The fight against the illegal distribution of audiovisual products on the Internet, which has received wide resonance in recent months, has legitimate reasons. And it is based more on the civil institute “Related Rights”. However, not everyone understands the true meaning and content of this legal sub-sector. Therefore, it should be considered in detail.
Concept and objects of related rights
In most relevant legal studies, this institution is presented as a set of rights that are close and related to copyright. To understand this connection, it is necessary to disclose the objects of related rights. These include the following:
- execution of copyright objects - regardless of what they are: a literary or poetic work, musical composition, etc .;
- recording of musical or other sound works on a medium (phonograms);
- TV, radio and Internet broadcasting products.
If we turn to the essence of each of these objects, we can conclude that none of them falls into the category of copyright. This statement is due to the fact that, despite the presence of an element of creativity, they are not finished works created independently. So, a musical example can serve as a vivid example . Music and poems can be written by the performer of the song itself, but a situation is quite common in which the rights to these components were acquired from third parties. In the first case, copyright and related rights coincide, and in the second there is a case of the institution of related rights. The same situation applies to the performance of literary works in audio format.
Based on the foregoing, related rights - this is a special legal institution, which aims to provide legal regulation of the transfer of copyright.
Legitimate protection of related rights
Speaking about the legal protection of the institution in question, it should be clearly understood that copyright and related rights are divided in terms of the universality of the emergence and distribution of their protection. In the case of copyright, you need to talk about protection from the moment the work is created. And regardless of where it was created, the author has the opportunity to effectively use his rights in all countries.
Related rights are subject to a different legal regime . So, in 1961, the international community in Rome adopted a convention ordering all affiliates to provide an equal regime of protection for residents of these countries. It follows that if the state is not a member of this convention, then the subject of the sub-branch of law in question does not have the right to protection until its status as a subject of related rights is registered in the appropriate manner.
In any case, the state provides the subject with three options for the protection of related rights - administrative, civil law or criminal law.
Civil protection permits the application to the competent authorities with a statement, one of the requirements of which may be:
- recognition of related rights for a strictly defined person;
- termination of acts that contribute to or provoke a violation of related rights.
Administrative and criminal defense can be applied in the event that significant damage has been caused, the scope of which is established by relevant legislation. In this case, it is not uncommon for the institution of a statement of claim in a criminal process to claim lost profits and compensate for the damage caused.
Related rights, as it became clear, are a kind of way of commercializing copyright objects. Therefore, the value of the study and development of this sub-branch of law is undeniable.