5 - Copyright transfers and authorial rights

Summary

Introduction

The regime of copyright contracts is one of enormous tensions between the interests of authors and producers in Europe, as evidenced by the discussions surrounding the introduction in the EC Rental Directive of a ‘right to equitable remuneration’ in favour of authors and performers for the rental of films and sound recordings. The interests at stake are enormous and may affect the exploitation of film works far more than the more publicised, but less litigated, question of moral rights. In this respect, EU Member States have adopted very different approaches and solutions, which are sometime presented as irreconcilable. These differences can be explained by philosophical and historical preferences, by the weight given in each legal system to the principle of freedom of contract or to other, conflicting principles, but also by the successful lobbying by pressure groups (representing authors or rights owners, as the case may be). The relative absence of provisions on copyright transfers in the relevant international agreements does nothing to harmonise national solutions.

Here too, the line should be drawn between the copyright systems of the UK and Ireland, on the one hand, and continental legislation, on the other hand (although authors' rights systems are more diverse in this respect than is usually assumed by copyright lawyers). In copyright countries the matter of copyright contracts is left to a large extent to the operation of standard contract law rules.