Copyright

Obviously, the list is exemplary, therefore in each case the author’s achievements should be analysed individually to determine whether they have the characteristics of a work.

The doctrine points to three prerequisites, which must be cumulatively met in order for a work to gain statutory protection: The work must be:

• The result of human labour

The first premise precludes copyright protection for, inter alia, works of nature or made as a result of automation of a machine process.

• Determinable

The identification of a work consists in making the work visible in such a form that at least one person other than the author can become acquainted with it. The moment the work is established, the protection becomes effective by operation of law.

It is irrelevant whether the establishment is permanent (e.g. a painted picture) or temporary (e.g. light visualizations). It should be emphasized that also an unfinished work, its preliminary stage (e.g. a beta version of software) or even a work which has not been fixed in any way is protected.

• Creativity of individual character.

The individualization of the work of a given author may pose many difficulties. It is not just about the creation and realisation of the author’s ideas, but about capturing the author’s characteristic skills, knowledge and sensitivity. Works should be distinguished by the “stamp of the creator” and a characteristic feature.

Therefore, trivial and routine works are generally not subject to copyright protection (however, it should be emphasised that the line of rulings by the courts on this subject is inconsistent and there is no uniform position as to how “different” the work must be from competing works).

Do you program? Or do you plan advertising campaigns? If you have any doubts as to whether your works may be protected under copyright law, contact a law firm with many years of experience in protecting creators.

Types of copyright

The Act protects creators on two levels:

• author’s moral rights,
• author’s economic rights.

What is the difference between these terms and to what extent can you dispose of the different types of rights?

Author’s moral rights

Moral rights define the author’s relationship with the work, i.e. the non-economic aspect of creation. It is a bond that is unlimited in time and cannot be waived, sold or otherwise transferred to a third party. The emanations of moral rights are:

• authorship of the work,
• authorship of the work,
• marking the work with one’s own name, a pseudonym or making it available anonymously,
• integrity of content and form and fair use,
• deciding when a work is first made available to the public,
• supervise the use of the work.

The doctrine points to even broader rights of the author, among which it is worth mentioning the right to withdraw a work from circulation or the possibility to oppose the destruction of a work which was created in one play only.