What are copyrights?

Copyright is a type of intellectual property. It gives its owner the right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform creative work.

Copyright grants two types of rights: economic and moral.

Economic and moral rights

Economic rights

• Guarantee control over the work.
• Guarantee remuneration for work through selling or licensing.
• They are transferable.

Moral rights

• Right of attribution - the right to claim the authorship.
• Right of integrity - the right to refuse the modification of the work.
• They are non-transferable.

Useme tip: In EU law, as an author, you always have the moral right to the work. They are non-transferable. You can’t pass them on to another person in any way.

What else should you know about copyright?

You can transfer the economic rights of a unique and original work. You can do it under a license or a protocol.

A license transfer

• You can still profit financially from your work.
• You transfer the rights for a period of time.
• All it needs is an online confirmation.
• You can sell the work to another client under a license.

A protocol transfer

• You give up the ability to profit from your work.
• You transfer the rights indefinitely.
• You need to print, fill in, and scan additional documents.

Should I transfer the rights?

When you create something unlikely to be used by another person, such as a logo, it’s a good idea to transfer it to copyright. However, when you sell something like software that you could sell again to another client, think twice before parting with your economic rights.