Auteursrecht, gebruikersrecht en licenties

This article is about copyright and publishing work under license, among other things. If you have created something then of course you want to show your work to the public. This puts it in the public domain. This does not mean that anyone can simply make a copy of your work or edit it without your permission. Conversely, as a venue or stage you can expect to pay a fee when you use other people's work. Copyright law goes pretty deep, but at the same time it is easy to summarize.

What is copyright?

Copyright, like patent law, trademark law and neighboring rights, is a part of intellectual property law. Anything that is made by a human being and has a particular form, personal stamp or original character can be covered by copyright. Copyright can be divided into a moral part and a material part:

• The personality right is the moral right. It protects the personal, trustworthy nature of the work.
• The exploitation right refers to the substantive right. It refers to the right you have as the creator to disclose, copy, edit or put into another form a work. Someone else can only do this with your permission.

Tracking law

Intellectual property law is an umbrella term that includes copyright, design right, trademark and patent. The resale right refers to the right of creators of original graphic or visual works of art to a percentage of the price when their work is resold.

Neighboring rights act: for performing musicians and producers

According to this law, every creator of music is entitled to reasonable compensation when their music is performed. It deals with the performance of the music and so this is important to both the performing musician and the producer. Neighboring rights also include the master right which deals with the rights of the specific recording of a piece of music. The master right also deals with the inclusion of your music in an advertisement, movie or TV series, for example.

How do you register a work?

When you create something then you automatically have copyright over this work. Sometimes it may still be necessary to prove it, for example when you are accused of plagiarism. This is why it can be useful to register the work through a deed at the notary or through online channels. It is also already a good step to send the work to yourself by registered mail and leave the envelope sealed. If you create or design something in an employment context, it is important that you have good agreements with your employer about copyright. This is because it automatically belongs to the employer. You can copyright works that have an original character or are sensory perceptible. So an idea can only be copyrighted once it has been put on paper; however, it does not have to have reached its final form yet. Copyright already applies to sketch designs.

Transfer or license

You can transfer copyright, or take it from someone else. That's quite a hassle, and besides, it's often not to the creator's advantage. It is better to choose to have work licensed out. That means that people can use it for a certain period or under certain conditions. There is a fee in return. You can draw up your own agreement for this and extend it if you wish, if that is convenient.

Creative Commons

Check out the Creative Commons website. Here you can easily add a license to your work and share it with others. They can then use it for a fee or by including attribution, for example.

Generating income with music

If you have created a work, it is nice to be able to generate income to finance it. You can attach a condition to your copyright, such as mentioning your name or paying a fee. You can get that income, for example, if you license the work or if it is collected by an organization that exploits copyright.

Who gets what?

The amount you can charge for that depends on the work you've done and how it came about. For example, look at everyone's role in the whole thing. Did you do everything by yourself or are there several band members? Are you the producer yourself or is someone doing it for you? Have you made arrangements with a label or publisher? Either way, make sure you always make good arrangements and put them on paper and if you get a contract it is important to read it carefully. Put it in writing because a verbal agreement is not verifiable.

What do you receive per channel?

There are numerous ways a work can be distributed, especially in this day and age with an awful lot of different media. Different rates apply through all channels. Below are some examples.

Streaming

A lot of music is being streamed these days. A party like BUMA/STEMRA has licensing agreements with Spotify, YouTube, ITunes and online radio stations. Each time your work is used, you receive a small fee and that organization settles with you.

Radio and television

For radio and television, you get a fee per second it is played. This can be collected by an organization that exploits copyright. The amounts per second vary by broadcaster.

Video clips

When a music video is shown on television you can receive compensation for both the song (if you wrote it) and for "performing" in the clip.

Performance

When you perform, the compensation you receive(via BUMA/STEMRA) depends on many factors. These include your fee, the number of visitors and the entrance fee.

Honoraria for artists

The above relates very much to the music industry. Within the art industry, there are many types of professions, all of which may charge different amounts. You can read more about artists' fees on this website.

Copyright and film: the producer's copyright position is strong

We treat this separately here because it is a legal exception to copyright law. With movies, the creator or creator transfers his rights to the producer. This is so because otherwise a single creator could stop an entire production, even if 100 people were working on it. It is possible to deviate from this but it hardly ever happens. This makes the producer the one who can release the film. Of course, it is up to the products to offer compensation to those who made the film. This is established by contract. By the way, you are only officially a producer when you arrange the necessary financing for the film, are liable and have brought the creators together. By the way, anyone who has made something that can be distributed separately from the film (such as the music or screenplay) can share it with others. If you mutually agree otherwise then that can be included in the agreement.

Exploitation of copyright by organizations

We described in another article a lot of organizations that can exploit copyright for you. So they make sure there is a remittance when people use your work. Those parties have different terms and conditions. Look at those carefully and determine what your legal position is. Then you can easily weigh the pros and cons for joining.

Test your knowledge

We found a few more tests through professionartist.com that will help you check if you know enough about copyright law.

• Fine art
• Design
• Music
• Music on the Internet
  

Interesting links

We have a few more links for you to get more information. Platform Makers has launched a website, and put two videos and a booklet online. This has to do with the value of copyright. These are the videos:

• Value of copyright Part 01 | Copyrights are property rights.
• Value of copyright Part 02| Revenue sharing

You can download the booklet The Value of Copyright here.

Disclaimer

In writing this article, we benefited greatly from the information found on the website professionartist.com.

If, from your expertise, you yourself have knowledge that would fit this topic, or if you see opportunities to improve this text, we look forward to receiving your message at info@cultuuracademy.nl.