or indirect, temporary or permanent reproduction by any means and in any form, in whole or in part;

(b) the rental and lending;

(c) the distribution;

(d) the translation in other languages including different computer languages;

(e) the adaptation, the arrangement and any other alteration and the reproduction, distribution, communication, display or performance to the public of the results thereof;

(f) the broadcasting or rebroadcasting or the communication to the public or cable retransmission;

(g) display or performance to the public: Provided that the right to authorise or prohibit the cable retransmission of a television broadcast shall be exercisable only through a collecting society.

(2) The right to authorise or prohibit cable retransmission shall not apply when the transmission is made in Malta:

(a) if the retransmission is in pursuance of a ‘must carry’ requirement in conformity with the Electronic

Communications (Regulation) Act; and

(b) if and to the extent that the transmission is made for reception in the area in which the cable retransmission may be received.

(3) The right to authorise or prohibit the cable retransmission of a television broadcast shall be exercisable only through a collecting society.

(4) In the case provided for in subarticle (2) where a rightholder has not transferred the management of his rights to a collecting society, the collecting society which manages rights of the same category shall be deemed to be mandated to manage his rights. Such rightholder shall have the same rights and obligations resulting from the agreement between the cable operator and the collecting society which is so deemed to be mandated to manage his rights as the rightholders who have mandated that collecting society and he may claim such rights within a period of three years from the date of the cable retransmission which includes his work or other protected subject-matter.

(5) Where no agreement is concluded regarding authorization of the cable retransmission of a broadcast, either party may call upon the assistance of one or more mediators appointed by the chairman of the Malta Arbitration Centre, unless otherwise agreed to by all the parties. The tasks of the mediators shall be to provide assistance with negotiation. They may also submit proposals to the parties. It shall be assumed that all the parties accept a proposal as referred to in this subarticle if none of them expresses its opposition within a period of three months. Notice of the proposal and of any opposition thereto shall be served on the parties concerned by judicial act, unless otherwise agreed to by the parties. The mediators shall be so selected that their independence and impartiality are beyond reasonable doubt.