Authorship and Ownership (Articles 7 and 15)
Sam Ricketson, Jane C. Ginsburg · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2022
This chapter focuses on issues of signal importance to the international protection of works of authorship, but concerning which the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is at best enigmatic. The Convention declares that its ‘protection shall operate for the benefit of the author and his successors in title’, but the Convention neither designates who is an ‘author’ nor establishes general rules concerning the transfer of title. As a result, it generally leaves the determination of authorship, ownership, and transfer of rights to national law. The chapter first explores the lacunae in the Conventional treatment of individual authors and joint works. It then addresses the special treatment the Convention reserves for the ‘makers’ of cinematographic works. The chapter considers the extent to which, despite the lack of explicit provisions on authorship, some definition of authorship may be inferred from the provisions on cinematographic works and from the treaty as a whole. Finally, it reviews questions of ownership and transfer of copyright, with particular attention to the elaborate rules set out for cinematographic works.