Derivative work is not a new emerging concept. Due to the low independent economic values through the ages, derivative works were often been deemed as the derivative from the original work and has not gained enough attention. However, with the development of culture industry both in multiple aspects and dimensions, derivative work has gained a broader space of development, and the ownership relationship between the authors of the original work and the derivative work also becomes increasingly complex. At present, the relevant provisions of laws on derivative works are relatively simple and incomplete, which causes the judicial practices have not yet reach a consensus regarding whether the original author owns copyright over the derivative work and what kind of rights does the original author could enjoy on the derivative work, and this inconsistency is averse to protection of the copyright owners’ interests. This thesis kicks off from the issues educed from the four cases and then conducts discussion on the several issues relating to the original author’s copyright on the derivative work.This thesis consists of three parts of introduction, main text and conclusion.The introduction section illustrates the motive of writing this thesis, which hopes to put forward the train of thought on correctly understanding and applying the copyright owned by the original author through conducting research on the relevant issues of the original author’s copyright on the derivative work, so as to provide reference to correctly apply the relevant laws and regulations in practice.The main text consists of the following four chapters:Chapter 1 selects four cases relating to derivative work. Through extracting and refining the factual circumstances regarding the courts make different judgments on the identical nature of behaviors in such four cases, the author thus raises three mainly circumambient legal issues of this thesis: 1. Whether the original author has copyright on the derivative work; 2. Which copyright of the derivative work owned by the original author; 3. The source for the original author to own copyright on the derivative right.Chapter 2 analyzes the theory and legal ground for the original author to own copyright on the derivative work, and points out that the original author shall own the copyright on any work as long as it includes the original work’s expression. Afterwards, based on the afore-mentioned basis, the author further analyzes the original author’s copyright on the derivative work inclusive of both personal right and property right: for the personal right, the original author shall own the right of control of the derivative work’s publication and authorship, while the right of control does not exist on the right of revision and integrity under the circumstance that the person for creating derivative work does not distort and tamper the work; for the property right, the original author shall own the right of control of the 13 proprietary rights’ corresponding utilization behaviors of the derivative work.Chapter 3 first analyzes the reason for the irrationality for the utilization behavior of controlling the derivative work on the basis of the derivative right, and thus put forwards the opinion of conducting control on the utilization behaviors of the derivative work through the corresponding proprietary right. Secondly, the author takes the rationality of using “the right of reproduction” for controlling the derivative work’s reproduction behavior for example, and then re-interprets “the right of reproduction” and makes clear the constitutive requirements of the “reproduction behavior”, and thus demonstrates the derivative work’s reproduction behavior completely conforms with the constitutive requirements of the production behavior controlled by the “the right of reproduction”, concluding the derivative work’s reproduction behavior shall be controlled by the original author’s corresponding proprietary right.In the chapter 4, the author puts forward perfection suggestion to the current legislation of the Copyright Law by combining the discoverable legal issues in chapters 2 and 3.The last chapter is the conclusion section. Based on the analysis of the former four chapters, the author summarizes the correct understanding and application of the original author’s copyright on the derivative work in this chapter. |