Copyright Law: Literary and Artistic Works

Literary and Artistic Works

• "Literary and artistic works" include every production in the literary, scientific, and artistic domain, such as books, lectures, dramatic works, musical compositions, cinematographic works, and works of drawing, painting, architecture, and photography.
• This definition is fairly flexible and includes computer programs and databases.
• The idea/expression dichotomy means that ideas are not protected, but expressions are.

Scope of Copyright Protection

• According to the WIPO Copyright Treaty, copyright protection extends to expressions, not to ideas, procedures, methods of operation, or mathematical concepts.
• Ideas, contents, style, historical facts, news, principles, and schemes are not protected by copyright.
• However, if an idea is sufficiently elaborated, it can be protected by copyright (e.g., the format of a TV show).

Originality and Minimum Amount of Work Protected

• The originality of a work has nothing to do with merit or purpose.
• An original work is protected as a whole and in part, if each part is per se original.
• According to the CJEU (case C-5/08, Infopaq), storing an extract of a protected work comprising 11 words and printing out that extract is prohibited if the elements thus reproduced are the expression of the intellectual creation of their author.

Authorship

• The author is the person who creates the work, making "free and creative" choices in its realization.
• The author is not the one who contributes to the realization of the work without playing an essential role in the creation of the expressive form of the work (e.g., the one who suggests the underlying idea).
• The author of the work is presumed to be the one whose name appears on the work.

Absence of Formalities and Presumption of Authorship

• Copyright is acquired by the mere act of creation, and no registration, publication, or other formality is required.
• The author's name appearing on the work is sufficient to presume authorship.

Role of Copyright Notices

• Copyright notices usually have the form: © [Rightsholder] [Year/s].
• Copyright notices are not required for copyright protection.

Works Created by Multiple Authors and Employees

• Collective works are created through the creative contribution of multiple authors, such as periodical issues, anthologies, or encyclopedias.
• In a collective work, there are multiple contributors of separate and independent works, and the author(s) of the work as a whole.
• The originality of a collective work lies in the selection or arrangement of its contents.

Moral Rights

• Moral rights are separate from economic rights and include the right to claim authorship and to object to any distortion, mutilation, or modification of the work.
• Moral rights last at least until the expiry of the economic rights and are exercisable by the persons or institutions authorized by the legislation of the country where protection is claimed.
• In the EU, moral rights normally last forever, cannot be waived, and cannot be transferred.

Economic Rights

• Economic rights can be transferred by contract, waived, and have a limited duration.
• The duration of economic rights is set by the Berne Convention and varies depending on the country.

Linking and Communication to the Public

• The provision of clickable links to works freely available on another website does not constitute an "act of communication to the public" (CJEU, case C-466/12, Svensson).
• The making of works available through the retransmission of a terrestrial television broadcast over the internet uses a specific technical means different from the original communication and requires authorization (CJEU, case C-607/11, ITV Broadcasting).
• Linking to protected works on a website without the consent of the copyright holder may constitute a "communication to the public" if the linker knew or could reasonably have known the illegal nature of the publication (CJEU, case C-160/15, GS Media).
• The sale of a multimedia player with pre-installed add-ons containing hyperlinks to websites with copyright-protected works made available without consent may also constitute a "communication to the public" (CJEU, case C-527/15, Filmspeler).

This quiz covers the definition of literary and artistic works according to Article 2(1) of the copyright law. It includes various forms of expression such as books, lectures, musical compositions, and cinematographic works.