1. What is the meaning of copyright holder
Copyright holder is also called " "Copyright subject" refers to a person who enjoys copyright in literary, artistic and scientific works in accordance with the law. Copyright owners can be divided into original copyright owners and successor copyright owners. The original copyright holder refers to the citizen who created the work and the legal person or unincorporated unit that is regarded as the author in accordance with the law; the inherited copyright refers to the citizen, legal person or unincorporated unit that has obtained the copyright property rights through inheritance, assignment, donation, etc. in the form of legal permission. .
2. Classification of copyright holders
my country's Copyright Law 》Article 9 divides it into two categories: one is the author, that is, the person who directly creates the work; the other is the non-author, that is, the citizen, legal person or unincorporated unit that obtains the copyright through some legal relationship.
(1) Copyright owner and author
refers to the citizen who directly creates the work. There are two elements that constitute an author:
1. Only citizens, that is, natural persons, can become authors. Legal persons or non-legal entities cannot become authors. Citizens become authors and enjoy copyright based on their creation of literary, artistic and scientific works.
In terms of age and capacity, no matter whether they are an adult or a minor, a person with full capacity or a person with limited capacity, as long as they have creative Anyone who has the ability and has a work published can become an author, and they enjoy copyright in the works they create in accordance with the law. Judging from the occupations of creative personnel, whether they are professionals engaged in literary, artistic, scientific and technical works, or non-professional creative personnel engaged in other occupations, anyone who creates literary, artistic, scientific and technical works is called an author. Therefore, the author is not equal to the writer, and the scope of the author is far wider than that of the writer.
2. Only by creating can you become an author. so-calledCreation refers to intellectual activities that directly produce literary, artistic and scientific works, that is, fully expressing one's own thoughts, emotions and personality in literary, artistic and scientific works. If you only organize work for others to create works, provide some consulting opinions, material conditions, or perform some other auxiliary work, it cannot be regarded as creation, and it cannot be called an author.
It can be known from the requirements of the author that among the copyright subjects, the author belongs to the first copyright subject or the original copyright subject, and they enjoy the copyright to the works they created. It cannot be illegally deprived. For example, if a person is subjected to forced labor and is deprived of political rights for committing the crime of theft, he still enjoys copyright in the works he created in accordance with the law, and his copyright will not be lost or deprived because he is subject to criminal punishment.
(2) The copyright owner is not the author
It means that in accordance with Article 9 of the "Copyright Law" Item 2 stipulates that other citizens, legal persons or unincorporated entities that enjoy copyright in accordance with this Law.
1. Citizens. There are two ways for other citizens who enjoy copyright in accordance with the law to obtain copyright:
One is to obtain copyright through inheritance. The decedent created the work during his lifetime. After the author dies, if he has not left a will for the work, the copyright of the work should be inherited in legal order. Although these heirs have not created works, due to the death of the author, some of the author's rights are still within the protection period of the Copyright Law, and the heirs can obtain the property rights in the copyright of these works in accordance with the law. If the decedent made a will during his lifetime, the property rights in the author's copyright should be inherited according to the order of testamentary inheritance and priority over legal inheritance.
The second is to obtain copyright through contract transfer. The author transfers part or all of the property rights in the copyright to other citizens in the form of a contract, such as conducting copyright trade overseas, entrusting others to create works, etc., which all belong to the contract transfer method.
2. Legal person or unincorporated unit. There are two ways for a legal person or non-legal entity to obtain copyright:
One is to obtain copyright through legal provisions. For example, Article 15 of my country’s Copyright Law stipulates: “The directors, screenwriters, lyrics, composers, photographers, etc. of film, television, and video works shall have the right of signature. Other rights of copyright shall belong to the producers of film, television, and video works. Enjoy." Film producers are all film studios with legal personality in our country. Therefore, in addition to the right of authorship, film works have other copyrights.Copyright rights belong to the film studio. For television works produced in a similar way to a film, the copyright (except for the right of authorship) belongs to the producer. According to relevant administrative regulations in my country, private individuals are not allowed to produce TV series. Therefore, the copyright of television works also belongs to legal persons. However, there are no strict regulations on the recording of video works. Generally speaking, the vast majority of video producers are legal persons or unincorporated entities, but there are also individuals or partnerships who produce video works. Therefore, the copyright of most video works is enjoyed by legal persons or non-legal entities, and some may also be enjoyed by individuals.
The second is to obtain copyright through contractual agreement. Article 17 of the Copyright Law stipulates the ownership of the copyright of commissioned works. The client can obtain the copyright by paying labor fees to the author through a contract. For example, a factory entrusts an engineer to design a product drawing, and the two parties agree in the contract that the factory will pay the labor fee, and the copyright of the product design drawing belongs to the factory. However, the copyright entrustment contract mentioned in Article 17 of the Copyright Law is essentially different from the entrustment contract in the civil law, and they cannot be confused.
The original copyright owner enjoys complete personal and property rights of the copyright; the successor copyright owner only enjoys the property rights of the copyright, and only has the obligation to protect the personal rights of the copyright. . In addition to "authors, citizens, legal persons, and other organizations" as stipulated in Article 9 of the Copyright Law, authors in the following circumstances may become copyright holders in accordance with the law. The above is the relevant knowledge about "copyright holders" introduced to you by the editor of Legal Savior Network.