During the creative process, each work is associated with the legitimate rights of the author and copyright owner. Intellectual property law stipulates a certain period of time for the author or owner to have the exclusive right to exploit the value of his work. So, when the protection period expires, will the work become public property? The following article from VCD will help you.
1. Duration of copyright protection
Copyright for works includes personal rights and property rights. Each group of rights has a different protection period, in which some rights are protected by law indefinitely, while others are only protected for a certain period of time.
Pursuant to Clause 1, Article 27 of the Law on Intellectual Property, the term of protection of personal rights is determined as follows: personal rights associated with the author will be protected by law indefinitely, including: (i) the right to name the work; (ii) the right to have the real name or pen name on the work; (iii) the right to have the real name or pen name stated when the work is published or used; (iv) the right to protect the integrity of the work, not allowing others to edit, cut or distort the work in any form that harms the honor and reputation of the author. Particularly for the right to publish the work or allow others to publish the work, the term of protection will correspond to the term of protection of property rights.
Regarding property rights, pursuant to Clause 2, Article 27 of the Law on Intellectual Property, the term of protection is specifically stipulated as follows: (i) for cinematographic, photographic, theatrical, applied art and anonymous works: 75 years from the date of first publication; (ii) in case the above types of works have not been published within 25 years from the date of their formation, the term of protection shall be 100 years from the date of their formation; (iii) for other types of works not falling under the above cases, the term of protection shall be the lifetime of the author and 50 years following the year of the author’s death; if there are co-authors, the term of protection shall end in the 50th year following the year of the death of the last co-author.
In addition, the Law on Intellectual Property also clearly stipulates that the term of copyright protection shall end at 24:00 on December 31 of the year in which the term of protection ends. This is to ensure consistency, transparency and convenience in determining the time of copyright termination for a work.
2. When the protection period expires, will the work become public property?
According to Article 43 of the current Intellectual Property Law, a work whose protection period has expired as prescribed in Article 27 of the current Intellectual Property Law belongs to the public.
Based on this provision and the copyright term analyzed above, it can be seen that the work belongs to the public when the protection period expires. In particular, the concept of “protection term” here is understood as the term of protection of the right to publish the work and the property rights associated with the work. As for personal rights, except for the right to publish the work, they are protected indefinitely, because these rights are associated with the honor, reputation and name of the author. Therefore, the protection term is only set for property rights as well as the right to publish the work.
From the above provisions, it can be determined that the work will belong to the public in the following specific cases:
- For cinematographic, photographic, applied art and anonymous works, after 70 years from the date of first publication, the property rights will expire, and the work will belong to the public.
- For cinematographic, photographic, applied art works that have not been published within 25 years from the date of fixation, the term of protection is 100 years from the date of fixation. After this term, the work will become the common property of the public.
- For other types of works not falling under the above cases, the term of property rights protection is determined to be the lifetime of the author and the next 50 years after the year of the author’s death. If the work has co-authors, this term will end in the 50th year after the death of the last co-author. When the protection period expires, the work will also belong to the public.
The above regulation on the protection period ensures the harmony of interests between the author, copyright owner and the common interests of society. During the protection period, the author and copyright owner have the exclusive right to exploit and use the work to gain legitimate profits from their creative efforts. After this period expires, the work becomes a common heritage, creating conditions for society to freely access, use and create based on the established cultural, scientific and artistic values.
Above is the article ” After the protection period expires, will the work become public property? ” that VCD sends to you. We hope this article is useful to you.
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