Theatrical art is a form of performing arts with a long history. Theater art has been built and developed extremely plentifully in terms of the number of types and works. Exclusively in Vietnam, there are more than 30 types of traditional theater. Each theatrical work expresses the unique creativity of its creators, the result of a long period of collective labor, from developing the script and designing the stage to rehearsal and public performance. Therefore, to protect the achievement of creative people, emphasis must be paid to copyright protection for theater works. To clearly understand the copyright for theatrical works, Vietnam Copyright gives readers the basic content on this issue in the article.
1. Theatrical art and theatrical works
As well as cinematography, theatrical art is a kind of synthetic art. That is, theatre harmonious in its art many other art forms, including but not simultaneously including all forms of literature, music, dance, fine arts, and architecture, … The three basic creative subjects that make up a theatrical work are the playwright, the director, and the performers. The stage conveys the content and ideas of the work to the reader by actions (physical actions, psychological actions, language actions) through the expression (acting) of the performers. In the development journey, theater art has been enriched and perfected through the elements such as modern effects, sound, and lighting, bringing the ability to express impressive works to the public.
From the perspective of intellectual property, theatrical products are one of the types of works protected by copyright under the provisions of Article 14, Clause 1 of the Law on Intellectual Property.
According to Article 11 Clause 1 of Decree 22/2018/ND–CP: “Theatrical works specified at Point dd, Clause 1, Article 14 of the Law on Intellectual Property are works of performing arts, including: Cheo, tuong, cai luong, puppetry, drama, folk drama, body drama, musical, circus, comedy, variety, and other performing arts. “
Subjects considered authors of theatrical works include writers of theatrical scripts, authors of literary works, authors of musical works, stage directors, musical conductors, choreographers, stage designers, costumes, and those who perform other creative work for theatrical works. Particularly for performers, the performer’s right to the work is called the relevant right without being called copyright.
2. Copyright in theatrical works
According to Article 21, Clause 2, Article 29 of the Law on Intellectual Property and Article 11, Article 29 of Decree 22/2018/ND – CP:
Case 1: In case the author is also the copyright owner, the performer is also the owner of the right to the performance, and the author and performer have all moral rights and property rights belonging to the copyright and related rights to the work. The content of rights is specified in Articles 19, 20, and 29 of the Law on Intellectual Property and is clearly stated in the case below.
Case 2: In case the author is not concurrently the copyright owner, the performer is not concurrently the owner of the rights to the performance, the author or performer has the following rights:
- Writers of theatrical scripts are entitled to moral rights under copyright, which are the right to name the work or allow the transferee to transfer the property rights to name the work; the right to have a real name or pseudonym on the work; the right to name a real name or pseudonym when the work is published, use; the right to protect the integrity of the work from misrepresentation by others; Do not allow others to modify or mutilate the work in any way that harms the honor and reputation of the author.
- Other authors of theatrical works, including authors of literary works, authors of musical works, stage directors, musical conductors, choreographers, stage designers, costumes, and those who perform other creative work for theatrical works are entitled to the right to have their real name or pseudonym on the work; be given a real name or pseudonym when the work is published or used.
- Organizations and individuals that make financial investments and material-technical facilities for the construction of theatrical works shall be the owners of the rights to publish the works or allow others to publish the works, the right to make derivative works, the right to perform the works in public, the right to copy the work by any means or form, the right to distribute, or import for distribution to the public the original or the copies in tangible form through sale or other forms of transfer of ownership, broadcasting, communicate to the public the work by wired means, radio, an electronic information network or any other technical means unless otherwise agreed in writing. Such organizations or individuals are obliged to pay royalties and other material benefits (if any) under contracts with theatrical script authors and other authors of theatrical works.
- Organizations and individuals investing in finance and material and technical foundations for the construction of theatrical works may agree with authors of theatrical works on the naming and modification of works.
- When literary works or musical works in theatrical works are used independently, the authors or copyright owners of such literary or musical works shall be entitled to copyright independently of such literary or musical works unless otherwise agreed in writing.
- Performers are entitled to moral rights under related rights, including the right to introduce names when performing, when releasing sound recordings, video recordings, or broadcasting performances; the right to protect the integrity of the performing image from others from misrepresentation; not to allow others to modify or mutilate in any way prejudicial to the honor and reputation of the performers.
- Owners of rights to performances are entitled to property rights under related rights, including the right to fix their live performances on sound or video recordings; to copy their performance fixed on a sound recording, recorded by any means or form; to broadcast, and communicate to the public their unformed performance in a manner that the public can access, that is, entitled to carry out the dissemination of the unformed performance to the public by any technical means other than broadcasting; to distribute the works, to import the works for distribution to the public through sale or other forms of transfer of ownership of the original, the copy of the performance which is fixed in tangible form; to commercial lease to the public the original, copies of his performances were fixed in the recordings, recording, including after distribution by performers or with the permission of performers; to broadcast and communicate to the public a shaping of his performance, including providing the public with a shaping of the performance in a manner accessible to the public at the venue and time of their choosing.
Here is the article “Copyright for theatrical works“. We hope this article was helpful to you.
