The transfer of copyright refers to copyright as a property right, including reproduction rights, distribution rights, exhibition rights, public performance rights, broadcast rights, adaptation rights, Translation rights, compilation rights, arrangement rights and annotation rights, or any one or several of them, are legally transferred from one civil subject to another under the control of another civil subject. The legal consequence is that once the copyright is transferred, the transferor loses the right. Therefore, to be precise, the transfer of copyright refers to the transfer of copyright property rights.
The transfer of copyright has the following characteristics:
1. The transfer of copyright is limited to Limited to copyright property rights. The personal right of a copyright is a right of a personal nature, so it itself is non-transferable and always belongs to the copyright owner; what transfers a copyright is part or all of the property rights of the copyright.
2. The transfer of copyright has nothing to do with the ownership of the work’s carrier. In other words, the transfer of copyright is not the transfer of the property rights of the original work. If the transfer involves the use of the original work, the original work shall be returned to the original copyright holder or the legal owner of the original work after the use is completed. For example, if the right to publish a novel is transferred, the transferee should return the manuscript to the original copyright holder or the owner of the property rights of the manuscript after using it.
3. There is a strict difference between the transfer of copyright and the licensing of copyright. Licensing of copyright does not change the subject of the copyright, but transfer of copyright will change the subject of the copyright; the copyright licensee must rely on the existence of the licensor's rights to fight against the third party, while the copyright transferee can independently fight with his own copyright Infringement by a third party.
4. There are many options for copyright transfer rights. For example, in the case of a novel, the copyright owner can transfer its adaptation rights in different artistic forms to different people, transfer its translation rights in different languages to different people, and can also copy it in a certain area. The right to distribute the work is transferred to others.
5. The act of transferring the property rights of a copyright shall be regarded as the simultaneous exercise of the personal rights of the copyright. Normally, moral rights cannot be transferred, but in practice, copyright holders other than the author always encounter problems with moral rights when exercising their property rights. In this case, it should be considered that after the copyright property rights are transferred, the author who is involved in exercising the property rights of the copyrightThe personal rights have been exhausted by the original copyright owner.
6. The transfer of copyright is an important civil act and involves various rights and obligations of both parties. In order to ensure the fairness, authenticity and legality of the transfer, the copyright laws of our country and most countries require that the transfer contract should be concluded in writing.
7. Whether the transfer of copyright property rights is a complete transfer or a partial transfer, as well as the geographical scope of the transfer, should be agreed upon in accordance with the contract between the parties. If the copyright transfer contract is unclear, the law should presume that the transfer has not occurred to avoid disputes.
8. Copyright transfer results in a change in the copyright subject. Every time a copyright is transferred, a new copyright subject is added. Therefore, a work can include the author at the same time. multiple copyright owners.