With the continuous development of society and the changes of the world, updating news quickly and accurately is a very important task for agencies under the Ministry of Information and Communications. Therefore, from the perspective of the law in general and the Intellectual Property Law in particular, a question arises: Why is purely news reporting not covered by copyright protection?
1. What is copyright?
Before answering the above question, it must be understood that copyright “is the right of an organization or individual to a work created or owned by them” (Section 4 (2) Intellectual Property Law 2005, edit amended and supplemented in 2009 and 2023, hereinafter referred to as the Law on Intellectual Property). An artwork “is a creative product in the fields of literature, art and science expressed by any means or form” according to Section 4 (7) Intellectual Property Law.
Creativity is understood as that work is created by the author with his intellect and emotions and is expressed in a certain form such as stories, poems, cinematic works… regardless of content, quality, form, means, language, published or unpublished, registered or unregistered, and the State guarantees the individual’s creative freedom within the framework of the law. In addition, the author fully has the right to dispose of his rights obtained from the work and is protected when there is an infringement of copyright by a competent State agency.
2. Grounds for becoming the subject of copyright protection
Copyright is protected when the work is creative (originality) and the form of expression of the work (formality). The originality is expressed in that the work must be the result of one’s own intellectual creation, not copied from another’s work, expressing the author’s own. The formability is expressed by the method of expressing that work in writing, characters, lines, shapes, layout… Therefore, the Intellectual Property Law has regulated the types of works that are protected by rights. authors in Section 14, including:
(1) Literary and scientific works, textbooks, and other works expressed in writing or other characters;
(2) Lectures, speeches and other speeches;
(3) Press works;
(4) Musical works;
(5) Theatrical works;
(6) Cinematographic works and works created by a similar method (hereinafter collectively referred to as cinematographic works);
(7) Works of fine art and applied art;
(8) Photographic works;
(9) Architectural works;
(10) Maps, diagrams, maps, drawings related to topography, architecture, scientific works;
(11) Literary and folk art works;
(12) Computer programs, data collection.
3. Explain why purely news reporting is not covered by copyright protection
Based on Section 19 (1) of Decree No. 22/2018/ND-CP detailing a number of articles and measures to implement the Intellectual Property Law 2005 and the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Intellectual Property Law 2009 about copyright and related rights, “The pure news of news as provided for in Section 15 (1) of the Intellectual Property Law is daily short press information, which is for reporting purposes only. Be creative.”
It can be understood that these are “current” news, which need to be delivered to the public as quickly as possible, just bulletins, figures, reflecting objective facts such as: epidemics, natural disasters. Accidents, events taking place at home and abroad… are collected, synthesized and honestly reflect objective things and events, which are not the expression of creativity, or any distinctive features. that of an individual, or a certain subject. Therefore, purely news reporting is not within the scope of copyright protection, as provided for in Section 15 (1) of the Intellectual Property Law.
Reposting current news will not require written permission, but it is necessary to cite specific sources, both to ensure the accuracy of information, and to show respect for the author. However, if the re-posting of this information is inaccurate compared to the original information, affecting the reputation and causing damage to the author, the author has the right to claim compensation.
During the news reporting process, if any additional feelings, evaluations, comments are added to express their views and thoughts, express their creativity and a different perspective on that current news and can be present in certain physical form or by any means, such news coverage may be protected.
Above is the article ” Why purely news reporting is not covered by copyright protection?”. Hope the article is useful to you.
