MALDIVES LAW AND PRACTICE Contributed by: Shaaheen Hameed, Hassan Maaz Shareef, Aminath Amathulla, Nazahath Ahmed, Isha Ali Raoof, Aifa Shareef, Noorul Hudha Ahmed and Mohamed Azmee, Premier Chambers LLP
• orders against the alleged party to take or refrain from taking action(s) in order to stop the infringement of a copyright owner’s rights being infringed in the future. In the event of infringement of moral rights grant - ed under the Copyrights Act, the author granted with the moral rights or any person lawfully rep - resenting the author may claim damages for loss of reputation or income. In addition, unless an exclusive licence agree - ment states otherwise, exclusive licensees enjoy the same rights afforded to copyright owners under the Copyrights Act against infringement of rights protected by the Copyrights Act. Criminal responsibility If any action infringing a right granted under the Copyrights Act has been considered a criminal offence under the Copyrights Act or the Mal - dives Penal Code (Law 9/2014), any party has the right to submit the infringing action to the competent investigating authorities for investi - gation. If the investigating authorities receive this type of report or are aware of the infringing activ - ity, they must thoroughly investigate the matter and take action in line with the applicable law. If any action prohibited under the Copyrights Act has been considered a criminal offence under the Copyrights Act or the Maldives Penal Code (Law 9/2014), in addition to civil sanctions per - mitted under the Copyrights Act, the Copyrights Act does not prevent criminal proceedings from being brought against the infringing party under the Maldives Penal Code (Law 9/2014). Criminal sanctions under the Copyrights Act A party taking any action that negatively affects any right protected under the Copyrights Act or takes action knowing that it would result in loss
to the copyright owner is committing an offence, which is punishable by the imposition of a pen - alty between MVR50,000 and MVR 300,000 depending on the gravity of the action. When imposing the penalty, the court must take the loss incurred or that may be suffered by the own - er of the protected right into account. If a party convicted of an offence, repeats the offence, the court has the right to double the penalty for each instance of repetition. 7.5 Others As explained in 7.4 Copyright , software and databases are already protected under the Cop - yrights Act. There are currently no laws in the Maldives that cover other forms of IP. Section 24 of the Constitution of the Maldives states that everyone has the right to have their personal and family life, their home and their pri - vate communications respected. It also states everyone must respect these rights. Apart from this fundamental right enshrined in the Constitu - tion, the Maldives hasn’t enacted general legis - lation on privacy and personal data protection to date. However, please see 9.1 Upcoming Legal Reforms . 8.2 Geographical Scope See 8.1 Applicable Regulations . 8.3 Role and Authority of the Data Protection Agency 8. Data Protection 8.1 Applicable Regulations See 8.1 Applicable Regulations . No legal entity currently has responsibility for data protection regulation.
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