BUSINESS LAW

Legislation has been forged as time went by, recognizing the authors of works, then the performers, the producers (video and audio) and certain media (radio, TV) with prerogatives that protect them from counterfeiting and that offer them remuneration in return for broadcasting their work. I chose this subject because I feel concerned by music since I make it, and because it is a current subject with the recent debates on the new forms of listening (streaming, illegal downloading, etc..). I will start by presenting the rights recognized to the authors, those recognized as neighbouring rights, then the question of the deposit of works by the authors, to finish by giving my opinion on the subject.

Firstly, copyright is recognized to the creator (composer, lyricist, arranger) of a work. To be protected, the work must be original, in other words it must bear the imprint of the personality of its author, it must express his creative contribution. The originality of the work does not necessarily imply the idea of novelty (e.g.: arrangements or adaptations) and any work can be protected. Indeed, there is no distinction according to the genre (literature, music) and the form of expression (written, oral). The only small particularity is that an idea cannot be protected. Only specific objects resulting from a personal conception and meeting the criterion of originality are protectable by copyright. As soon as the work meets the legal requirements, the author is granted the moral right which gives the author the right to claim authorship of the work, the possibility to control the destiny of his work by opposing any distortion of the work, mutilation or any other modification without his authorization; and the economic right which allows the author to obtain a remuneration in return for the exploitation of his work. To go into detail, the moral right is the protection of the work. It is composed of the right of disclosure, the right to the respect of the name and the quality, the right to the respect of the work and the right of withdrawal (art. L.121-1 of the CPI). It is perpetual (it is not extinguished at the death of the author), inalienable (it cannot be transferred to third parties against remuneration), imprescriptible (the non-use of the moral right during a long period by the author does not make him lose the right to exercise it). The patrimonial right, which is also part of the author's rights, allows the exploitation of the work. They allow the author to authorize or prohibit any exploitation of his work and allow the author to obtain a remuneration in return for the exploitation of his work. These economic rights include the right of reproduction and the right of representation. They can be exercised up to seventy years from the year following the death of the author, after which the work falls into the public domain, i.e. it can be freely exploited. In the case of a collaborative work, the term of protection ends seventy years after the death of the last author.

In addition to copyright, other categories of professionals whose activity is associated with creation have been granted rights by law n°85-660 of July 3, 1985, known as the Lang law. Neighboring rights are rights related to copyright, which are granted to performers, producers of videograms and phonograms, as well as to radio and television broadcasting organizations. Differentiating the performer, the producers and the audiovisual communication organizations are the radio and TV channels and thus making all the members of the creation process benefit from the revenues of the work. The protection conferred by the neighboring rights is different from the one conferred by the copyright but as the copyright, the neighboring rights are composed of two parts: a moral right (perpetual, inalienable and imprescriptible) and economic rights (written by the artist authorizing the conditions of exploitation of his interpretation in return for a distinct remuneration of each member of the activity). On the subject of the duration of the protection of the rights of the interpreters and the producers the duration is extended to 70 years against 60 for the author's rights. This alignment of the protection already granted to authors (Directive 2011/77/EU adopted on September 27, 2011 by the European Parliament and the Council of the EU) is explained in particular by the need to take into account the consequences of the increase in life expectancy.

After having spoken about the various rights related to the intellectual property, we will now approach the subject of the deposit of the works of the authors, i.e. the various means of authentication of the real owner of the work. The deposit of the work does not allow its protection but the proof of its existence. In order to determine the proof of the anteriority