Dutch copyright law (called Auteursrecht) grants exclusive rights to the author of a work of literature, science or art. It was originally intended to cover books, but today it applies to many other materials including films, recorded music and visual art.
Auteursrecht includes exclusive publishing rights and allows the author to make and sell copies of their work. It also includes the exclusive right to make products derived from the copyrighted work and to publicly display the work (or to grant permission to do so). This is normally recorded in a license contract between someone who has created a copyrighted work and someone who wishes to use that work. Unlike patents, which grant monopolierecht ("monopoly right") on inventions, copyrights only apply to specific creative manifestations of one or more ideas. Copyrights, however, can be bought and sold.
Generally, the owner of a copy of a copyrighted product can do with the copy as they please, even without actual ownership of the copyright, provided no copies are made and the product is not modified. Those who acquire modified copies from the copyright holder are also bound by these limitations.
There are some limits on what the owner of a copy can do with it. For example, public displays of the creative work are regarded as a form of copying. However, both Dutch and Belgian law allow for citaatrecht (quotation right). This allows the use of portions of a copyrighted work under a strict set of conditions. Quotation rights are more limited and demarcated than the concept of fair use.
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Aside from those mentioned above, there are a few legal differences between auteursrechten and copyrights. One noticeable difference is that auteursrechten grants more rights to employees over intellectual and other property created at work. Artists and musicians (not just the company with distribution rights) are also granted the right of resale, which means they are entitled to a royalty each time a copy of the work is published or exhibited. This is known as naburige rechten (literally "neighboring rights").
Auteursrechten, like the French idea of "droits d'auteur", implies not only legal but also moral rights. An author is theoretically given, in addition to the right of ownership, the right to be recognized for the work rather than being criticized for it. Regardless of whether property rights are allocated to the publisher or to the author, the author retains this moral right.
Historically, governments issued monopolierechten (monopoly-rights) to publishers for the sale of printed work. Great Britain was the first to change this in 1710 with the Statute of Anne, which stated that authors, not publishers, had the right to claim a monopoly on the work. It also entailed protection for buyers of printed work in that publishers were no longer allowed to control the use of sold works. Furthermore, it limited exclusive rights to 28 years, after which the work or works would be released to the public domain.
The Berne Convention in 1886 first settled the recognition of copyrights between sovereign nations. Under the Berne Convention the right of ownership (eigendomsrecht in Dutch) was automatically granted to every creative work. The author no longer needed to register the work, and was not required to apply for copyright coverage.
The Berne Convention is still in effect today. When a work is finished (defined as being written or recorded on a physical medium), the author automatically receives all exclusive rights for that work as well as derivatives, unless and until the author explicitly renounces those rights or the copyright expires. The expiration time differs from country to country, but according to the Berne Convention the minimum time is the lifetime of the author plus 50 years. In the Netherlands the term is 70 years after the death of the author.
Copyright laws differ between countries. However, there are several international treaties concerning copyright, including:
There are also many other treaties that settle specific parts of copyright. Examples are the European Directive on Copyright Protection of Software (Europese Richtlijn op de Auteursrechtelijke Bescherming van Software) and the European Directive on Neighboring Rights (Europese Richtlijn op de Naburige Rechten).
There are many misconceptions about copyright laws in the Netherlands.
In principle all works communicated to the public by or on behalf of the public authorities (government) are not copyright protected in the Netherlands, unless the copyright has been reserved explicitly, either in a general manner by law, decree or ordinance, or in a specific case by a notice on the work itself or at the communication to the public. This is regulated in Article 15b of the Copyright Act of 1912. This implies that programmes of the Netherlands Public Broadcasting service (they are public authorities just like the Silicose Oud-mijnwerkers foundation, see ABRS 30 November 1995, JB 1995/337) are not copyright protected.
In the Netherlands there is no copyright at all on the text of laws and court rulings; these governmental works can be accessed at all times by anyone for any purpose. However, some publishers of legal texts and court rulings do claim copyrights on the form in which they present the texts.
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