The question is currently under deliberation in the Norwegian Government, and so far no such provision has been found.

The Norwegian Copyright Act, Section 4, which has a similar wording as the corresponding provisions in the Danish, Swedish and Finnish Copyright Acts, is consistent with the TRIPS Agreement, Article 12. The English version of the Norwegian Copyright Act uses the term "issued" which is meant to cover "publish". However, the Norwegian Government will consider whether more adequate English terms should be used in the English version of the Act.

Regulation No. 5 of 10 April 1964 and Regulation No. 1288 of 22 December 1989 (both with subsequent amendments) implement the obligations to foreign rightholders stemming from the various international treaties to which Norway is party, into the Norwegian Copyright law. These regulations are issued pursuant to Section 59 of the Copyright Act. Amendments will currently be made to these regulations to comply with the national treatment clause in the TRIPS Agreement. As Norway is party to the Berne Convention, Norwegian copyright law is complying with the national treatment clause in Article 5.1 of the Berne Convention. Consequently, only minor adjustments are needed. The Norwegian Copyright Act has no provisions on levies for private copying.

Norway does not apply the "rule of the shorter term" to phonograms and performances.

According to Section 45 of the Norwegian Copyright Act sound fixations and films shall not, without the consent of the producer, be made available to the public, nor shall copies be made of the sound fixation or film, until 50 years have elapsed since the expiry of the year in which the fixation or film was made. "If the fixation is issued during this period of time, the term of protection shall subsist for 50 years after the expiry of the year in which the fixation was first issued." The term "making available to the public" is explained in Section 2, third paragraph of the Act; "A work is made available to the public when it is performed outside private premises, or when copies of the work are offered for sale, rental or lending, or otherwise distributed or displayed outside such premises." Consequently, both direct and indirect reproduction are covered by these provisions, including digital transmission in the context of subscription or interactive services.

As Norway is party to the Berne Convention, the Norwegian copyright law is consistent with Article 18 of the Berne Convention. The regulations which implement the obligations according various international treaties, to which Norway is party, into the Copyright law, will shortly be made applicable to all WTO Members. The date of application of the TRIPS Agreement for Norway is 1 January 1996, so this will be the fixed date according to Article 70 of the Agreement.

The questions concerns whether the amendments to the Norwegian regulations implementing the TRIPS Agreement to the full extent, will give retroactive protection that will also apply to phonograms and performances - with reference to Article 14.6 of the TRIPS Agreement. The answer, to the extent one can look into the near future, is yes, and this implies that phonograms and performances originating back to 1946 will be protected.

Remedies available for copyright infringement is presented in Norway's notification (of 22 February 1996) under Article 63.2 of the TRIPS Agreement, to the TRIPS Council. Provided that the Copyright Act has no particular provisions, the general provisions in Act No. 6 of 13 August 1915 Relating to Judicial Procedure in Civil Cases, Act. No. 86 of 26 June 1992 Related to the Enforcement of Claims, Act No. 25 of 22 May 1981 Related to Criminal Procedures, apply. Seizure, forfeiture and destruction of infringing articles and equipment used to make the infringing articles, are covered by Section 56 of the Norwegian Copyright Act. In addition, provisional measures will apply. Regarding how civil damages are measures in the case of computer program infringement, Section 55 of the Copyright Act applies: "Any damage caused by an infringement mentioned in Section 54, or by an infringement of Section 49, first paragraph, is subject to a claim for compensation according to the rules of compensation generally applicable. If the right of an author or a performing artist has been infringed wilfully or by gross negligence, the court may also award him a sum of money as redress for damage of a non-economic nature. Even if the offender has acted in good faith, the aggrieved party may, irrespective of the extent of the damage, demand payment of the net profit accruing from the unlawful act." A party to a civil proceeding may be granted compensation for expenses incurred during the proceedings, including appropriate attorney's fees, pursuant to Chapter 13 of the Act Relating to Judicial Procedure in Civil Cases. The general rule is that a party who loses a case before the court, shall be ordered to compensate the other party's expenses in full (section 172). If a case is partly won and partly lost, the main rule is that the parties have to cover their own expenses (section 174). The Act Relating to Criminal Procedure (Chapters 9 and 30) stipulates as a main rule that the cost related to criminal proceedings is paid by the Government. There are no provisions particularly governing the length or cost of proceedings. We have no available data on the actual duration of proceedings or their cost.

The questions contains two different parts. Firstly, a description of provisional measures, referred to in the Norwegian answer, and the procedures for invoking them, is asked for. As I stated, a more full description is presented in the Norwegian notification document. I understand this has not yet been distributed to delegations, but will be so shortly. It has been made available to the US delegation. Information on invoking such provisional measures is also presented in the notification document. At this stage, I restrict myself to referring to that document. If need by, my delegation will be happy to provide further information. The last part of the question concerns criminal penalty imposed with respect to piracy of copyrighted works. The legislation concerning this is to be found in Chapter 7 of the Norwegian Copyright Act. In general, Section 54 states that persons who wilfully or negligently contravene the Copyright Act shall be liable to fines or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months. However, if the infringement is wilful, and has been committed under particularly aggravating circumstances, the penalty shall be fines or imprisonment for a term not exceeding three years. Such infringement is subject to public prosecution. Any damage caused by an infringement is subject to a claim for compensation and, as mentioned in our first reply, also confiscation and destruction of infringing articles are covered.

Databases which constitute an intellectual creation are protected as literary works under the Norwegian Copyright Act. The "catalogue rule" in Section 43 applies to "Formularies, catalogues, tables and similar works in which a large number of items of information have been compiled", and will apply also on databases. The second paragraph of Section 43 states that if the content of a database is wholly or partly subject to copyright, such may also be applied. The catalogue right differs form the copyright protection of data bases in many respects; there are no criterion of creativity, only "reproduction" is protected unlike copyright protection which protects against "producing copies", the term of protection is only ten years for catalogues, and finally the catalogue rule applies only to works that are published in Norway.

Computer programs are protected as literary works in Section 1, second paragraph number 12. Section 1 was amended in 1990 (Act No. 26 of 15 June 1990).

Section 19, second paragraph of the Norwegian Copyright Act stipulates that the rightholder of a computer program is granted the right to control the rental of their work. The rightholder of a phonogram is given this right in Section 42, third paragraph (performing artists) and section 45, second paragraph (producers). The Copyright Act was amended in this respect in 1990 (Act No. 26 of 15 June 1990) as regards the rental of computer programs, whereas Sections 42 and 45 were amended in 1995 (Act No. 27 of 2 June 1995).

The Norwegian Copyright Act Section 42, second paragraph stipulates that the term of protection as regards performances is 50 years from the expiry of the year in which the performance took place. 50 years term of protection also applies to sound fixations pursuant to Section 45. The term of protection was extended from 25 years to 50 years in 1988 (Act No. 101 of 23 December 1988).