If I Defend My Rights, I Will Be a 'Bad Cop'

One of the reasons the copyrights are violated in Armenia is that both lawyers and authors in the sector work orally, i.e. without contracts.

In a press conference today Susanna Nersisyan, Director of the Center for Protection of Copyrights, said that everything should be regulated by contracts. In her words a new law on copyrights together with the existing one will make all the parties involved sign contracts before getting involved in such affairs.

She also said that the bill of the new law will soon be discussed in the parliament, adding that the existing legislation is enough to reveal violations, which are numerous in Armenia, and define fines for the perpetrators.
Armenian composer Martin Aharonyan, in turn, said that the bill would strengthen the protection of author's copyrights, should it be adopted in the parliament.

At the same time, according to Aharonyan, there are some strange trends here in Armenia.
"In this sector the musicians, the performers are in a very close relation with the organizers ... And if I start defending my rights, I will turn out to be 'bad cop'," explained Aharonyan.

Another issue for concern in the sector is that the musicians and authors do not want to be involved in the court proceedings, and that they need lawyers support in this field.

Aharonyan also said he himself had come across some fake versions of his own peaces of music oeuvres.