HUNGARY Law and Practice Contributed by: Katalin Andreides, Andreides Law
Hungarian courts will adhere to the EU AI Act (EU Reg - ulation 2024/1689), which entered into force in August 2024 and will be fully applicable in August 2026, save for a small number of exemptions. Hungary’s Copyright Act states that copyright protec - tion applies to a “work based on its individual and original nature arising from the author’s intellectual activity”. It is therefore in line with other EU member states’ view that purely AI-generated works should not be eligible for copyright protection, as only a natural person can be considered an author under the Berne Convention. However, where the general requirements are met, AI-assisted works can obtain copyright pro - tection. Additionally, the use of copyrighted material for AI training is a major issue under the EU AI Act, which mandates AI providers to disclose training data and comply with copyright laws. The AI Act makes refer - ence to the EU Copyright Directive’s text and data mining (TDM) exceptions allowing AI systems to mine data for commercial purposes if the copyright own - er has not expressly opted out. Many websites and social media platforms now explicitly prohibit TDM via machine-readable statements or contract clauses. However, the effectiveness of the opt-out system has been questioned. 2.2 Copyright in Collaborative Artworks Hungarian law recognises collective works, which are creations made jointly by multiple authors whose indi - vidual contributions are inseparable from the rest of the work. These works are characterised by the crea - tive input of each author merging into a unified whole that cannot be divided into distinct parts. Under the Hungarian Copyright Act, only a natural person can be considered an author. References to the author in the Act also apply to the author’s suc - cessors and any other holders of copyright. According to Section 6 (1) of the Copyright Act, in the case of a collectively created work, copyright is held by the natural person or legal entity that initiated, directed and published the work under its own name, acting as the successor to the authors. As a result,
the economic rights are owned by the entity holding the copyright. For a work to be classified as a collectively created work under Section 6 of the Copyright Act, and for the statutory transfer of rights to a legal entity, three cumulative conditions must be met, as follows. • The contributions of the collaborating authors must be so well integrated into the unified work that the individual rights of each author cannot be sepa - rately identified. • The work must have been created at the initiative and under the direction of the legal entity. • The legal entity must have published the work under its own name. Collective works are protected for a term of 70 years, starting from the first day of the year following the date of first publication. 3. Protection Against Plagiarism 3.1 Legal Consequences of Copyright Infringement Under Hungarian Copyright Law (Act LXXXVI of 1999 on Copyright), the following civil remedies can be granted for copyright infringement in a civil action: • judicial determination of the occurrence of the infringement; • cessation of the infringement and the prohibition of the infringer from committing further infringements; • the right to seek redress, and if necessary ade - quate publicity for the redress at the infringer’s expense or by the infringer; and • restitution of the enrichment gained through the infringement and compensation for damages in accordance with the rules of civil liability. Criminal liability tends to be limited to cases where there is an intent to gain profit or where financial harm occurs. The same is true for copyright infringement in the context of AI-generated content.
76 CHAMBERS.COM
Powered by FlippingBook