On The Issues Of Copyright Ownership

As a kind of civil right, copyright belongs to a certain civil subject.The matter how to decide initial copyright ownership is very importantand complicated. Copyright ownership refers to the issue to whom thecopyright belongs, or that of verification of copyright subject.Copyright legislation all around the world on initial works reflectsthe legislative philosophy of the copyright system. From the perspectiveof copyright legislation, there are two main legal themes which focusdifferently on the economy or human rights. The two main legal themesconstitute two models of right system, one is copyright system,represented by UK and US; the other is author’s right system, representedby France and Germany. For copyright initial ownership system, countrieswith both copyright system and author’s right system take the sameprinciple. It is that copyright belongs to author and normally author canarrange the initial ownership with other subjects by agreement. Thedifference between two systems is about the works finished by multiplepersons, especially with employment relationship, investmentrelationship or commission relationship. In the countries of copyrightsystem, both natural person and legal person could be copyright initialsubjective. However, in the countries of author’s right system, with theexception of few countries, such as Japan, only natural person may become the author and copyright ownership subject as well. Legal person is notable to be an author but the inheritor and transferee.As for the system of copyright ownership in China,1991Copyright Lawset down the basic principle that copyright belongs to the author unlessthere were special provisions or agreements otherwise. For more details,it covers three aspects: firstly, in a general case, copyright belongsto the author; secondly, some specific works are governed by special rulesof Copyright Law; thirdly, the original ownership of exceptional worksmay be agreed by the parties, where there is no agreement, law determinesits original owner.Normally, in terms of individual works, the author is the copyrightowner，which is clear. But in reality, except individual works, there arealso works created by co-authors. These creation subjects are not anindividual. These works result from different ways, different types, andcomplicated creative process，especially the creation of works presidedover or organized by an entity, funded by investors, commissioned byclient under different conditions. The above situations make it morecomplex to determine the initial attribution of copyright and often causedisputes. Although in all kinds of copyright dispute cases, the proportionof ownership disputes is not large, but the trial of such cases isdifficult together with more issues. As for its reason, on the one hand,in our country the theoretic study on initial copyright ownership is notdeep enough, so there exists such problems as crossing or fuzzy boundariesof copyright ownership in different types of works in the legislation. Onthe other hand, there are still spaces to improve those special provisionsof Copyright Law which governs the copyright ownership of legal person’sworks, works made for hire and audio-visual works as well as commissionedworks and autobiographic works.Based on existing achievements of the integrated theory and practice, this dissertation, first of all, explores the historical evolution ofinitial copyright ownership system; discusses the history logic andideological basis behind the initial copyright ownership system, analyzescurrent mode and interprets the theory of the system. Secondly, thedissertation analyzes the Initial copyright ownership system in ourcountry, by investigating the development history of copyright law systemof ownership initial path and copyright legislation situation, summarizesthe achievements, discovers imperfection, finds out the reason and thecrux, and on this basis provides material content to perfect thelegislation of initial copyright ownership system. Thirdly, usingproblem-oriented methodology, the third and fourth chapters of thedissertation set up a basis of the principle that copyright ownershipbelongs to its author, and then study the legislation exception oncopyright ownership of non-author and on copyright ownership which maybe agreed by parties. Then some advices to perfect the legislation contentare raised.The main views of the dissertation are as follows:1. As a civil lawcountry, our country should insist author’s right system principle,which treats author as the initial right owner of copyright.2.Legislation should define copyright as a kind of private right. The authorcan make agreement with others on the initial copyright property right.However, moral rights cannot be transferred by agreement, which can onlybe agreed by means of exercising style.3. It is necessary to improvelegislation on initial copyright ownership of some special works.(1) Forthe copyright ownership of legal person’s works: cancel legal person’sworks, treat employee’s works as the work made for hire, and determinecopyright ownership as commissioned works where an employee creates worksby commission from his employer.(2) For the copyright ownership of worksmade for hire: do not distinguish general works made for hire from special works made for hire, entitle moral right of such works to the author butthe exercising style decided by agreement, and allow property right ofsuch works decided by agreement or entitle to the author where no agreementachieved.(3) For the copyright ownership of audio-visual works: entitlethe property right of audio-visual works to the producer unless anyagreement otherwise, the authors are entitled remuneration according tothe agreement with the producer, entitle moral right of such works to theauthor but the exercising style decided by agreement, provide author oforiginal works being the author of audio-visual works.(4) For thecopyright ownership of commissioned works: entitle moral right of suchworks to the commissioned but the exercising style decided by agreement,allow property right of such works decided by agreement or entitle to thecommissioned where no agreement achieved.(5) For the copyright ownershipof autobiographic works: entitle moral right of such works to thebiographical hero/heroine but the exercising style decided by agreement,allow property right of such works decided by agreement or entitle to thebiographical hero/heroine where no agreement achieved.The significances of this dissertation are as follows: the studyanalyzes legislation system on the copyright ownership of initial works,especially on our country’s legislation history and background. Base onthe research on copyright legislation of initial works in our country andother countries, the dissertation insists the principle of copyrightownership of initial works and proposes suggestions to improvelegislation about copyright ownership of legal person’s works, work madefor hire, audio-visual works, autobiographic works with the research oncopyright ownership, legislation may be improved and suggestions aresubmitted for the3rd revision of our Copyright Law. The study emphasizesto protect the rights of authors as well as other subjects. The study alsoencourages the creation and communication of works, which will boom cultural industry in our country.