3.2-2 A lecturer wants to prepare a PowerPoint presentation for his class, but does not know how it works. He writes the text on paper and asks an assistant to insert it into PowerPoint without any changes. Is the assistant a joint author of the text?

by iv4n.p4v1c | Sep 29, 2022 | FAQ

No, the lecturer is the only author. The assistant created the slides as directed by the lecturer and did not give any creative input of their own. The assistant is just the executing person.

3.2-1 Who is the author of a children’s book if one person writes the text and another person creates the illustrations?

by iv4n.p4v1c | Sep 29, 2022 | FAQ

Both of them are joint authors. They are engaged in a joint creative task – in this case, the creation of a children’s book – and are jointly pursuing this objective.

3.1-3 For a project, magazine articles should be digitised and indexed by applying the principles of computational linguistics (a software ‘reads’ the words in the articles to collect and analyse text data). Does this qualify as perception of a work?

by iv4n.p4v1c | Sep 29, 2022 | FAQ

No, perception of a work only means that a natural person (human being) is taking notice of a work (in this case reading a work), not a computer.

3.1-2 A writer is mandated to write the biography of a prominent politician. However, the prominent politician is described in the book as the author who wrote the biography (“ghostwriter”). Who is the author of the biography?

by iv4n.p4v1c | Sep 29, 2022 | FAQ

The writer is the author. This person created the work.

3.1-1 A student is working on their master’s thesis. Does the university automatically acquire the copyright in the master’s thesis?

by iv4n.p4v1c | Sep 29, 2022 | FAQ

No, the copyright can only originate with the student.

2.6.4-3 May a library copy and put a newspaper online which was published 50 years ago if the publisher has gone bankrupt?

by iv4n.p4v1c | Sep 29, 2022 | FAQ

Caution is advised here. The author principally has the exclusive right to put the work online and must give their consent. However, a newspaper can be digitised and put online without the author’s consent if the copyrights in the newspaper have expired. This is...

2.6.4-2 When does the term of protection of a newspaper end? When does the term of protection of an individual article in a newspaper end?

by iv4n.p4v1c | Sep 29, 2022 | FAQ

As it usually consists of several works (articles, images, etc.) which fulfil the conditions of a copyright-protected work based on the selection of the work contained therein or their special arrangement (Art. 2 Para. 1 in conjunction with Art. 4 Para. 1...

2.6.4-1 When does the term of protection end on works which are transferred to someone (e.g. to the publisher)?

by iv4n.p4v1c | Sep 29, 2022 | FAQ

The copyright term of protection is only calculated on the basis of the date of death of the original author and not on that of the owner of rights to whom the copyright was transferred.

2.6.3-1 Gottfried Keller died on 15 July 1890. How is the term of protection of his works calculated?

by iv4n.p4v1c | Sep 29, 2022 | FAQ

As Gottfried Keller’s date of death is known, his work is protected for up to 70 years after his death (Art. 29 Para. 2 CopA); this means his work was protected until 1960. As the term of protection does not take the exact day of the death of the author as its...

2.5-5 An e-learning platform is constructed according to the ideas and structures invented by its developers. A lecturer would now like to use this structure for his teaching. May the lecturer do so without the consent of the platform developers?

by iv4n.p4v1c | Sep 29, 2022 | FAQ

Yes and no. The e-learning platform is a database and therefore a collected work pursuant to Art. 4 CopA. It is protected with regard to the selection and arrangement of the content (data) when this can be viewed as an intellectual creation with individual content....