Intellectual Property Rights

Intellectual Property and Creativity

• Intellectual property protection helps maintain creativity in the interests of authors, performers, producers, consumers, culture, industry, and the public at large.
• Authors and performers need to receive an appropriate reward for their work, and producers need to finance it, which requires adequate legal protection of intellectual property rights.

Personality Theory

• Intellectual creations are linked to the personality of their author, as stated by Friedrich Hegel.
• This theory is reflected in copyright protection, which requires originality of the work, defined as a reflection of the author's personality.
• Moral rights, such as paternity and integrity rights, are also connected to the personality theory.

Derivative Works

• Derivative works are based on other works, building upon expressive elements (internal or external form) taken from the original work.
• Derivative works cannot be commercially exploited without consent from the rightsholder of the original work.
• Derivation is different from mere inspiration, where a work builds upon ideas and non-protected elements from another work.

Originality

• Copyright protection is granted only for original or creative works.
• Originality is defined as the author's own intellectual creation, reflecting their personality.
• According to the Directive 2009/24/EC (Software), a computer program is protected if it is original in the sense that it is the author's own intellectual creation.

Fixation

• In common law countries, a work must be fixed in a tangible medium of expression to be protected by copyright.
• Fixation is not required in civil law countries.

Human Intelligence vs. Artificial Intelligence

• Artificial Intelligence is defined as a stochastic (unpredictable) parrot, requiring data and large assets to be trained.
• Software intelligence, on the other hand, has a process that can be known and is predictable.
• Creation is associated with human intelligence, while generation is associated with Artificial Intelligence.

Linking

• According to the CJEU, linking to protected works freely available on another website does not constitute an "act of communication to the public".
• However, linking to illegal sources without financial gain and without knowledge of the illegal nature of the publication is not considered a communication to the public.

Impact of Intellectual Property on Cultural Products

• The impact of copyright on cultural production affects books, periodicals, visual arts, music, films, and broadcasts.
• Relevant aspects of copyright law that reinforce the market power of media and entertainment corporations include alienability, duration, horizontal and vertical expansion, and weakening of fair dealing/fair use.

Protection of Traditional Knowledge and Cultural Expressions

• Intellectual property rights must be distinguished from community rights, which protect traditional knowledge and cultural expressions.
• Patent law and breach of confidence are related to traditional knowledge, with issues surrounding invention, novelty, and industrial application.