Who is protected?

Different groups of property owners can be protected in accordance with the Copyright Act as a consequence of the creation of an original work. The typical property owners are creating and practicing artists within the areas of literature, music, art, architecture, industrial design, photography, journalism, theater and film work as well as computer programs and software.

There can be one or more originators behind the creation of a work, and a copyright may even be transferred partly or in full to a third party. With regard to the last opportunity two exceptions apply; the ideal right of the originator "droit moral" and the resale proceeds "droit de suite", which are both personal and non-transferable. With regard to the ideal right of the originator it means that the originator has a right to be named in accordance with good practice, which is also known as the paternity right, and the originator has a right to oppose any making available the work to the public which may be considered infringing and thus involve a risk of a deterioration of the value of the work and the reputation of the originator. This is also known as the right of integrity. With regard to resale proceeds this means that the originator has a right to remuneration of a certain percentage of the sales price when a reproduction of the work in question is sold for commercial purposes.