English 
The text of the provisions on the protection of technological measures and technological software protection:
Law 2121/1993, Copyright, Related Rights and Cultural Matters
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Section VII
Special Provisions Concerning Computer Programs and the sui generis right of the database maker
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Article 42
Restrictions
(1) In the absence of an agreement to the contrary, the reproduction, translation, adaptation, arrangement or any other alteration of a computer program shall not require authorization by the author or necessitate payment of a fee, where the said acts are necessary for the use of the program by the lawful acquirer in accordance with its intended purpose, including correction of errors.
(2) Reproduction which is necessary for the purposes of loading, displaying, running, or storage of the computer program shall not fall under the restriction of the previous paragraph and shall be subject to authorization by the author.
(3) The making of a backup copy by a person having a right to use the computer program may not be prevented by contract insofar as it is necessary for the use of the program, and shall not necessitate an authorization by the author or the payment of a fee.
(4) The person having a right to use a copy of a computer program shall be entitled, without the authorization of the author and without payment of a fee, to observe, study or test the functioning of the program in order to determine the ideas and principles which underlie any element of the program, if he does so while performing any of the acts, which he is entitled to do. Any agreement to the contrary shall be prohibited.
(5) Reproduction of a computer program for private use other than in the circumstances specified in paragraphs 3 and 4, above, shall be prohibited.
Article 43
Decompilation
(1) The person having the right to use a copy of a computer program shall be entitled to carry out the acts referred to in Article 42(1) and (2) without the authorization of the author and without the payment of a fee when such acts are indispensable to obtain the information necessary to achieve the interoperability of an independently created computer program with other programs, provided that the information necessary to achieve interoperability has not previously been easily and readily available to the person having the right to use the computer program, and provided that these acts are confined to the parts of the original program which are necessary to achieve the said interoperability.
(2) The provisions of paragraph 1 shall not permit the information obtained through its application:
(a) to be used for goals other than to achieve the interoperability of the independently created computer program;
(b) to be given to others, except when necessary for the interoperability of the independently created computer program; or
(c) to be used for the development, production or marketing of a computer program substantially similar in its expression to the initial program, or for any other act which infringes copyright.
(3) The provisions of this Article may not be interpreted in such a way as to allow its application to be used in a manner which would conflict with a normal exploitation of the computer program or would unreasonably prejudice the author’s legitimate interests.
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Article 45A
Sui generis right of the maker of the database
1. The maker of a database has the right, which shows that there has been qualitatively and/or quantitatively a substantial investment in either the obtaining, verification or presentation of the contents, to prevent extraction and/or re-utilisation of the whole or of a substantial part, evaluated qualitatively and/or quantitatively, of the contents of that database. The maker of a database is the individual or legal entity who takes the initiative and bears the risk of investment. The database contractor is not considered as maker.
2. For the purposes of this article: a) "extraction shall mean the permanent or temporary transfer of all or a substantial part of the contents of a database to another medium by any means or in any form, and b) "re-utilisation" shall mean any form of making available to the public all or a substantial part of the contents of a database by the distribution of copies, by renting, by on-line or other forms of transmission. The first sale of a copy of a database within the Community by the rightholder or with his consent shall exhaust the right to control resale of that copy within the Community.
Public lending is not an act of extraction or re-utilization.
3. The right referred to in paragraph 1 is effective regardless of whether the said database or the content thereof are protected by the provisions on copyright or other provisions. Protection on the basis of the right referred to in paragraph 1 does not prejudice potential rights on their content. The sui generis right of the maker of a database may be transferred with or without consideration and its exploitation may be assigned by licence or contract.
4. The repeated and systematic extraction and/or re-utilisation of immaterial parts of the content of the database are not allowed, if they involve actions opposed to the normal exploitation of the database or unjustifiably prejudice the lawful rights of the maker of the database.
5. The maker of a database made available to the public by any means cannot prevent the lawful utilisation of the database from extracting and/or re-using immaterial parts of its content, being evaluated qualitatively or quantitatively, for any purpose. If the lawful user is entitled to extract and/or re-utilise part only of the database, the present paragraph is applicable only to such part. The lawful user of a database made available to the public by any means cannot: a) perform acts that are opposed to the normal exploitation of such database or unjustifiably prejudice the lawful interests of the maker thereof, b) cause damage to the beneficiaries of the copyright or related rights for works or performances contained in the said database. Any agreements contrary to the arrangements provided for in the present paragraph are null and void.
6. The lawful user of a database made available to the public by any means may, without the permission of the maker of the database, extract and/or re-utilise a material part of its content: a) when the extraction is made for educational or research purposes, provided that the source is quoted, and to the extent that it is justified by the non commercial purpose pursued, b) when the extraction and/or re-utilisation is made for reasons of public safety or for purposes of administrative or judicial procedure. The sui generis right is effective for databases whose makers or beneficiaries are citizens of a member-state or have their usual residence on Community territory. It is also applicable to companies and firms established in accordance with the legislation of a member-state, whose registered offices, central administration or main establishment are located within the Community. When the specific company or firm has only its registered office in the territory of the Community, its operations must be genuinely linked on an ongoing basis with the economy a member-state.
7. The right provided for in this article shall run from the date of completion of the making of the database. It shall expire fifteen (15) years from the first of January of the year following the date of completion. In the case of a database which is made available to the public in whatever manner before expiry of the period provided for above, the term of protection by that right shall expire fifteen years from the first of January of the year following the date when the database was first made available to the public. Any substantial change, evaluated qualitatively and/or quantitatively, to the contents of a database, including any substantial change resulting from the accumulation of successive additions, deletions or alterations, which would result in the database being considered to be a substantial new investment, evaluated qualitatively and/or quantitatively, shall qualify the database resulting from that investment for its own term of protection".
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Section 11: Sanctions
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Article 65
Civil Sanctions
(1) In all cases of infringement of copyright or of related rights the author or right holder shall be entitled to demand the recognition of his right, the suppression of the infringement and the omission of the infringement in the future.
(2) A person who by intent or negligence infringes copyright or a related right of another person shall indemnify that person for the moral damage caused, and be liable for the payment of damages of not less than twice the legally required or normally payable remuneration for the form of exploitation which the infringing party has effected without license.
(3) Instead of seeking damages, and regardless of whether the infringement was committed by intent or negligence, the author or the right holder of the related right may demand either the payment of the sum accrued by the infringing party from the unlicensed exploitation of a work, or of the object of a related right, pursuant to Articles 46 to 48 and 51 of this Law, or the profit gained by the infringing party from such an exploitation.
(4) For each act of omission contributing to an infringement, the court may impose a fine of from 300,000 to 1 million drachmas payable to the author or to the right holder of the related rights referred to Articles 46 to 48 and 51 of this Law and imprisonment of up to one year. The same shall apply when the conviction is effected pursuant to the procedure under the safeguarding measures. All other matters shall be regulated pursuant to Article 947 of the Civil Procedure Code.
(5) The civil sanctions of this article are applied accordingly in the case that the debtor did not pay the remuneration provided for by paragraph (3) of Article 18 hereof to a collecting society.
(6) The civil penalties of this article are also applied in case of infringement of intellectual property of the author of a database and of the sui generis right of the maker of a database.
Article 66
Criminal Sanctions
(1) “Any person who, in contravention of the provisions of this law or of the rovisions of lawfully ratified multilateral international conventions on the protection of copyright, unlawfully makes a fixation of a work or of copies, reproduces them directly or indirectly, temporarily or permanently in any form, in whole or in part, translates, adapts, alters or transforms them, or distributes them to the public by sale or other means, or possesses with the intent of distributing them, rents, performs in public, broadcasts by radio or television or any other means, communicates to the public works or copies by any means, imports copies of a work illegally produced abroad without the consent of the author and, in general, exploits works, reproductions or copies being the object of copyright or acts against the moral right of the author to decide freely on the publication and the presentation of his work to the public without additions or deletions, shall be liable to imprisonment of ot less than one year and to a fine from 2.900-15.000 Euro”.
(2) The sanctions listed above shall be applicable to any person who, in contravention of the provisions of this law, or of the provisions of lawfully ratified multilateral international conventions on the protection of related rights, makes the following actions:
“A) Without the permission of the performers: a) fixes their performance, b) directly or indirectly, temporarily or permanently reproduces by any means and form, in whole or in part, the fixation of their performance c) distributes to the public the fixation of their performance or possesses them with the purpose of distribution, d) rents the fixation of their performance, e) broadcasts by radio and television by any means, the live performance, unless such broadcasting is rebroadcasting of a legitimate broadcasting, f) communicates to the public the live performance made by any means, except radio and television broadcasting, g) makes available to the public, by wire or wireless means, in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, the fixation of their performance”.
“B) Without the permission of phonogram producers (producers of sound recordings): a) directly or indirectly, temporarily or permanently reproduces by any means and form, in whole or in part, their phonograms, b) distributes to the public the above recordings, or possesses them with the purpose of distribution, c) rents the said recordings, d) makes available to the public, by wire or wireless means, in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, their phonograms, e) imports the said recordings produced abroad without their consent”.
“C) Without the permission of producers of audiovisual works (producers of visual or sound and visual recordings) a) directly or indirectly, temporarily or permanently reproduces by any means and form, in whole or in part, the original and the copies of their films, b) distributes to the public the above recordings, including the copies thereof, or possesses them with the purpose of distribution, c) rents the said recordings, d) makes available to the public, by wire or wireless means, in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, the original and the copies of their films e) imports the said recordings produced abroad without their consent f) broadcasts by radio or television by any means including satellite transmission and cable retransmission, as well as the communication to the public
“D) Without the permission of radio and television organisations: a) rebroadcasts their broadcasts by any means, b) presents their broadcasts to the public in places accessible to the public against payment of an entrance fee, c) fixes their broadcasts on sound or sound and visual recordings, regardless of whether the broadcasts are transmitted by wire or by the air, including by cable or satellite d) directly or indirectly, temporarily or permanently reproduces by any means and form, in whole or in part, the fixation of their broadcasts, e) distributes to the public the recordings containing the fixation or their broadcasts, f) rents the recordings containing the fixation of their broadcasts, g) makes available to the public, by wire or wireless means, in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place and at a time individually chosen by them, the fixation of their broadcasts”.
(3) If the financial gain sought or the damage caused by the perpetration of an act listed in paragraphs (1) and (2), above, is particularly great, the sanction shall be not less than two years imprisonment and a fine of from 2 to 10 million drachmas. If the guilty party has perpetrated any of the aforementioned acts by way of standard practice or if the circumstances in connection with the perpetration of the act indicate that the guilty party poses a serious threat to the protection of copyright or related rights, the sanction shall be imprisonment of up to 10 years and a fine of from 5 to 10 million drachmas, together with the withdrawal of the trading license of the undertaking which has served as the vehicle for the act. The act shall be likewise deemed to have been perpetrated by way of standard practice if the guilty party has on a previous occasion been convicted of a contravention pursuant to the provisions of the Article or for a violation of the preceding copyright legislation and sentenced to a non-redeemable period of imprisonment.
“Any infringement of copyright and related rights in the form of felony is tried by the competent Three-member Court of Appeal for Felonies”.
(4) Any person who did not pay the remuneration provided for by Article 18, paragraph (3) hereof to a collecting society is punished with the sanction of paragraph (1), (2) and (3).
The same sentence is imposed on the debtor who, after the issuance of the decision of the one-member first instance court, does not submit the declaration under the provisions of article 18, par. 6, of this law.
(5) The sanctions specified in paragraph (1), above, shall be applicable likewise to any person who:
(a) uses or distributes, or possesses with the intent to distribute, any system or means whose sole purpose is to facilitate the unpermitted removal or neutralization of a technical system used to protect a computer program;
(b) manufactures or imports or distributes, or possesses with intent to distribute, equipment and other materials utilizable for the reproduction of a work which do not conform to the specifications determined pursuant to Article 59 of this Law;
(c) manufactures or imports or distributes, or possesses with intent to distribute, objects which can thwart the efficacy of the above-mentioned specifications, or engages in an act which can have that result;
(d) reproduces or uses a work without utilizing the equipment or without applying the systems specified pursuant to Article 60 of this Law;
(e) distributes, or possesses with intent to distribute, a phonogram or film without the special mark or control label specified pursuant to Article 61 of this Law.
(6) Where a sentence of imprisonment is imposed with the option of redeemability, the sum payable for the redemption shall be 10 times the sum specified as per the case in the Penal Code.
(7) Where mitigating circumstances exist, the fine imposed shall not be less than half of the minimum fine imposable as per the case under this Law.
(8) In all cases of conviction the court may order the publication of an abstract of the verdict at the convicted person’s expense.
(9) Any person who proceeds to authorised temporary or permanent reproduction of the database, translation, adaptation, arrangement and any other alteration of the database, distribution to the public of the database or of copies thereof, communication, display or performance of the database to the public, is punished by imprisonment of at least one (1) year and a fine of one (1) to five (5) million drachmas.
(10) Any person who proceeds to extraction and/or re-utilisation of the whole or of a substantial part of the contents of the database without the authorisation of the author thereof, is punished by imprisonment of at least one (1) year and a fine of one (1) to five (5) million drachmas".
Article 66A
Technological measures
(1) The expression "technological measures" means any technology, device or component that, in the normal course of its operation, is designed to prevent or restrict acts, in respect of works or other subject-matter, which are not authorised by the rightholder of any copyright or any right related to copyright as well as the sui generis right of the data base maker. Technological measures shall be deemed "effective" where the use of a protected work or other subject-matter is controlled by the rightholders through application of an access control or protection process, such as encryption, scrambling or other transformation of the work or other subject-matter or a copy control mechanism, which achieves the protection objective”.
(2) It is prohibited to circumvert, without the permission of the rightholder, any effective technological measure when such act is made in the knowledge or with reasonable grounds to know that he is pursuing that objective.
(3) It is prohibited without the permission of the rightholder, the manufacture, import, distribution, sale, rental, advertisement for sale or rental, or possession for commercial purposes of devices, products or components or the provision of services which: a) are promoted, advertised or marketed for the purpose of circumvention of, or b) have only a limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent, or c) are primarily designed, produced, adapted or performed for the purpose of enabling or facilitating the circumvention of, any effective technological measures”.
(4) The practice of activities in violation of the above provisions is punished by imprisonment of at least one year and a fine of 2.900-15.000 Euro and entails the civil sanctions of article 65 Law 2121/1993. The One-member First Instance Court may order injunction in accordance with the Code of Civil Procedure, the provision of article 64 Law 2121/1993 also being applicable”.
(5) Notwithstanding the legal protection provided for in par. 2 of this article, as it concerns the limitations (exceptions) provided for in Section IV of law 2121/1993, as exists, related to reproduction for private use on paper or any similar medium (article 18), reproduction for teaching purposes (article 21), reproduction by libraries and archives (article 22), reproduction for judicial or administrative purposes (article 24), as well as the use for the benefit of people with disability (article 28A), the rightholders should have the obligation to give to the beneficiaries the measures to ensure the benefit of the exeption to the extent necessary and where that beneficiaries have legal access to the protected work or subject-matter concerned. If the rightholders do not take voluntary measures including agreements between rightholders and third parties benefiting from the exception, the rightholders and third parties benefiting from the exception may request the assistance of one or more mediators selected from the list of mediators drawn up by the Copyright Organization. The mediators make recommendations to the parties. If no party objects within one month from the forwarding of the recommendation, all parties are considered to have accepted the recommendation. Otherwise, the dispute is settled by the Court of Appeal of Athens trying at first and last instance. These provisions shall not apply to works or other subject-matter available to the public on agreed contractual terms in such a way that members of the public may access them from a place an at a time individually chosen by them.
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