Study On Copyright Co-owner System

As the development of social economy, the improvement of the need of spiritual and cultural products as well as the increasingly rich of work’s form, the scope of the copyright’s object has expanded. Intellectual property that based on one person’s work is being replaced by on the combination of several people, which becomes the main object of copyright. The co-owner system of copyright appears. Depending on the dimensions of co-ownership, copyright’s co-owner system can be divided into two categories: transverse co-owner copyright and longitudinal co-owner copyright.Transverse co-owner copyright can be divided into two categories based on the way that the co-ownership appears: one is the based on the fact that the parties created the work together, like the co-ownership of joint works; the other one is based on derivative acquisition, it means after partial transformation or permission, successor and original owner become the co-owner of work. Longitudinal co-owner copyright means the co-ownership between new work that based on the re-creation of original work and original work, including the practice of deduce, compile, film production, etc.The weakness of theory and the imperfection of the system induce numerous problems in reality. The problems lie in transverse co-owner copyright are as fellows: the definition of joint work, and co-ownership based on joint creation, derivative acquisition, as well as the issues of exercise of right and share of the benefit. The plights that longitudinal co-owner copyright faces in reality are as fellows: the practice of deduction, compilation, and film production produces multiple copyrights, the “second hand “user should get permission from every “first hand” owner, and any rejection from any “first hand” owner may break the whole license chain. This situation may cost lots of time and energy of the users, to large extent, it will dampen users’ enthusiasm, reduce efficiency of copyright trade, block the transmission of works. On the other side, rules about the film and video production in China’s copyright law obeys copyright’s basic spirit, it also cannot comply with <Berne Convention>.To solve problems above, the improvement of system is critical. As for transverse co-owner copyright, there should be ruled by law that the author of joint work can be agreed in contract should be excluded. Besides, combining with ownership in Property Law, along with copyright’s own character, clarify the nature of the two transverse co-owner copyright, the rules of how to exercising them, and the way of sharing benefits. As to longitudinal co-owner copyright, first, collective management system would be an ideal solution to this issue. On the other hand, in terms of film and video works, we should treat it as a special form of derivative work in law, according to the basic spirit of copyright.