Copyrights / Connected Rights

What are copyrights?

Are the rights an author has over an original literary, artistic or scientific work by the simple fact of its creation. This right furnishes the author with full availability and exclusivity to exploit his work.

Is it necessary to obtain any registration for a work to enjoy protection?

There is a National Register of Copyrights and connected Rights before which, freely and voluntarily, authors –or representatives- of artistic, scientific or computer works record their works seeking to obtain a proof of author and facilitate processes of tutelage on the event of possible violations or mutilations or their creations.

On resume, which rights does copyrights confer?

Original creators of works protected by copyrights and their heirs enjoy of certain basic rights.They have the exclusive right to use or to authorize third persons the usage of the works under conditions established by mutual agreement.

Creator of a work has the faculty to prohibit or authorize:

• Reproduction of his work under different forms, such as printing or sound recording publication;

• Public interpretation or performance, for example of a theater or musical work;

• Recording, for example, of compact discs, cassettes or video;

• Re-transmission either through radio, cable or satellite broadcasting;

• Translation into other languages or adaptation, as could be the case of a novel adjusted to a script.

Does Copyrights protect ideas, methods and concepts?

Copyrights only protect tangible expressions but not the ideas used to create the work.

Which are the Rights connected to copyrights?

In recent years, rights connected to copyrights have rapidly expanded.These connected rights have been developed around works protected by Copyrights and grant similar faculties but often more limited and of shorter term, to:

• Performing Artists (actors and musicians) regarding their performances or executions of works of their own or of others;

• Producers of sound recordings (cassettes and compact discs recordings) regarding their recordings;

• Broadcasting entities in connection to their radio and television programs.

Can I protect a computer program or software?

Computer programs or software are subjects of protections by means of Copyrights and are part of the aim of Intellectual Property.