Directives and regulations in the field of copyright and related rights in the system of EU acquis

The article examines the peculiarities of directives and regulations and their impact on copyright and related rights in the EU. It was found that regulations are notsubject to incorporation into the national legislation of the Member States, ratification,or approval in any other way. A regulation’s entry into force gives rise to its legal force and mandatory effect simultaneously in all Member States for all subjects of the relevant legal relations, i.e., a regulation becomes part of the national legislation of theMember States. Unlike a regulation, a directive does not directly affect the subjects of the relevant legal relations. Each Member State to which the directive is addressed should provide for the legal means to achieve the purpose of the directive, but has discretion as to which means it will be implemented. This obligation of the Member States is defined by the term ’’transposition’’ that covers three stages: 1) development of relevant national rules; 2) adoption of an act containing these rules; 3) implementation of the adopted rules. The specificity of this process is that Member States are not required to reproduce the provisions of the directive literally, and the dispositive provisions of the directive may or may not be included in national legislation at the discretion of Member States. This lays the ground for individuality in national legislation and, as a result, differences between them.The provisions on the legal protection of works and related objects, ways of their use, and exceptions to economic rights at the EU level are established exclusively by directives. The directives are based on international treaties and develop and supplementthem, taking into account the trends in the development of society and the needs of the internal market. The role of regulations in the legal framework of relations arising from copyright and related rights is auxiliary, and therefore, this area at the EU level is one of those harmonized by directives. Given the peculiarities of transposition of directives, even harmonized provisions of national legislation have certain differences. Therefore, copyright and related rights in the EU remain national and are only harmonized to a certain extent.