Copyright Contract Law

The Copyright Contract Law Act entered into force on 1 July 2015. Copyright contract law is elaborated in Chapter IA of the Copyright Act and concerns articles 25b to 25h of the Copyright Act.

Work creators often depend on an operator who makes their work public. To this end, the creator must transfer (part of) his copyrights to the operator or grant the operator a license for the exploitation of the work. This must be arranged contractually. During the conclusion of the contract, the operator often has a stronger position than the creator of the work. For the operator, these contracts are usually part of daily practice, while in many cases the creator of the work is hardly involved. To strengthen the contractual position of the maker and to have a number of extra guarantees for the maker, the copyright contract law has therefore been devised.

Copyright contract law applies to all exploitation contracts concluded after the entry into force of the law, ie after 1 July 2015. However, Article 25e (with the exception of paragraph 6), Article 25f and Article 25fa also apply to contracts that are July 1, 2015, are closed.