Exploitation rights of cinematographic works: how it is regulated

Authors, Co-authors and Producers

Article 103 of the Copyright Law of Italy provides that

“the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers (SIAE) publishes a special public register for the cinematographic and audiovisual works. In these registers are recorded the works for which registration is mandatory, with indication of name of author, producer, date of publication and other indications set out in the Regulation. The registration proves, until proven otherwise, the existence of the work and its publication. The authors and producers listed in the registered shall be deemed, until proven otherwise, authors or producers of the works attributed to them”.

In accordance with Article 44 of Law 633/1941, the author of the screenplay, the screenwriter, the artistic director or director and the composer of the soundtrack, shall be deemed as co-authors.

The producer owns the rights of exploitation of the movie. According to article 46 of Law 633/1941,

“The exercise of rights of exploitation by the producer concerns the exploitation of the produced movie. Unless otherwise agreed, the producer cannot realize or show transformations, translations or elaborations of the produced movie without the consent of the authors referred to in Article 44”.

Doctrine and jurisprudence are in agreement that the right of economic exploitation granted to the producer does not consist exclusively in the projection opera in theaters, but extends to any form of exploitation involving the communication to the public ( i.e television broadcasting ) .

The law provides for the need of the consent of the co-authors for those forms of exploitation involving ” processing, transformations and translations of the work”; among the forms of processing of the cinematographic work can be included the remake, the sequel and the transformation of the work in a different form of expression (for example, the transformation of a cinematographic piece in a theatrical one).

The payment

The third and fourth paragraphs of Article 46 establish a system of compensation in the event that the co-authors have not made over all the rights of exploitation to the producer and states that

The authors of music, musical compositions and words that accompany the music are entitled to receive , directly from those who publicly show the work , a separate payment for the projection. ( paragraph 3)

and that

“The authors of the story and screenplay and the artistic director, if they are not paid by a percentage of gross income from public screenings of the cinematographic work , are entitled , unless otherwise agreed, to receive an additional fee as the gross income reaches a certain amount, agreed upon by contract with the produce. The forms and the extent of such additional fee will be determined by agreements to be concluded between the stakeholders”.

In the event that the co-authors have instead given away to the producer the right of circulation, Article 46 bis provides that

“it is due to the authors of cinematographic works and similar a fair remuneration by the broadcasting bodies for each use of the works by mean of broadcasting by air, cable or satellite”.