Copyright and related rights are important components of the legal system governing intellectual property. Copyright and related rights play a key role in protecting the interests of creators, performers and other participants in the creative process. Although the concepts of copyright and related rights are interrelated, they relate to different aspects of creative activity and have their own specific features.
Copyright is aimed at protecting original works created by authors, giving them the opportunity to control the use of their works and receive fair remuneration for their work. This provides motivation for the creation of new works, contributing to the development of culture, science and education.
Related rights, in turn, focus on protecting the rights of those who are not the direct authors of works but play an important role in their popularization and distribution.
Copyright
Copyright protects original creative works such as literary works, music, visual arts, cinematographic works, software, etc. The main purpose of copyright is to protect the author’s rights to the work and to ensure remuneration for the author’s creative work. Copyright grants the author the exclusive right to use, distribute, reproduce and modify the work.
The main components of the concept of copyright:
- Ways to use the work:
– The right of reproduction: The author has the right to decide who can copy or reproduce his or her work
– The right to distribute: The author has the right to control the sale, distribution, leasing or lending of his or her work
– The right of public performance and display: The author has the right to authorize or prohibit the public performance and display of his or her work
– The right to create derivative works: The author has the right to authorize or prohibit the creation of new works based on his or her original work
– as well as other ways.
- The term of validity of economic copyright: Proprietary copyright is valid for the life of the author, as well as 70 years after his death. After this period, the work becomes public domain and can be used without obtaining permission and payment of remuneration to the author and his descendants.
- Objects of copyright: These are the results of creative activity that can be expressed in any objective form. They include literary works, music, paintings, movies, photographs, software and other types of creative works.
Related rights
Related rights are the rights belonging to performers, phonogram and videogram producers, broadcasting organizations and other persons who create or distribute copyrighted works but are not their direct authors.
If a musician records a song in a studio, the author of the song (composer) owns the copyright to the musical work, but the musician who performs the song owns related performance rights as a performer. A recording studio that records and releases an album also has related rights as a phonogram producer.
The main components of the concept of related rights are:
- Performers’ rights: Performers, such as actors, singers, musicians, have the right to protect their performances. Performers can control the recording, broadcasting and distribution of their performances.
- Rights of phonogram/videogram producers: Producers of phonograms/videograms have the right to protect their sound recordings/video recordings. Producers can control the reproduction, distribution and public performance of recorded phonograms/video recordings
- Rights of broadcasting organizations: Broadcasting organizations have the right to control the broadcasting of their programs, as well as to prohibit the use of their signals without their permission
- Term of validity of related rights: The term of related rights is shorter than that of copyright. The rights of performers and phonogram producers are valid for 50 years from the date of the first performance or recording
- Objects of related rights:
– Performances: Results of creative activity of performers, in particular, speeches, musical performances, theatrical productions
– Videogram – A videogram is any recording of a series of interconnected images (sound or silent) that can be seen by playing back with the help of an appropriate technical means
– Phonograms: Sound recordings of performances or other sound works
– Broadcasting organizations: Television and radio programs produced by broadcasting organizations.
Differences between copyright and related rights
- Copyright protects original works and their authors, while related rights protect the interpretation, recording and distribution of these works by others.
- Copyright belongs to the authors of works, while related rights belong to performers, phonogram/videogram producers and broadcasting organizations.
- The duration of protection of economic copyright is longer than that of related rights. Proprietary copyright is valid for the life of the author and 70 years after his death, while related rights expire 50 years after the performance, production of a phonogram or videogram and from the first broadcast of the broadcasting organization’s program.
Thus, copyright and related rights are two important aspects of intellectual property protection. Copyright covers the protection of original works, such as literary, musical and artistic works, providing authors with the exclusive right to use their work. Related rights, on the other hand, protect the interests of those involved in the distribution and performance of these works, such as performers, record producers, and broadcasting organizations. The main difference is that copyright protects the works themselves, while related rights protect their reproduction and distribution.
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