Law on Copyright and Related Rights, Free Use of Press Articles and Quotation
Law No. 262-Z of 17 May 2011, arts. 32 and 33, on Copyright and Related Rights (as amended)
A citation is an address, not a summary. The first part names the law; what follows narrows it to the exact section, article or paragraph.
In force since 1 December 2011.
A snippet reproduction rule binding public and private bodies.
As of 6 September 2026.
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Article 32(2) permits reproducing excerpts of a lawfully published work, in the original or in translation, as quotation for research, educational, polemical, critical, or informational purposes, to the extent the purpose justifies.
Article 33(1) separately permits reproducing, in a print outlet, broadcasting, or communicating to the public by another means, a lawfully published newspaper or magazine article on current economic, political, social, or religious affairs, or a work of the same character lawfully broadcast or lawfully placed for public information on the global computer network Internet, unless the author or other rightsholder has specially prohibited such use.
Article 33(2) allows the same for publicly delivered political speeches, addresses, and reports, to the extent justified by an informational purpose, and article 33(3) allows reproducing works seen or heard during a current event, as part of a review of that event, to the same extent.
None of these provisions carries a headline-length or short-extract cap distinct from its own purpose-justified or reservation test, and no reported Belarusian decision applies any of them to a systematic online news aggregator rather than an individual quoting or reprinting a published work.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureYes
Private right of actionYes
Criminal exposure note
Criminal Code art. 201(2): illegal distribution or other illegal use of a copyrighted work, related right, or industrial property object, exceeding what the free-use provisions above permit, committed within a year after an administrative penalty for the same violation or yielding income in a large amount (five hundred or more base units), is punishable by community service, a fine, restriction of freedom for up to three years, or deprivation of freedom for up to two years; art. 201(3) raises this to a fine, arrest, restriction of freedom for up to five years, or deprivation of freedom for the same term where the act is repeated, committed by a group, committed by an official using their position, or causes damage in a large amount.
Statutory damages
Law No. 262-Z art. 56(2) lets a rightsholder elect, instead of proving actual damages, court-determined compensation of one to fifty thousand base units per infringement, including a use exceeding the free-use provisions above, based on the nature of the violation; this is a single court-determined range for the infringement rather than a per-victim amount. per_person_minimum records the floor of that range at the base unit's current value of BYN 45 (Council of Ministers Resolution No. 651 of 20 November 2025, in effect from 1 January 2026, already cited on this jurisdiction's privacy document); the ceiling is fifty thousand base units, BYN 2,250,000 at that rate.
- As of
- 2 September 2026
- Currency
- BYN
- Per person minimum
- 45
When LexLint raises it
aggregates_content