ऑडियोविजुअल लेखक अंतरराष्ट्रीय परिसंघ

In the legal terminology, the expression “author’s right” is used to describe the rights of the creators about their literary and artistic works. The works include: books, music, paintings, sculptures and movies. Also, the computing programs, data basis, advertisements, maps and technical drawings.

The legislation cannot contain an exhaustive list of the works the author’s right protect but, in general terms, among the works that are protected by the author’s right worldwide, we have the following:

• Literary works like novels, poems, escenic representations, reference works, press articles;

• computing works and data basis;

• movies, musical compositions and choreographies;

• artistic works such as pictures, drawings, photografies and sculptures;

• architecture; and

• announcements, maps and technical drawings.

The protection of the author’s right covers the expressions but not the ideas, proceedings, operation methods of mathematical concepts themselves. The author’s right may protect, or not, elements such as titles, slogans or logotypes, depending whether the authorship of the work is enough or not.

The author’s right covers two types of rights:

• the patrimonial rights, which allow the owner of the rights to get financial compensation for the use of their works by third parties; and

• the moral rights, which protect the non patrimonial interests of the author.

In most of the cases, in the legislation of the author’s right, it is established that the owner of the rights has the patrimonial right to authorize or to prohibit certain uses of their work or, in some cases, to receive a compensation for the use if it (for instance, through a collective management?). The owner of the patrimonial rights of a work can prohibit or authorize:

the reproduction of his work in different ways, like the printed publication or the resounding recording;

• the public interpretation or execution, for example, in one dramatic or musical work;

• the recording of a work, for example, as compact disks or DVD;

• the broadcasting of the work through radio, TV or satellite;

• the translation of the work into other languages; and

• the adaptation of the work, like the case of a novel adapted for a script.

Among the examples of the moral rights that are universally recognized, are the right to claim the authorship of the work and the right to be against the modification of the work that could be detrimental to the reputation of the creator.

By collective management, it is understood the exercise of the author’s right and the related rights through organizations that act on the rights’ owners’ behalf to work for their interests.

For instance, a dramastic can authorize their work to be on the scene under certain previously set conditions, or a musician can authorize the recording of their work in a compact disk.

But it would be impossible for the dramastic, the musicians, and the screenwriters and directors of the audiovisual work to contact every theater, radio station, TV channel or TTOs platform - which transmits via Internet - that wanted to use the work to negotiate license agreements through which that use is authorized, or, in the case of the audiovisual works, it would be impossible to create agreements for the payment of the author’s right in those countries.

Here is where the collective rights and the collective management organizations intervene.

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In most of the countries, according to the Berne Convention, the protection of the author’s right is obtained automatically without the necessity of registration or other limits.

However, in most of the countries, there exists a registration system and a deposit of works; this system makes it easier when clarifying controversies related to the ownership or creation, financial transactions, sales and transfers of right.

What is it understood by “work”?

In the context of the author’s right, the word “work” is used to refer to a wide range of intellectual creations, from the novels to the architectonic works, going through the computing programs, etc.

Years ago, there were countries with a legislation that set that the owner of the author’s right had to comply with certain formalities to receive protection through the author’s right. One of those formalities was to include an indication of the author’s right, the symbol ©. Nowadays, a few countries set formalities when talking about the author’s right and, thus, the use of this type of symbols has stopped to be a legal requirement. Anyway, many owners of author’s rights keep on including it as a very visible way of highlighting that the work is protected by an author’s right and that all the rights are reserved, different from a less restrictive license.

The patrimonial rights have a specific duration which may be different according to the national legislation. In the States that are part of the Berne Convention, the minimum period is 50 years counted from the death of the work’s creator. In some legislations, there are longer periods of protection.