The Ombudsmans Petition to the Constitutional Court concerning the Revocation of Royalty of Convicted People - AJBH-EN
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null The Ombudsmans Petition to the Constitutional Court concerning the Revocation of Royalty of Convicted People
The Ombudsman's Petition to the Constitutional Court concerning the Revocation of Royalty of Convicted People
AJB-8476/2012.
The Ombudsman's Petition to the Constitutional Court concerning the Revocation of Royalty of Convicted People
The receipt of royalty by a convict is prohibited by a legal provision if the convict's work is related to the crime committed by him or her. The Commissioner for Fundamental Rights asked the Constitutional Court to annul the provision in its present form.
Máté Szabó stressed in his petition that the objective of the legislator to prevent the convicts from gaining economic advantage from their crime by interview or their other works under copyright serves the enforcement of public moral and this way it is in compliance with the requirement of the rule of law. Consequently, the ombudsman did not find it contrary to the Basic Law that no remuneration can be given for an interview.
However, according to the Commissioner for Fundamental Rights, the revocation of royalty to be received for his or her work is considered to be disproportionate. Namely, the restriction applies extremely broadly, moreover, with a content that may not be established exactly: ranging from books through documentary films to photography, it includes all intellectual creations which have something to do with the convict or his or her crime. It does not make a distinction on the basis of the content. It does not consider that the convict may also express regret or provide useful information for science in these works or that in his or her work his or her crime may even play a marginal role, just mentioning it. It is not obvious, either, if the convict may be entitled to a share of the profit in case he or she writes a half fiction work using his or her own experience and if the legislation shall apply to works of fact-finding nature.
The ombudsman remarked that beyond the protection of public moral, as a legitimate reason the compensation of the victim could appear, too, the legislator, however, provided that rather the state is entitled to the royalty.