Although copyright arises at the time of creation of the work, in order to claim rights to a work it is necessary to be able to prove to be its original author. One is recognised as author of a work when in possession of a proof of creation of the work itself. In the event of disputes, the oldest proof in temporal order wins.
For music pieces, the copyright owner is both the writer of the lyrics and the composer of the melody. The copyright owner is not the one who reproduces and executes the work (namely, the performer) who may instead be the holder of the so-called related rights. Typically whoever "arranges" the work is not included among the authors, unless the arrangement ends up becoming determinant and key to the work itself.
Our Patamu Registry service allows you to produce a legally valid and authorship declaration, which becomes a proof of authorship in the absence of a conflicting evidence that is prior in time.
Copyright holders are automatically recognised a series of moral and patrimonial rights.
The former relate to the more strictly personal sphere and they cannot be sold or transferred. Moral rights are the right to attribution, the right to the integrity of the work (the author can object to any modification or distortion or mutilation of his own work that he considers to be prejudicial to the author's honour or reputation), the right to reconsider (withdraw the work from the market) and the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously.
The patrimonial rights are instead connected to the economic exploitation of the work and are transmissible and alienable. Patrimonial rights are, for example, the right to publish, reproduce, distribute, execute, communicate and make available to the public, lend, rent, translate, transcribe, modify and revise the work. The related rights belong, in addition to the performers and artists, to all other subjects connected to the work such as producers of phonographic records or similar supports and the producers of cinematographic and audiovisual works.
The copyright or royalties are paid to the various types of owners of the work in question for its use. They are therefore payments for the right to use copyright, patents, trademarks, etc. In music, royalties are paid to the owners of music covered by copyright; in art and online, for the use of images; in publishing, from publishers to authors; and so on. The word "royalties" comes from the Middle Ages, when the royals were landowners and gave their lands for use to third parties in exchange for a payment.
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