The new copyright act of 15 june 2018

The new copyright act is based on a green paper presented by the norwegian ministry of culture: https://www.regjeringen.no/no/dokumenter/prop.-104-l-20162017/id2547943/ (in norwegian) the new act simplifies and modernizes copyright provisions with the aim to make them easier to apply for all users. the act maintains the balance between the interests of rights holders on the one hand and the interests of users and the public on the other. it also improves the rights of artists in several areas, including the following: * a new, unwaivable right to fair remuneration when rights are transferred. this secures a fairer share of income for the artists that create copyrighted works and later decide to transfer the rights to others. * a new interpretative measure to ensure that when an artist transfers the rights of a copyrighted work or performance, that transfer should only include the rights clearly included in the agreement. this shall ensure that the agreement should be interpreted in favour of the artist. * the copyright enforcement measures (sanctions and damages) are strengthened and there are proposed new measures regarding streaming from an illegal source. artists and other right holders have asked for this reform.