From the Ministry of Justice

The Kluwer Copyright blog has published a “Third take on the Hungarian implementation of of Article 5 of the DSM directive” which feels a bit like a response to my earlier observations on the topic. This “third take” is authored by David Ujhelyi, the head of department at the Ministry of Justice, i.e one of the drafters of the law.

In response to my criticism of the procedure that lead to the introduction of the new exception, Ujhelyi makes an effort to stress the legal basis of the new law and its necessity in light of the pandemic. Reading the post it is fascinating to realize that that if one completely removes the political context (the quasi-authoritarian rule established by Orban) the actions of the Hungarian givernement are a perfectly rational response by a government responding to the pandemic.