Blog is a complex of various works and consists of a large number of intellectual property objects such as texts, photographs, illustrations, infographics, video messages, video lessons, databases, literary works and so on. As a rule, a blog is posted in online magazines, on websites, on pages on the Internet, and can be published through special blog platforms (WordPress, Yandex.Zen, etc.) or social networks (VKontakte, YouTube, Telegram, etc.)where the author can share his content with subscribers
A blogger can be called any person who disseminates publicly available information on the Internet and has a stable audience.
Its legal status is regulated by the Federal Law of July 27, 2006 N 149-FZ (as amended on December 12, 2023) “On information, information technologies and information protection”: “this is the owner of the site and (or) site page on the Internet, which contains publicly available information and access, to which more than three thousand Internet users per day.” If since 2014 bloggers were required to register their blog as a mass media outlet, then since 2017 they have done this on a voluntary basis.
It should be noted that all information placed by a blogger on his page/site and created by independent creative work is an object of intellectual property and is protected by copyright in accordance with the provisions of Part IV of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
However, in addition to objects of copyright, such an object of related rights as performance is no less relevant (Article 1304 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), since a blogger, when submitting his material, can attract subscribers not only with the content of the content, but also with his creativity and artistry when submitting it, and therefore he can be assigned the status of a performer (Article 1313 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). It must be remembered that a performance can be protected as an object of related rights only if it is expressed in a form that can be reproduced and distributed using technical means.
That is, the author’s content of a blogger should be understood as the result of his intellectual activity, created by independent creative work, and therefore being his intellectual property. In this case, the blogger becomes its legal copyright holder. However, not all information published on a blog may be protected by copyright. For example, objects of copyright do not include informational messages, works of folk art, objects of state and municipal symbols or official documents, etc.
If the author of a blog is in a professional relationship with a company, they are not the legal owner of the content, since working with it is part of their professional activity, performed during working hours. For this reason, the content created by him should be considered as an official result of intellectual activity (RIA), and the exclusive rights to it belong to the employer, since the work was performed within the framework of official relations and is an official work (Article 1295 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) or a performance created as part of an official assignment (Article 1320 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation). The author of the blog has the right only to remuneration (clause 2 of Article 1295 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Article 1320 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation) and cannot use the content for commercial purposes, since he owns only the personal non-property rights of the author (for example, the right of authorship and the right to a name), which are inalienable and non-transferable.
If the content is not official RIA, then the exclusive right remains with the author of the blog and he has the right to use it at his own discretion, and his employer receives the right to use the content only under the terms of a simple (non-exclusive) license, paying him a remuneration, the amount, conditions and procedure of which are determined by the agreement signed between them, and in the event of a dispute - by the court (clause 3 of Article 1295 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation).
It should be recalled that despite the fact that, according to the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, copyrights to the content automatically belong to the blogger and third parties cannot use this material without his permission, cases of violations can still often be observed. Proving your authorship when controversial situations arise is quite difficult, and collecting evidence can take a long time. Therefore, in order to avoid such situations, it is important to use all protection mechanisms in advance.
