- SECTION 1 OBJECT AND CONTENT OF COPYRIGHT
- SECTION II THE INITIAL SUBJECT OF THE COPYRIGHT
- SECTION III TRANSFER EXPLOITATION AND THE EXERCISE OF RIGHTS
- SECTION IV LIMITATIONS TO THE ECONOMIC RIGHT
- Article 18 Reproduction for private use
- Article 19 Quotations of extracts
- Article 20 School textbooks and anthologies
- Article 21 Reproduction for teaching purposes
- Article 22 Reproduction by libraries and archives
- Article 23 Reproduction of cinematographic works
- Article 24 Reproduction for judicial or administrative purposes
- Article 25 Reproduction for information purposes
- Article 26 Use of visual images of works sited in public places.
- Article 27 Public performance or presentation on special occasions
- Article 28 Exhibition and reproduction of fine art works
- SECTION V DURATION OF PROTECTION
- SECTION VI RULES RELATING TO EXPLOITATION CONTRACTS AND LICENCES
- Article 32 Percentage fee
- Article 33 Rules relating to contracts of printed edition and translator’s rights
- Article 34 Rules relating to audiovisual production contract
- Article 35 Rules relating to broadcasting by radio and television
- Article 36 Theatrical performance fee.
- Article 37 Musical accompaniment of films
- Article 38 Photographers’ rights
- Article 39 Nullity of contrary agreements
- SECTION VII SPECIAL PROVISIONS CONCERNING COMPUTER PROGRAMS
- SECTION VIII RELATED RIGHTS
- Article 46 Licence by performers
- Article 47 Licence by producers of sound and visual recordings
- Article 48 Licence from radio or television organisations
- Article 49 Right to equitable remuneration
- Article 50 Moral right
- Article 51 Rights of publishers
- Article 52 Form of the licence, limitations and duration of the rights
- Article 53 Copyright protection
- SECTION IX ADMINISTRATION BY COLLECTING SOCIETIES
- SECTION X MEASURES TO PREVENT INFRINGEMENTS
- SECTION X PENALTIES
- SECTION XII FINAL AND TRANSITIONAL PROVISIONS
- Article 67 Applicable legislation
- Article 68 Law not retroactive
- Article 69 Establishment of the Copyright Organization
- Article 70 Collecting societies already functioning
- Article 71 Implementation of directives of the European Community.
- Article 72 Repeal of provisions and regulation of other matters
- Article 74
- SECTION XIV ENTRY INTO FORCE
FIRST ISSUE ISSUE NUMBER 25 4 MARCH 1993
LAW 2121/1993
COPYRIGHT, RELATED RIGHTS AND CULTURAL MATTERS
We, the President of the Hellenic Republic, hereby grant our assent to the following law which Parliament has approved:
SECTION 1 OBJECT AND CONTENT OF COPYRIGHT
Article 1 Copyright
1. Intellectual authors shall have, with the creation of the work, the right of copyright over that work, which includes, as exclusive and absolute rights, the right to exploit the work (economic right) and the right to protect their personal connection with the work (moral right).
2. The above-mentioned rights shall include the powers of authorization provided in Articles 3 and 4 of this Law
Article 2 Object of the right
1. The term «work» shall designate any original intellectual literary, artistic or scientific creation, expressed in any form, notably written or oral texts, musical compositions with or without words, theatrical works accompanied or unaccompanied by music, choreografies and pantomimes, audiovisual works, works of fine art, including drawings, works of painting and sculpture, engravings and lithographs, works of architecture, photographs, works of applied art, illustrations, maps, three dimensional works relative to geography, topography, architecture or science.
2. The term «work» shall, in addition, designate translations, adaptations, arrangements and other alterations of works or of expressions of popular tradition, as well as collections of works or collections of expressions of popular tradition or of simple facts and data, such as encyclopaedias, anthologies and data bases, provided the selection or the arrangement of their contents is original. Protection afforded to the works listed in this paragraph shall in no way prejudice rights on the pre-existing works, which were used as the object of the alterations or the collections.
3. Without prejudice to the provisions of section VII of this Law, computer programs and their preparatory design material shall be deemed to be literary works within the meaning of the provisions on copyright protection. Protection in accordance with this Law shall apply to the expression in any form of a computer program. Ideas and principles which underlie any element of a computer program, including those which underlie its interfaces, are not protected under this Law. A computer shall be protected if it is original in the sense that it is the author’s personal intellectual creation.
4. The protection afforded under this Law shall apply regardless of the value of the work and its destination and regardless of the fact that the work is possibly protected under other provisions.
5. The protection afforded under this Law shall not apply to official texts expressive of the authority of the State, notably to legislative, administrative or judicial texts, and shall not apply likewise to expressions of popular tradition, news information and to simple facts and data.
Article 3 The economic right
1. The economic right shall confer upon the author notably the power to permit or prohibit: a) the fixation and reproduction of the work by any means, such as mechanical, photochemical or electronic means: b) the translation of the work: c) the arrangement, adaptation or other alterations of the work: d) the distribution of the original or copies of the work via a transfer of ownership, a rental arrangement or public lending, and, notably with reference to the use of copies, the imposition of limiting conditions on a transfer of ownership or a rental or public lending arrangement: e) the communication of the work to the public: f) the public performance of the work: g) the broadcasting or rebroadcasting of the work to the public by radio and television, by wireless waves or by cables or by other material wires or by any other means, in parallel to the surface of the earth or by satellite: h) the import of copies of the work produced abroad without the creator’s consent or the import of copies from a country outside the European Community when the right over such imports had been retained in contract by the author.
2. The use, performance or presentation of the work shall be deemed to be «public» when the work thereby becomes accesible to a circle of persons wider than the narrow circle of the family and the immediate social circle of the author, regardless of whether the persons of this wider circle are at the same or different locations.
Article 4 The moral right
1. The moral right shall confer upon the author notably the following powers: a) to decide on the time, place and manner in which the work shall be made accessible to the public (publication): b) to demand that his position as the author of the work be acknowledged and, in particular, to the extent that it is possible, that his name be indicated on the copies of his work and noted whenever his work is used publicly, or, oppositely, if he so wishes, that his work be presented anonymously or under a pseudonym: c) to prohibit any distortion, mutilation or other modification of his work and any offence of the author due to the circumstances of the presentation of the work in public: d) to have access to his work, even when the economic right in the work or the physical entity of the work belongs to another person: in those latter cases, the access shall be effected with minimum possible nuisance to the rightholder: e) in the case of a literary or scientific work, to rescind a contract transfering the economic right or an exploitation contract or licence of which his work is the object, subject to payment of material damages to the other contracted party, for the pecuniary loss he has sustained, when the author considers such action be necessary to the protection of his personality because of changes in his beliefs or in the circumstances.
2. With reference to the last case of the preceding paragraph, the rescission takes effect after the payment of the damages. If, after the rescission, the author again decides to transfer the economic right or to permit exploitation of the work or of a like work, he must give the former other contracted party in priority the opportunity to reconstitute the old contract with the same terms or with terms similar to those which were in force at the time of the rescission.
3. The moral right shall be independent from the economic right and shall remain with the author even after the transfer of the economic right.
Article 5 «Droit de suite»
1. Whenever an original fine art work is resold at a a public auction or by an art dealer or through the mediation of an art dealer, the author of the work and his heirs shall have the right to demand a percentage of five per cent of the sale price. This right shall not be trasferrable between living persons.
2. The amount shall be rendered by the organizer of the public auction or by the art dealer.
3. Organizers of public auctions and art dealers are obliged when requested, to provide the Fine Arts Chamber of Greece and the fine arts collecting societies each year with exact information on the works sold by them or through their intervention in the preceding calendar year and on their sale prices.
SECTION II THE INITIAL SUBJECT OF THE COPYRIGHT
Article 6 The initial rightholder
1. The initial rightholder of the economic right and the moral right attaching to a work shall be the author of that work.
2. The above-mentioned rights shall be vested in the author of a work without resort to any formality.
Article 7 Works of joint authorship, collective and compound works
1. The term «work of joint authorship» shall designate any work which is the result of the direct collaboration of two or more authors. The initial rightholders in respect of the economic and moral rights attaching to a joint work shall be the co-authors of that. Unless otherwise agreed the rights shall be shared equally by the co - authors.
2. The term «collective work» shall designate any work created through the independent contribution of several authors acting under the intellectual direction and coordination of one natural person. That natural person shall be the initial rightholder of the economic right and the moral right attaching to the collective work.
Each author of a contribution shall be the initial rightholder of the economic right and the moral right attaching to his own contribution, provided that that contribution is capable of separate exploitation.
3. The term «compound work» shall designate a work which is composed of parts created separately. The authors of all of the parts shall be the initial co-rightholders of the rights attaching to the compound work and each author shall be the exclusive initial rightholder of the rights of the part of the compound work which he has created, provided that that part is capable of separate exploitation.
Article 8 Employee-created works
Where a work is created by an employee in the execution of an employment contract the initial rightholder of the economic and moral right attaching to the work shall be the author of the work. Unless otherwise provided by contract, the only powers stemming from the economic right shall be transferred exclusively to the employer shall be those which are necessary to the fulfilment of the purpose of the contract.
Article 9 Audiovisual works
The principal director of an audiovisual work shall be considered as its author.
Article 10 Presumptions
1. The person whose name appears on the material aid of a work in the manner usually used to indicate authorship shall be presumed to be the author of that work. The same shall apply when the name that appears is a pseudonym, provided that the pseudonym leaves no doubt as to the person’s identity.
2. In the cases of collective works, computer programs or audiovisual works, the natural or legal person whose name or title appears on the material aid of the work in the manner usually used to indicate the rightholder shall be presumed to be the rightholder of the copyright attaching to the particular work.
3. The presumption refferred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 above may be overridden by evidence to the contrary.
Article 11 Fictitious initial rightholders
1. Whoever publishes an anonymous or pseudonymous work is deemed to be against third parties the initial rightholder of the economic and moral rights attaching to that work. When the real author of the work reveals his identity, he aquires the above-mentioned rights at the condition they are from the actions of the fictitious rightholder.
2. Whoever possesses and publishes works of authors, who have deceased and are no more protected under the provisions of copyright, is deemed to be the initial rightholder of the economic and moral right attaching to that works.
3. In the cases referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2 above, the moral right shall belong to the fictitious rightholder insofar as that is appropriate to his status.
SECTION III TRANSFER EXPLOITATION AND THE EXERCISE OF RIGHTS
Article 12 Transfer
1. The economic right may be transferred between living persons or mortis causa.
2. The moral right shall not be transferable between living persons. After the death of an author the moral right shall pass to his heirs, who shall exercise the right in compliance with the author’s will, provided that such will has been explicitly expressed.
Article 13 Exploitation contracts and licences
1. The author of the work may conclude contracts, by which he entrusts to the other party to the contract powers deriving from the economic right (exploitation contracts). The other party to the contract undertakes the obligation to exercise the powers thus entrusted.
2. The author of the work may authorize some other person to exercise power deriving from the economic right (exploitation licences).
3. Exploitation contracts and licences may be exclusive or non-exclusive. Exclusive exploitation contracts and licences shall empower the other contracting party to exercise the powers conferred by the contract or licence excluding any third person. Non-exclusive exploitation contracts and licences shall give the right to the other contracting party to exercise the powers conferred by the contract or licence in parallel to the author and other contracting parties. In the absence of an agreement to the contrary, the other contracting party shall be entitled in his own name to seek legal protection against illegal infrigements by third parties of powers he exercices.
4. Where doubt exists about the exclusivity of an exploitation contract or licence the contract or licence shall be deemed to be non-exclusive.
5. The contract or licence may in no circumstance confer any right over the future works of the author in its entirety and shall never be deemed to refer also to forms of exploitation which were unknown at the time the relative legal acts were concluded.
6. The rights of a person who undertakes to effect the exploitation of a work or who aquires the possibility of exploitation may not be transferred between living persons without the consent of the author.
Article 14 Form of legal acts
Acts dealing with the transfer of powers stemming from the economic right, with the assignation or licensing of the right of exploitation and with the exercise of the moral right shall be null and void unless they are concluded in writing. Nullity may be invoked only by the intellectual author.
Article 15 Extent of transfer and of exploitation contracts and licences.
1. The transfer of the economic right and the exploitation contracts or the contracts licencing the exploitation of that right may be restrictive as regards the powers they confer, their scope and duration, the place of their validity and the extent or the means of exploitation.
2. If the duration of the transfer or of the exploitation contracts or licence is unspecified. its duration shall be deemed to be limited to five years, provided conventional mores do not indicate otherwise.
3. If the place of validity of the transfer or of the exploitation contracts or licence is unspecified, the said legal acts shall be deemed to be valid in the country in which they were concluded.
4. If the extent and the means of exploitation for which the transfer takes place or for which the exploitation or the exploitation licence is agreed are unspecified, it shall be deemed that the said acts refer to the extent and the means, which are necessary to the fulfilment of the purpose of the contract or licence.
5. In all cases involving the transfer of the economic right or the granting of an exclusive exploitation licence, the person who aquires the right or the licence shall ensure that within a reasonable period of time the work is accessible to the public via an appropriate form of exploitation.
Article 16 Consent of the author as exercise of the moral right
The granting of consent by an author for an action or an omission which would otherwise constitute an infrigment of his moral right shall be deemed to be a form of exercise of his moral right and shall be binding upon him.
Article 17 Transfer of the material aid
Unless there exists prior agreement to the contrary in writing with the initial rightholder of the economic right, the transfer of the ownership of the material aid, where the work has been incorporated, whether in the original form or in any form of copy, shall not constitute a transfer of the copyright or confer on the new owner any powers to exploit the work.
SECTION IV LIMITATIONS TO THE ECONOMIC RIGHT
Article 18 Reproduction for private use
1. Without prejudice to the provisions laid down in the following paragraphs, it shall be permissible for a person to make a reproduction of a lawfully published work for his own private use without the consent of the author and without payment. The term «private use» shall not designate use by an enterprise, a service or an organization.
2. The freedom to make a reproduction for private use shall not apply when the act of reproduction is likely to impede the normal exploitation of the work or to prejudice the author’s legitimate interests and notably: a) when the reproduction is an architectural work in the form of a building or similar construction; b) when technical means are used to reproduce a fine art work which circulates in restricted number, or when the reproduction is a graphical representation of a musical work.
3. If for the free reproduction of the work technical means are used, such as visual or sound or visual and sound recording equipment, magnetic tapes or other materials, suitable for the reproduction of sound or image or of sound and image, photocopying machines, photocopy paper or computers, an equitable remuneration shall be payable to the author of the work and to any rightholders of related rights. The remuneration shall be fixed at 6% of the value of the visual or sound or visual and sound recording equipment and of the magnetic tapes or other materials, at 4% of the value of the photocopying machines and of the photocopy paper and at 2% of the value of the computers. In any case, the calculation shall be made at the time of the import, or of the distribution from the factory or at the time of the wholesale or retail sale. The remuneration shall be paid by the manufacturers or the importers or the tradesmen of the objects herein specified and shall be noted on the invoice, acting for all or part of the concerned category of rightholders. The collecting societies shall collect the said remuneration and shall choose the debtor. The remuneration collected from the manufacture or import or sale of photocopying machines, photocopy paper and computers shall be shared equally between the intellectual authors and the publishers of printed matters. The remuneration collected from the manufacturer or import or sale of visual or sound or visual and sound recording shall be distributed in the proportion of 55% to the intellectual authors, 25% to performers and 20% to the producers of recorded magnetic tapes or other sound or visual or sound and visual recordings. The necessary details pertaining to the allocation and payment of monies to the various categories or sub-categories of the same category of rightholders can be determined by recommendation of the Minister for Culture.
Article 19 Quotations of extracts
Quotation of short extracts of a lawfully published work of an author for the purpose of providing support for a case advanced by the person making the quotation or a critique of the position of the author shall be permissible without the consent of the author and without payment, provided the quotation is effected in accordance with good morals and that the extent of the extracts is essential to the purposes of the quotation. The quotation of the extract must be accompanied by an indication of the source of the extracts and of the names of the author and of the publisher, provided the said names appear on the source.
Article 20 School textbooks and anthologies
1. The reproduction of the lawfully published literary works of one or more writers in educational textbooks approved for use in the primary and secondary education by the Ministry of National Education and Religions or another competent ministry, according to the official detailed syllabus, shall be permissible without the consent of the authors and without payment. The reproduction shall encompass only a small part of the total output of each of the writers.
2. After the death of the author it shall be permissible to reproduce his works in a lawfully published anthology of literary works of more than one writers, without the consent of the rightholders and without payment. The reproduction shall encompass only a small part of the total output of each of the writers.
3. The reproduction, as specified in paragraphs 1 and 2 above, shall not impede the normal exploitation of the work from which the texts are taken and must be accompanied by an indication of the source and of the names of the author and of the publisher, provided the said names appear on the source.
Article 21 Reproduction for teaching purposes
It shall be permissible, without the consent of the author and without payment, to reproduce articles lawfully published in a newspaper or periodical, short extracts of a work or parts of a short work or a lawfully published fine art work exclusively for teaching or examination purposes at an educational establishment, in such measure as is commensurate with the aforementioned purpose, and provided that the reproduction is effected in accordance with good morals and does not impede normal exploitation. The reproduction must be accompanied by an indication of the source and of the names of the author and of the publisher, provided the said names appear on the source.
Article 22 Reproduction by libraries and archives
It shall be permissible, without the consent of the author and without payment, for a non-profit-making library or archive to reproduce one additional copy from the copy of the work already in their permanent collection for the purpose of retaining that additional copy or of transferring it to another non-profit-making library or archive. The reproduction shall be permissible only if the additional copy cannot be obtained from the market promptly and on reasonable terms.
Article 23 Reproduction of cinematographic works
In a circumstance where the rightholder of the economic right abusively withholds consent for the reproduction of a cinematographic work of special artistic value for the purpose of preserving it in the National Cinematographic Archive, the reproduction shall be permissible without his consent and without payment, subject to a decision by the Minister of Culture, taken in conformity to the prior opinion of the Cinematography Advisory Counsil.
Article 24 Reproduction for judicial or administrative purposes
To the extent justified for a particular purpose, the reproduction of a work for use in the judicial or administrative procedure shall be permitted without the consent of the author and without payment.
Article 25 Reproduction for information purposes
1. To the extent justified for a particular purpose, the following acts of reproduction shall be permissible without the consent of the author and without payment: a) for the purpose of reporting current events by the mass media, the reproduction and communication to the public of works seen or heard in the cource of the event: b) for the purpose of informing on current events, the reproduction and communication to the public by the mass media of political speeches, addresses, sermons, legal speeches or other works of the same nature, as well as of summaries or extracts of lectures, provided the said works are delivered in public.
2. Wherever possible, the reproduction and communication to the public shall be accompanied by an indication of the source and of the name of the author.
Article 26 Use of visual images of works sited in public places.
The occasional reproduction and communication by the mass media of visual images of arcitectural works, fine art works, photograph or applied art works, which are sited permanently in a public place, shall be permissible, without the consent of the author and without payment.
Article 27 Public performance or presentation on special occasions
The public performance or presentation of a work shall be permissible without the consent of the author and without payment on the following occasions: a) at official ceremonies, in measure commensurate with the nature of the ceremonies: b) within the framework of staff and pupil or student activities at an educational establishment, provided the audience is composed exclusively of the aforementioned persons, the parents of the pupils or students, persons responsible for the care of the pupils or students or persons directly involved in the activities of the establishment.
Article 28 Exhibition and reproduction of fine art works
1. Museums which own the material aid, where the art works have been incorporated, shall be entitled, without the consent of the author and without payment, to exhibit those works to the public on the museum premises or during exhibitions organised in museums.
2. The presentation of a fine art work to the public and its reproduction in catalogues in a measure necessary to promote its sale shall be permissible, without the consent of the author and without payment.
3. In the circumsances of paragraphs 1 and 2 above, reproduction shall be permissible, provided such reproduction does not impede the normal exploitation of the work and does not prejudice the legitimate interests of the author.
SECTION V DURATION OF PROTECTION
Article 29 Duration in general
1. Copyright over a work shall continue to apply for the whole of the author’s lifetime and for seventy years after his death computed from the end of the year of death.
2. After the expiry of the period of copyright protection, the State, represented by the Minister of Culture, may exercise the rights relating to the acknowledgement of the author’s paternity and the rights relating to the protection of the integrity of the work stemming from the moral right pursuant to Article 4 (1b and 1c) of this Law.
Article 30 Works of joint authorship
Copyright over works of joint authorship shall continue to apply for the lifetime of the last surviving authors and for seventy years after his death, computed from the end of the year of death.
Article 31 Special commencement of the duration
1. Copyright over works published anonymously or pseudonymously shall continue to apply for seventy years, computed from the end of the year in which the work was lawfully published for the first time, unless the author discloses his identity before the expiry of that period, in which case the general rules shall apply.
2. Copyright over works, published after the death of their authors by third persons possesing them, shall continue to apply for seventy years, computed from the end of the year in which the work was lawfully published for the first time.
SECTION VI RULES RELATING TO EXPLOITATION CONTRACTS AND LICENCES