Suspension of exclusive rights of authors and the right for a compensation
Introduction
Property rights are transferable by contract or by other legal ground, while moral rights are non transferable belonging only to the author and any attempt to transfer moral rights in any way is legally worthless
Publication of others copyright work without the permission of the author is not allowed and can have legal consequences – it gives the author the right to claim for compensation of material and non material damage which was inflicted by illegal usage of copyright work.
Partial suspension of exclusive rights of author
However, it should be emphasized that these principles of author’s exclusive rights should not be treated in a strict and narrow way having in mind that our legal environment and many other legal systems recognize certain restrictions on author’s exclusivity rights when the publication of copyright work is done in the certain circumstances of the public interest.
For example, publication of copyright work without the permit or any compensation for the author could be multiplied and publicly posted for the purpose of realization of the process in front of the court or other state institution or for the purpose of public security. Also, publication is allowed without the permit or any compensation for the author in case of noncommercial purposes to publicly perform or to present the copyright work in the form of teaching during class time or at school performances (under the condition that teachers/actors do not receive the fee and entrance is not charged), as well as publicly broadcasting of school program via technical equipment within the educational institutions.
The following is allowed in the range of informing by newspapers, radio, TV and other media about current events, to the extent which corresponds to the purpose and way of informing about current event, without permit and compensation for the author:
1/ multiplying of publicized copyright works which appear as part of current event on which the public is being informed
2) Preparation and multiplying of short extracts or summaries from newspapers or similar articles in printed form
3) Multiplying of political, religious and other kind of speeches performed on public events, state and religious institutions or during the state or religious celebrations;
4) Free use of daily information and news which are by nature newspaper report.
Exactly these kinds of conditions provide the opportunity to interested person to use copyright work for the purpose of informing the public about the current event.
However, exclusive author rights are partially suspended and third party could use the copyright work only to the extent to which is needed and in the way that this does not endanger legitimate interests of the author and integrity of the copyright work.
For example, if there is a report about a certain book about which the public has the justified interest to know, it is allowed to quote certain part of the book, by using the quotation marks, emphasizing the author’s name but it is not allowed to transfer or in any way multiply the whole copyright work.
However, if photography is the subject of information, a third party needs to respect the work’s integrity and therefore publish it without cropping or any other changes.
We need to take into account as well that property rights of the author can be suspended in the interest of the public, but not the moral rights of the author like the author’s right to label the name, preservation of works integrity, respectively the extent of the limitation of exclusive rights must not be contrary to normal usage of the work nor must unreasonably insult the legitimate interest of the author.
Publication of newspaper articles
Considering that newspaper articles are by its nature the articles which inform the publicity about the current events, they are the subject to mentioned suspension of property rights of author for a fee, but we have to have in mind other conditions which needs to be considered, for example publication of copyright work to the extent which is needed, emphasizing that the article has been transferred by usage of quotation marks or any other, and announcing the source of information or the name o the author.
However, if the article content is specific and does not represent the direct informing of publicity about current event, but it represents more the artistic or literary form (for example a newspaper column in which the author expresses its own opinion), in that case we first need to assess whether the text fulfills mentioned conditions for suspension of exclusive rights of author.
We can conclude from everything above mentioned that transfer of copyright work is allowed but only in case respecting moral rights and partially property rights of the author.
Dragan Milic, Attorney at law