Property rights defend the author by protecting his/her economic interests.
Definition of "Property Rights”
- “Author’s Property Rights” mean the author’s rights to use his/her creative work himself/herself or permit another person to use his/her creative work for economic interests (Article 10(1) of the Copyright Act).
Types of Property Rights
- An author’s property rights include reproduction rights, rights of public performance, public transmission rights, exhibition rights, distribution rights, right to lend, and adaptation/remake rights, as mentioned below.
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Classification of Property Rights
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Contents
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Reproduction Rights
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The author has the right to print, film, copy, record, video record, or take other measures to reproduce his/her creative work or fix it on a material object temporarily or permanently (Subparagraph 22 of Article 2 and Article 16 of the Copyright Act). For buildings, reproduction includes constructing the building according to the model or design, saving creative works through a computer device, or downloading them from the Internet.
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Rights of a Public Performance
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Performance refers to publicizing a creative work or performing, singing, orally narrating, airing, playing, or screening an actual performance, record, or broadcast. The author has to right to publicly perform his/her creative work (Subparagraph 3 of Article 2 and Article 17 of the Copyright Act). Screening a movie in a movie theater, performing or dancing on stage, delivering a lecture or a stump speech to the audience, etc., are examples of a public performance. Moreover, playing a recorded or video recorded reproduction (music CD, video tape, etc.) to show the public is also regarded as a performance.
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Public Transmission Rights
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The author has the right to transmit or provide usage through wireless or wired communication methods for the public to receive or access the creative work, actual performance, record, broadcast, or database. Public transmission rights include broadcasting rights, transmission rights, and digital audio transmission rights (Subparagraph 7 of Article 2 and Article 18 of the Copyright Act). √ “Broadcasting rights” refer to the author’s right to publicly transmit audiovisual works or videos or both works to show the public. Broadcasting includes terrestrial broadcasting, cable broadcasting, satellite broadcasting, etc. (Subparagraph 8 of Article 2 of the Copyright Act). √ “Transmission rights” refer to the author’s right to provide usage of (and transmit) his/her creative works through wireless or wired communication methods for the public to watch or access the work in his/her intended time and place. Uploading a creative work on Internet websites or automatically transmitting the work upon the user’s click are examples of transmissions (Subparagraph 10 of Article 2 of the Copyright Act). √ “Digital audio transmission rights” refer to the author’s right to transmit publicly (excluding sending) digital audiovisual works for the public to receive them simultaneously upon request. Transmitting music through webcasting (so-called “Internet broadcasting”) is an example of digital audio transmission (Subparagraph 11 of Article 2 of the Copyright Act).
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Exhibition Rights:
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The author’s right to exhibit the original or reproduced work of the creative artpiece, building, or photo (Article 19 of the Copyright Act). Exhibition rights mean the author may provide his/her creative work for the public to directly access, watch, or touch the work, and the rights only apply to creative artpieces, buildings, or photos.
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Distribution Rights:
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The owner’s right to transfer or lend an original or reproduced creative work, actual performance, record, broadcast, or database without payments in return (Subparagraph 23 of Article 2 and Article 20 of the Copyright Act). For example, reselling or donating a book that he/she bought is an example of distribution. However, the “first sale doctrine” applies to distribution rights, so the owner shall not exercise distribution rights again after selling or providing the original or reproduced creative work.
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Right to Lend:
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This is an exceptional distribution right for the creator when lending published records or publicized programs for commercial purposes (Article 21 of the Copyright Act).
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Adaptation/Remake Rights:
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Rights to create a derivative work by translating, arranging, transforming, dramatizing, and producing videos of the original work (Article 5(1) and Article 22 of the Copyright Act).
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Author’s property rights may be transferred or donated.
Transferring Property Rights
- A party may transfer some or all of the author’s property rights to another party (Article 45(1) of the Copyright Act).
- If there are no special conditions to transfer all of the author’s property rights to another party, it will be considered not to include the right to produce and use derivative works stipulated under Article 22 of the Copyright Act (main text of Article 45(2) of the Copyright Act).
※ However, adaptation or remake will be presumed to have been transferred for computer program works, unless special conditions exist (Conditions of Article 45(2) of the Copyright Act).
Donation of Author’s Property Rights
- A person holding the author’s property rights may donate them to the Korea Copyright Commission (Article 135(1) of the Copyright Act).
- Persons intending to donate his/her author’s property rights shall submit the following documents to the Korea Copyright Commission (Article 75(1) of the Enforcement Decree of the Copyright Act and Article 28 and Appendix Form No. 59 of the Enforcement Rules of the Copyright Act).
· ledge of Donation of Author’s Property Rights, Etc.
· Reproductions of the donated work
· Documents verifying that the person concerned holds the author’s property rights of the creative work
- Suppose the Korea Copyright Commission is donated with the author’s property rights. In this case, it shall indicate this on the
Management Register for Donated Copyrights, Etc. and post this fact on its website (Article 75(2) of the Enforcement Decree of the Copyright Act and Article 29 and Appendix Form No. 60 of the Enforcement Rules of the Copyright Act).
The author’s property right holder may allow another person to use the creative work.
Allowing the Use of Creative Works
- The author’s property right holder may allow another person to use the creative work (Article 46(1) of the Copyright Act).
- The person allowed to use the creative work may use such work within the permitted scope of usage and conditions (Article 46(2) of the Copyright Act).
- The person permitted to use the creative work shall not transfer the right to use the work to a third party without the approval of the author’s property right holder (Article 46(3) of the Copyright Act).
In principle, the author’s property rights will be protected for 70 years.
Principle of the Protection Period of the Author’s Property Rights
- The author’s property rights shall continue to subsist during the lifetime of an author and until the end of a period of 70 years after the death of the author, unless the author’s property rights fall under the following cases of work of joint authorship, creative work with no name or pseudonym, works made for hire, or cinematographic work (Article 39(1) of the Copyright Act).
The Protection Period for Joint Author’s Property Rights
- Joint author’s property rights shall be effective for 70 years after the last joint author’s death (Article 39(2) of the Copyright Act).
Protection Period of the Author’s Property Rights for Works Indicating No Name or a Pseudonym
- The author’s property rights for creative works indicating no author name or an unfamiliar pseudonym shall be effective for 70 years after its publication (main text of Article 40(1) of the Copyright Act).
※ Suppose there is a justifiable reason to believe 70 years have elapsed since the author has passed away. In this case, the author’s property rights shall be deemed to have expired 70 years after the creator’s date of death (Conditions of Article 40(1) of the Copyright Act).
- However, suppose the author’s real name or widely known pseudonym is revealed within 70 years after the work’s publication, or if the author’s real name has been registered as specified under Article 53(1) of the Copyright Act. In this case, the author’s property rights shall be effective during the author’s lifetime and 70 years after his/her death (Article 40(2) of the Copyright Act).
The Protection Period of the Author’s Property Rights for the Works Made for Hire
- The author’s property rights for the works made for hire are effective for 70 years after publication (main text of Article 41 of the Copyright Act).
- However, suppose the work for hire was not publicized within 50 years after its creation date. In this case, the author’s property rights shall be effective for 70 years (Conditions of Article 41 of the Copyright Act).
Any person infringing on the author's property rights shall be sentenced to imprisonment or fined.
Penalties for Infringement of Author’s Property Rights
- Suppose a person infringed on an author’s property rights or other property rights (excluding database producer’s property rights) protected under the Copyright Act by reproduction, performance, public transmission, exhibition, distribution, rental, making derivative works, etc. In this case, the person shall be sentenced to up to five years of imprisonment, fined up to KRW 50 million, or penalized with both sentences (Subparagraph 1 of Article 136(1) of the Copyright Act).
- The above penalties will be carried out only after the complaint has been filed. However, if the person committed the crime habitually or for commercial purposes, he/she may be penalized even without a filed complaint (Subparagraph 1 of Article 140 of the Copyright Act).