4.2.3 Right to make a work perceptible or available

Authors have the right to recite, perform or present a work, or make it perceptible somewhere else or make it available directly or through any kind of medium in such a way that people may access it from a place and at a time individually chosen by them (Art. 10 para. 2 (c) CopA).

‘recite, perform, present, make perceptible’:

Certain works of an author are meant to be made available to the public – for example, the author of a play wants to present the play on stage, a composer wants their music to be performed, a poet wants to recite their work, etc. Art. 10 para. 2 (c) CopA grants authors the exclusive right to present their work in these ways, either directly, e.g. stage performance, concert, exhibition, or indirectly with the help of technical media, e.g. video recording of a concert which is screened later at another place (cf. Hilty, Urheberrecht, 2011, 151).

This in particular includes the “on-demand right. This is the right to make a work available on the Internet or in a database as a file that can be accessed by a user and made visible or audible on the user’s device. This principally refers to the uploading of works, but also to making works available on demand. The author has the right to do everything that is needed to enable users to access their work (cf. Hilty, Urheberrecht, 2011, 152).

FAQ

4.2.3-1 Does the author of a video or a photo have the right to upload this video or photo to an Internet portal?

Yes, this is the author’s exclusive right; according to Art. 10 para. 2 (c) CopA authors may make their work perceptible and available in such a way that people may access it at any time and from any place. This can also be done by uploading files (in this case, the video or the photo). At the same time, this is also an act of reproduction pursuant to Art. 10 para. 2 (a) CopA, because the video or photo is usually also saved on a server. The author is also permitted to do this.