Today, thanks to access to artificial intelligence, people can significantly speed up and streamline their work. Moreover, AI’s existence greatly facilitates work in fields where a person may lack knowledge or has only a very narrow understanding. Nowadays, anyone who inputs the right command into an AI program can generate texts, sounds, videos, or graphics. Whereas in the past, this required the professions of copywriters, film editors, or graphic designers, today their role is not as crucial. However, a question arises—who owns a work generated by AI? Is a text written by an advanced language model the intellectual property of the person who provided the prompt?
The Monkey Selfie
To explore this issue further, one should refer to the case of the famous “monkey selfie”, where similarities can be observed regarding authorship and intellectual property in situations where the traditional creator is not clearly defined. The “monkey selfie” case involved a photo taken by the macaque monkey Naruto, who accidentally pressed the shutter button of photographer David Slater’s camera. The photo quickly became popular online, and the issue of its copyright sparked a heated legal debate. Ultimately, the court ruled that copyright did not belong to the monkey, as animals cannot be subjects of copyright law, nor directly to the photographer, who was not the creator of the actual photo despite providing the equipment.
The contemporary market of antique auctions is developing dynamically, which is influenced by online platforms, the growth of collecting and the development of the art market. Online auctions attract collectors and investors, but they also raise legal and tax problems related to the interpretation of VAT and the protection of copyright. Various items – from books to letters and manuscripts – are subject to different regulations, which introduces inconsistency in taxation, e.g. book publications have reduced VAT, and historical documents are taxed differently, which creates difficulties for auctioneers and buyers.
Another problem is fees, such as the hammer fee, added to the price and including VAT, while the lack of consistent rules for its calculation complicates the process. Speculative auctions are also a specific issue, which can lead to tax abuse. The aim of the analysis is to discuss key legal and tax issues on the antique auction market, indicate differences in taxation and challenges related to the hammer fee and speculative auctions, and also propose unification of regulations for greater transparency and consistency of regulations.
Poland, according to current data, is one of the fastest growing economies in Central and Eastern Europe. For years, it has attracted the attention of investors from all over the world. Its strategic geographical location, as well as membership in the European Union and the dynamically developing internal market make it an attractive place to invest your capital. However, the success of the investment depends not only on macroeconomic factors, but also on the legal and tax framework, which is the foundation for conducting business activity.
The aim of this article is to analyse the attractiveness of investing in Poland from a legal and tax perspective. It will discuss key legal aspects, such as the stability of the legal system and investor protection, as well as the tax system, including income taxes and available reliefs and incentives. Particular attention is also paid to the role of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) and the advantages that Poland offers compared to other countries.
When it comes to online sale, some sellers do not allow personal collection of goods. Instead, the consumer is forced to use the services of a courier.
To understand the meaning of such a requirement, it is necessary to look at the definition of a distance selling contract in individual legal acts.
General legal nature of sales
Contracts in the law of obligations can be divided into two types – named and unnamed contracts. Named contracts are contracts that have been listed in the specific part of the code. These contracts are dominant in private law relations. Therefore, the legislator decided to include special provisions concerning them in the code, in order to better ensure the protection of the interests of the party and the security of trade. Unnamed contracts, on the other hand, are those that have not been listed in the specific part of the Civil Code, so they will depend only on the general principles of obligations and, above all, the will of the parties.
Poland is a country that can boast a rich history and culture, and in the world we stand out above all for two works of art that are considered to be museum objects of the “zero” class. The first is the Gothic Veit Stoss Altar in the St. Mary’s Church in Kraków, and the second is the Renaissance portrait of Leonardo da Vinci “Lady with an Ermine”. These works, although created at a similar time, constitute two different faces of art – sacred and secular – and at the same time symbols of Polish cultural heritage. My presentation today will be devoted to the exceptional Czartoryski collection which this painting is a part of. I would like to draw particular attention to the specific legal situation of this art collection, which for decades has stirred controversy both in Poland and abroad.
