Creativity deserves protection worldwide
In a digitally connected world, photographs, texts, paintings, musical works and other creative works are disseminated around the globe in a matter of seconds. This makes it all the more important that copyright does not end at national borders.
Many people are unaware that copyright is protected by international agreements. The most important of these is the Berne Convention, which was adopted as early as 1886 and is now recognised by most countries in the world. It ensures that a work created in one member state generally enjoys copyright protection in all other member states as well.
This means that anyone who creates a photograph, a painting, a text or a musical composition is granted rights to their work not only in their home country. These rights are respected and protected across large parts of the world. No one may reproduce, publish, adapt or commercially exploit a protected work without the author’s consent.
This international protection is of particular importance to photographers, artists, authors and musicians. The internet opens up unprecedented opportunities to showcase works worldwide. At the same time, however, the risk of copyright infringements is also increasing. An image published in Europe today may appear on a website on another continent tomorrow – legally or illegally.
Copyright is therefore far more than a legal framework. It is the recognition of intellectual and creative achievement. It protects not only economic interests, but also the personal connection between the artist and their work. It guarantees that creative individuals can determine for themselves how their works are used and under whose name they are published.
Creativity is universal. That is why its protection must also be considered from an international perspective. Those who respect the works of others respect the labour, time, experience and passion that go into every creative endeavour.
Copyright is not a barrier to culture and exchange – it is the foundation that ensures art, literature, photography and music can continue to flourish in the future.
Copyright through the ages
Art has never been merely a picture on the wall. Art is a person’s signature, their thoughts, their time, their life.
When we talk about copyright today, many take it for granted. Yet the journey towards it began centuries ago with a remarkable case: that of an artist’s widow.
Following the death of the famous engraver and painter Albrecht Dürer in 1528, his widow, Agnes Dürer, fought against pirated copies of his works. Merchants and copycats reproduced Dürer’s art and made money from it, without the artist or his family benefiting. Agnes campaigned with great determination to protect the rights to her late husband’s works. She is therefore regarded as one of the first people to have championed what we now know as copyright.
This story shows that the protection of creative work is not a modern invention. Even back then, it was about respect, recognition and fairness towards the people who invest their ideas, their skills and often a large part of their lives in their works.
Particularly in the age of digital media, artificial intelligence and the boundless dissemination of images, this issue is more relevant than ever. Behind every photograph, every painting, every text and every composition is a person whose work deserves appreciation and protection.
Copyright does not merely protect works. It protects creativity. It protects identity. And it reminds us that every art history begins with a person.
Copyright in detail
The right to recognition of authorship
One of the most important rights is the right to be named as the author. No third party may pass off a work as their own or conceal the identity of the actual creator. The artist decides whether their name is mentioned, whether the work is published under a pseudonym, or whether it should appear anonymously.
Particularly in the age of social media, images and works of art are frequently shared without attribution. This not only constitutes a disregard for the artist’s creative output, but may also amount to a copyright infringement.
The right to determine publication
The author alone decides whether and when their work is published. No one may make an unpublished work available to the public without the artist’s consent.
This right protects, in particular, artists who work on projects for years and wish to decide for themselves when their work is complete and ready for presentation.
The right of reproduction
Only the author may decide whether their work may be copied or reproduced. This applies to printed books as well as digital photographs, art prints, scans or copies on the internet.
Anyone who downloads an image from the internet and uses it on a website, on social media or in promotional materials without consent may be infringing copyright.
The right of distribution
The artist determines whether and in what way their work is sold, hired out or otherwise distributed. They may grant rights of use to individual persons or companies, or refuse them entirely.
In doing so, the author always remains the intellectual creator of their work. If, for example, a photographer sells a print of their photograph, they do not automatically sell all their copyright.
The right of public performance
Artists decide whether their works may be publicly displayed, exhibited, performed, broadcast or published online.
For photographers, this means, for example, that their images may not be used on websites, in magazines, on advertising posters or on social media without their consent.
The right to protection against distortion
A particularly important moral right is protection against alterations that could impair the character of the work or damage the artist’s reputation.
For example, a photograph may not, without the photographer’s consent, be significantly altered, distorted or placed in a context that distorts the work’s message or disparages the artist.
The artist’s economic rights
Copyright protects not only the personal relationship to the work, but also the creator’s economic interests. Artists can grant licences and demand remuneration for the use of their works.
These rights enable photographers, painters, authors, designers and musicians to make a living from their creative work. Without copyright protection, works could be copied and used commercially at will, without the creators receiving any share of the proceeds.
Copyright in the digital age
Never before has it been so easy to distribute creative works worldwide. At the same time, however, it has never been easier to infringe copyright. A single uploaded image can be copied and redistributed thousands of times within a matter of hours.
This is precisely why copyright is more important today than ever before. It protects the creative output of individuals and ensures that creativity, originality and artistic work retain their value.
Copyright is not a privilege. It is the legal recognition of an intellectual achievement. It protects not only the work itself, but also the dignity, identity and economic livelihood of those who create art.
Those who respect the rights of artists respect the foundation of all cultural development: human creative work.
Right to quote
Particularly in the fields of photography and video, it is a recurring occurrence that major media organisations access image and video content without permission. They then invoke a special right to which they are entitled under the copyright law of the respective country: the right to quote. However, even this special right is subject to conditions that must be met. For instance, the visual material must be relevant to the context of the report for which it is being used. The source and the author must be credited
In 2022, for example, Swiss television used visual material (video) from an event in a satirical programme. In response to the author’s complaint, the legal department invoked precisely this right to quote. The author then contacted me. I pointed out that the right to quote is not intended for satire (entertainment), but only for news (information). Its use in a satirical programme significantly infringed the integrity of the work, which is why the copyright infringement was more serious. This story made the headlines in Switzerland at the time because the television station’s legal department had made such a fool of itself.
However, no newspaper reported the outcome of this story. Once the argument based on the right to quote had been refuted, the legal department referred to two Federal Supreme Court rulings relating to the definition of a ‘work’ under copyright law. The aim, therefore, was to deny that this video constituted a ‘work’. Yet this was precisely where the error lay, as this definition of a ‘work’ had been amended by Parliament in 2019 in precisely this regard, and came into force on 1 April 2020; the Federal Supreme Court judgements mentioned could therefore no longer serve as precedents.
Term of copyright protection
Copyright is the inalienable property of the author; it is intellectual property. It passes to the author’s descendants 75 years after their death. This is regulated in the same way internationally, as art derives its protection from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Conclusion
Although the wording of copyright law may differ from country to country, at its core it is the same worldwide. There are also exceptions where the author’s rights are restricted; I will discuss these in a future article. However, as the case involving Swiss television shows, it is worth fighting for one’s rights as an author. Even if a media company’s legal department is involved, one should not be intimidated by this, as copyright matters require a solicitor specialising in media law.
