Copyright and publishing

A copyright is granted to the author upon completion of the work in a form that can be perceived by other persons.

  This websites are summarizing the basic principles of Copyright law in the Czech Republic, where Copyright law is regulated by Act No. 121/2000 Coll., on copyright and rights related to copyright. In other countries within the EU, Copyright law may differ in some aspects. In countries outside the EU such as Great Britain or the USA, Copyright law is built upon different principles and the diversity may be even deeper.  

Conditions for granting copyright protection:

• Must be original work
• Copyrighted work must be a product of author’s intellectual creation in any form that can be perceived by other persons: artistic, scientific, utilitarian or informative (in the case of photographs, software and databases originality is the only factor)
• An author must be a human being
• A work must be expressed in perceptible form (even with the help of a device)

Copyright law protects:

• Work of art
• Audio recording
• Audio-visual recording
• Radio and television broadcasting
• Databases (this is a right sui generis for the producer of the database)

  Expression of a principle or of an idea, for example a detective story, may be protected by copyright, but not a simple principle or an idea itself.

Copyright exceptions: Works, which would meet the conditions of copyright by their nature, though they are exempted because for reasons of public interest, are exempted. These Official works as state legislation, judicial and administrative decisions, municipal chronicles, state symbols are excluded from copyright protection as well as works of traditional folk culture (if the author’s name is not generally known).