Say on the re quirement of the lawfulness of movie copies within the institution of fair use for private purpose

Bibliogr. s. 88

The article presents considerations relative to the possibility of downloading from the Internet illegal video files within the institution of fair use for private purpose. Neither Directive 2001/29 nor Polish law require that the source copy must be legal. However, the Court of Justice of the European Union has formulated such a requirement, interpreting the Directive in the justification to the judgment in the case of AC I Adam BV. Therefore, the issue is whether downloading illegal movies from the Internet within fair use for private purpose is admissible in Poland. The Polish legislator does not differentiate the situation of the Internet users, downloading legal and illegal copies (contrary to CJEU’s position). As a consequence, Polish Internet users may download illegal copies invoking fair use for private purpose. In order to change the situation, an intervention of the Polish legislator amending Article 23 of the Copyright Act would be required. Such regulation should provide for an explicit requirement of the lawfulness of source copy.