Copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
in the Netherlands is governed by the Dutch Copyright Law (called ''Auteurswet''), copyright (auteursrecht in
Dutch) is the
exclusive right
In Anglo-Saxon law, an exclusive right, or exclusivity, is a de facto, non-tangible prerogative existing in law (that is, the power or, in a wider sense, right) to perform an action or acquire a benefit and to permit or deny others the right to p ...
of the author of a work of literature or artistic work to publish and copy such work.
A work of literature or artistic work attracts copyright at its fixation. No
formalities, such as
copyright registration, are necessary to obtain all the exclusive rights that the Dutch copyright provides. The duration of a copyright is generally 70 years after the death of the author. The term "work" includes many materials, such as books, brochures, films, photographs, musical works, works of visual art and geographical maps. Furthermore, the Dutch Supreme Court has ruled that to be considered a work, it should have its own, original character with the personal imprint of the author (HR 4 January 1991, NJ 1991, 608(Van Dale/Romme)). This
threshold of originality has since been superseded by a decision of the
European Court of Justice
The European Court of Justice (ECJ, french: Cour de Justice européenne), formally just the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Un ...
(
C-5/08) and is now "The author's own intellectual Creation".
The exclusive right to publish a work includes amongst others the publication of a copy of (part of) the work, the public recitation thereof and to rent or lend (part of) the work to public institutions. The exclusive right to duplicate a work includes amongst others the recording, the translation, the music arrangement and the adaptation for the screen of the work.
International laws and treaties
Copyright laws differ between countries. However, there are several
international treaties concerning copyright that harmonise copyright to a certain extent. The Netherlands is a signature state to among others:
* The
Berne Convention, 1886
* The
Universal Copyright Convention
The Universal Copyright Convention (UCC), adopted in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1952, is one of the two principal international conventions protecting copyright; the other is the Berne Convention.
The UCC was developed by the United Nations Educati ...
, 1952
* The
WIPO Copyright Treaty, 1996
* The
WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty, 1996
* The
(TRIPs) (which manages the rights concerning trade in intellectual property)
Since the Netherlands is a member state of the
European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...
all directives and regulations of the European Union apply in the Netherlands. As such copyright in the Netherlands has some specific features over the
Copyright law of the European Union
Specific features
* Copyright is only granted to creative, original works. The creator of the work must have used some creativity or a certain creative
decision must have been made. ''Creativity'' is a relative term, however, as this is a legal, not
aesthetic
Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...
, standard.
* Copyright is granted automatically, without any (registration) formality, in the Netherlands, as it is in any other country that is party to the Berne Convention. This means that it is not necessary to include copyright indicators such as "copyright 2006". In fact, the word "copyright" has no legal meaning in the Netherlands.
* A copyright lasts for a finite amount of time. Specifically, 70 years after the death of the author. When a copyright expires, the work become part of the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
. An author also can prematurely renounce a copyright.
* Neither the expertise of the author, nor the quality of the creation itself is a relevant factor in determining whether a creation is a work or not. An underexposed, badly composed picture of the
Eiffel Tower
The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower.
Locally nicknamed "'' ...
can be just as copyright-protected as a two-meter-tall print of a perfect photograph of the same tower by a professional photographer, provided that the legal requirements of a work are met.
* Dutch laws, rulings and regulations are not copyright-protected. This means that they can be used at all times by anyone for any purpose
article 11. However, some publishers of legal texts and court rulings may claim auteursrecht with regard to the form or order in which they are presented.
* The ''Auteurswet'' allows for ''citaatrecht'' (quotation right). This allows the use of (parts of) a work under a limitative set of conditions. Quotation rights appear to be more limited and demarcated than the concept of
fair use.
* A ' (
portrait right
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...
) regards rights of the person portrayed in a portrait that is not made on behalf of that person, in contrast to an ''auteursrecht'' which grants rights to the creator of a work. An example is the publication of someone's picture in a magazine. The person portrayed can oppose such publication to the extent he or she has a reasonable interest in doing so.
* A copyright can be transferred or licensed. A license is a permission of the author to use the work as agreed upon by the author and the licensee. In order to be valid, a transfer of the ''auteursrecht'' should be in writing.
* An author can transfer a copyright to someone else using ''securitisatie'', at which point the author receives the current
value
Value or values may refer to:
Ethics and social
* Value (ethics) wherein said concept may be construed as treating actions themselves as abstract objects, associating value to them
** Values (Western philosophy) expands the notion of value beyo ...
of future copyright revenues at the time of public presentation.
* Copyright, like the French idea of "droits d'auteur", also includes moral rights. This includes the right of the author to oppose the publication of the work without stating him as the author and any modifications or malformations to the work. The author can only partly waive his moral rights, meaning that the author retains certain rights, even if the copyright is transferred or renounced.
* Copyright infringement is governed not only by civil law, but also by criminal law.
* Marks and inventions are primarily governed by
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a type of intellectual property consisting of a recognizable sign, design, or expression that identifies products or services from a particular source and distinguishes them from others ...
rights and
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
s, respectively.
Limitations and exceptions to Dutch copyright
Limitations and exceptions to copyright are harmonised in the 2001
Information Society Directive of the European Union. This directive allows 21 specific limitations or exceptions. Of this list only temporary acts of reproductions is a mandatory exception to copyright within the European Union. The Netherlands has adopted 17 of these limitations and exceptions:
*Temporary acts of reproduction
*Photocopying/photo-reproduction
*Private copying
*Reproductions by Libraries, Archives & Museums
*Ephemeral recordings made by broadcasters
*Illustration for teaching or scientific research
*Use for the benefit of people with a disability
*Reporting by the press on current events
*Quotation for criticism or review
*Use for public security purposes
*Use of public speeches and public lectures
*Use during religious or official celebrations
*
Use of works of architecture or sculptures in public spaces
*Incidental inclusion
*Use for advertising the exhibition or sale of works of art
*Use for the purpose of caricature, parody or pastiche
*Use for the purpose of research or private study
Pre-existing exceptions and limitations
The Information Society Directive also allows for pre-existing limitations and exceptions that existed in national legislation prior to the adoption of the directive. The Netherlands has four further notable limitations and exceptions to copyright:
*The further communication to the public or reproduction of a literary, scientific or artistic work communicated to the public by or on behalf of the public authorities shall not be deemed an infringement of the copyright in such a work, unless the copyright has been explicitly reserved, 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. Even if no such reservation has been made, the author shall retain the exclusive right to have appear, in the form of a collection, his works which have been communicated to the public by or on behalf of the public authorities.
* The lending as referred to in article 12(1), sub 3, of the whole or part of a specimen of the work or a reproduction thereof brought into circulation by or with the consent of the right-holder shall not be deemed an infringement of copyright, provided the person doing or arranging the lending pays an equitable remuneration. The first sentence shall not apply to a work referred to in article 10(1) sub 12, unless that work is part of a data carrier containing data and serves exclusively to make the said data accessible.
* Congregational singing and the instrumental accompaniment thereof during a religious service shall not be deemed an infringement of the copyright in a literary or artistic work.
* The reproduction of a portrait by or on behalf of the person portrayed or, after his death, by or on behalf of his relatives, shall not be deemed an infringement of copyright.
Private copy
In certain circumstances, one is allowed to make a copy of copyright materials. This is also called a homecopy.
According to Dutch ''Auteurswet'' article 16b and 16c § 1,
articles 16b-c, Dutch Copyright Law
/ref> and ''Wet op de Naburige rechten'' article 10, 'reproducing a piece of literature, science or art' is not seen as infringement to copyright if in line with the following:
# The home copy is not, direct or indirect, means for monetary gain;
# The copy serves exclusively to own practice, study or use;
# The number of copies are limited, or the creator of additional copies compensates the holder.
On 10 April 2014 the ''European Court of Justice
The European Court of Justice (ECJ, french: Cour de Justice européenne), formally just the Court of Justice, is the supreme court of the European Union in matters of European Union law. As a part of the Court of Justice of the European Un ...
'' ruled the Dutch exclusion for home-copying to be infringing the directive 2001/29/EG - article 5 § 2- b and § 5. According to EU directive, this makes homecopying unlawful. There have been other cases in which Dutch ''Auteurswet'' has been ruled unlawful. The Netherlands however has not changed said article nor complied to the request to make prosecuting those whom homecopy possible.
History
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
The Statute of Anne, also known as the Copyright Act 1710 (cited either as 8 Ann. c. 21 or as 8 Ann. c. 19), was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1710, which was the first statute to provide for copyright regulated by the g ...
, 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 public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work
A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
.
The Berne Convention in 1886 was the first multilateral treaty to provide for reciprocal
Reciprocal may refer to:
In mathematics
* Multiplicative inverse, in mathematics, the number 1/''x'', which multiplied by ''x'' gives the product 1, also known as a ''reciprocal''
* Reciprocal polynomial, a polynomial obtained from another pol ...
treatment of copyrights among sovereign
''Sovereign'' is a title which can be applied to the highest leader in various categories. The word is borrowed from Old French , which is ultimately derived from the Latin , meaning 'above'.
The roles of a sovereign vary from monarch, ruler or ...
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
Medium may refer to:
Science and technology
Aviation
*Medium bomber, a class of war plane
* Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data
* Medium of ...
), the author automatically receives all exclusive rights for that work as well as derivative
In mathematics, the derivative of a function of a real variable measures the sensitivity to change of the function value (output value) with respect to a change in its argument (input value). Derivatives are a fundamental tool of calculus. F ...
s, 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 duration is the lifetime of the author plus 50 years.
See also
*Law firms of the Netherlands In 2019, the top 50 Dutch law firms ( nl, advocatenkantoren) had around 4,476 attorneys ( nl, advocaten) and the top 30 law firms had around 183 notaries ( nl, notarissen) and 527 candidate notaries. According to the Chambers and Partners legal dir ...
References
External links
*
Auteurswet (Dutch Copyright Act)
*
Dutch Copyright Act - unofficial English version at IVIR
* Aad Bos
on European Audiovisual Observatory
The European Audiovisual Observatory (french: italic=no, Observatoire européen de l’audiovisuel, german: italic=no, Europäische Audiovisuelle Informationsstelle) is a public service organisation, part of the Council of Europe set up in 1992. ...
's IRIS Merlin database, 2010
{{Authority control
Dutch intellectual property law
Netherlands
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, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
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Law of the Netherlands
nl:Auteursrecht