The Copyright and Related Rights Act
Copyright in Poland is governed by the Copyright and Related Rights Act dated 4 February 1994. The document includes the EU regulations concerning copyright. Under its provisions the artistic work (which also covers audiovisual works, the film including) is the manifestation of creative activity of an individual nature. Therefore, it is subject to protection as of the moment of its coming into being, i.e. when it becomes perceptible to the person other than the author. There is no requirement for its fixation in any form or in any carrier.
Under Polish laws there is a differentiation into personal copyright and economic rights. In case of the first ones we speak about some specific non-transferable bond of the author with his/her work providing him or her with a right to designate the work with the author's name. It is not possible to waive or relinquish such rights. The latter, like property rights, may be subject to sale, disposal or transfer. At the core of such rights are financial benefits from the work exploitation.
However, it is worth emphasizing that Polish laws, in principle, do not protect the idea or concept. In other words, the content of the work is not subject to protection unlike its form.
Based on:
1) The Copyright and Related Rights Act dated 4 February 1994 Journal of Acts of 1994 No 24 item 83
The full text of the Act is available in Polish only at:
http://isip.sejm.gov.pl/servlet/Search?todo=file&id=WDU19940240083&type=3&name=D19940083Lj.pdf
2) Iwona Kuś, Zofia Senda „PRAWO AUTORSKIE I PRAWA POKREWNE. Poradnik przedsiębiorcy” ["COPYRIGHT AND RELATED RIGHTS ACT. Guidelines for Entrepreneurs"].]
The book was written at the request of Polish Agency of Entrepreneurship Development, b.m.w. 2004
|
