Economic rights of the author

Pursuant to the Copyright and Related Rights Act, economic rights of the author include in particular:

•    right of reproduction – the exclusive right of making one or more copies of copyright works, in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, temporarily or permanently, by any means and in any form;

•    right of distribution (the right to place on the market) – the exclusive right to put into circulation the original or copies of the copyright work by sale or otherwise, including rental, and to offer them to the public for such purpose;

•    rental right - the exclusive right of giving the original or copies of a copyright work for use in a limited period, for the purpose of direct or indirect material or commercial benefit;

•    right of remake - the exclusive right of translating, adapting, musical or other rework or any other modification of a copyright work;

•    right of communication of a copyright work to the public – the exclusive right to communicate a copyright work to the public in every way, by wire or by wireless means. This right includes:

• right of public performance;
• right of public stage presentation;
• right of public transmission;
• right of public communication of a fixed work;
• right of public presentation;
• right of broadcasting;
• right of rebroadcasting;
• right of direct injection;
• right of making available to the public;
• right of public communication of broadcasting, rebroadcasting, direct injection and making it available to the public;
• right of communication to the public, including making available to the public, within an ancillary online service;
• right of communication to the public, including making available to the public, when giving the public  access to the works uploaded by users on online content sharing platforms; and
• other ways of communication to the public.

The aforementioned economic rights are exclusive rights given that the author may authorise or prohibit the use of his work.

A copyright work can be communicated directly to the public as a result of an artistic achievement (for example, a concert performance of a musical work or a stage performance of a play in a theatre), and the work can also be communicated to the public through various technical devices and procedures, such as broadcasting or online transmission However, there are also situations when the performance of a work is publicly exploited at the same time in several different ways. For example, when a piece of music is performed live in a concert hall and at the same time communicated to the public outside the hall through a loudspeaker or on a screen, a new form of use of the work occurs, i.e. public transmission. In this case, the author has two separate rights - the right of public performance and the right of public transmission – so that the public performance, and especially the public transmission of the work, should be contracted separately. It is also possible that such a performance is broadcast via radio or television programme signals, and then the right of broadcasting will need to be agreed separately.

The right of making a work available to the public, as the right to communicate it to the public via the internet is of particular importance today. This right is more precisely defined as the exclusive right to make a work available to the public wirelessly or by wire, in a way that allows members of the public to access the work from a place and time of their choice.