COPYRIGHT PROTECTION OF DRAMATIC WORKS IN THE LAW OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
Keywords:
dramatic works, The InfoSoc Directive, The Enforcement Directive, The Rental Right Directive, The Term Directive, The Orphan Works Directive, The Collective Rights Management DirectiveAbstract
First of all, it shall be stated that the legal harmonization of copyright law is fragmented, because the legislator of the European Union does not touch all of the artworks and all of the uses of copyright subject matter. Dramatic works are subject matter of most of the countries’ copyright laws. To put it in a nutshell, dramatic works are such works, which are intended to perform in a theatre, such as plays, dramas, operettas, operas and musicals. During the former research regarding to the writing of the article, we have observed a kind of lack, because the rules concerning to dramatic works are almost completely missing. The lack is not the dramatic works’ “fault”, it means neither that they are less important than other artworks and nor that they do not deserve the legislatior’s attention or the protecting umbrella of the law. In fact, there are two main reasons, which results the lack of the European Union’s rules pertaining to dramatic works. On the one hand, one reason covers the comprehensive factors of the partial and fragmented harmonization. In this circle one of the main reason of the lack of regulation is that the fundamental, essential issues of copyright law have not been harmonized until nowadays in the EU.
