In short
Copyright is the economic and moral powers recognised to the owner of the work. It is not a copy of trade-mark registration. An infringement on the internet is in a separate article.
The work, the date, and the proof of publication are the first slip.
The trade-mark class is the face of TÜRKPATENT.
An action under the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works is not an application to the registry.
Related articles: copyright on the internet.
Where the copyright record is read
The copyright record is read from the separation of the work, the economic right, and the moral right. A year of protection that is not written in the file is not added. The office address does not choose the competent authority. Trade-mark registration is not put in the place of copyright. The basis is the text of the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works No. 5846.
The question of what copyright is is often mixed with trade-mark registration or with a sentence of "I took the logo". Copyright is the economic and moral powers, recognised in the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works, of the person who created an original work. It does not wait for the queue of registration. If there is the character of a work, protection starts with the production.
This article does not repeat the trade-mark application, the Nice class, or the moulds of a measure in a counterfeit product. Those subjects are in separate articles. Here the work, the clusters of rights, the licence, and the frame particular to copyright of an infringement are told. The text is general information.
For the field you may look at the page intellectual property law. For a distinctive sign, how is a trade mark registered? should be read, and for an infringement of a sign, what can be done in a trade-mark infringement?.
What are copyright and a work?
A work in the sense of the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works is an intellectual product that carries its owner's individuality and that enters one of the groups counted in the statute. Individuality does not mean absolute novelty or artistic genius; it is an original expression that reflects the creator's personal choice.
What is protected is the expression, not the abstract idea. The subject of a novel, the business purpose of a software, or a photograph being "a landscape" does not by itself give birth to a monopoly. The sentences, the concrete writing of the code, the composition, and the form of adaptation are debated.
The main groups are in practice as follows: science and literature (debates on a text and on software often stand here), music, fine arts, cinema. An adaptation and a compilation open a debate on a new work bound to the original work.
If there is no character of a work, a sentence of "I made it" does not carry a copyright action. In the other direction, if there is a work, an unpublished draft may also be protected; publication is not the birth of the right, but the use of the power to disclose it to the public.
Moral rights
The moral rights are powers bound to the personality of the author:
- Whether or not to disclose the work to the public
- Asking that the name be stated (or the choice to remain anonymous)
- Preventing a distorting change being made in the work
- Particular possibilities of a claim relating to the original of the work
This cluster is not sold freely like the economic rights. Even if a wide permission of use was given in the contract, deleting the name or distorting the work beyond recognition may give birth to a separate infringement.
A moral right does not close criticism or a statutory quotation automatically. The limit is looked for on the line of distortion and of a wrong attribution. A general ban is not built without the text of the concrete intervention.
Economic rights, the licence, and transfer
The economic rights carry the economic use: adaptation, reproduction, distribution, performance, communication to the public. In a digital environment, downloading, broadcasting, and uploading to a platform are read under these headings.
Use is legitimised in three ways:
- The right holder uses it themselves.
- They transfer the economic rights.
- They give a licence (exclusive or simple; limited in period, place, language, and medium).
A licence does not transfer the ownership. An uncertain sentence of "everyone may share" may not be counted as permission for a commercial resale. A written scope, as in the contracts of commercial law too, reduces the later burden of interpretation.
In an employment relation and in a commission, to whom the economic rights belong is resolved by looking at the special rules in the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works and at the contract. A formula of employer and employee from memory is not fixed in this article. The moral rights still stand apart.
Why does the difference from a trade mark matter?
A trade mark is a sign of showing the source in the market. Copyright protects the creative expression. A logo may be both a work of fine art and a trade mark; the strategy of the action and of registration is still separated.
Registration: central in a trade mark, and as a rule not a condition of birth in copyright.
The period: in a trade mark it extends with renewal; in copyright the statutory periods operate on the axis of the author and the heirs (the current article is checked).
Infringement: in a trade mark, confusion and the same or a similar sign; in copyright, reproduction, communication to the public, adaptation.
For this reason the mould of a measure in a counterfeit-shoe file is not pasted onto the sharing of an unauthorised series clip. The two clusters of articles are not copies of each other.
How does the process move in an infringement?
- Fix the work and the ownership of the right. The draft, the date, the contract, the record of the professional union.
- Establish the act of infringement. The URL, the copy, the date, the commercial account, the form of reproduction.
- Look at whether there is a licence. A use that overflows a closed scope may also be a breach of contract.
- The notice and the removal. A platform notification provides evidence and tempo; it does not stand in for the court.
- Urgent protection. An interim measure is thought of according to the concrete loss and to the infringement continuing.
- Compensation or the criminal route. The commercial measure, the intent, and the evidence change the choice of route.
- A licence or a settlement. An unauthorised use may also close later with a licence; it is not obligatory.
The steps of a trade-mark infringement are in the article what can be done in a trade-mark infringement?. In a copyright file the Nice class is not looked for.
Frequent errors: thinking the right does not exist because it is unregistered; counting every copy as legitimate by citing the source; melting the trade mark and the copyright in the same notice; waiting for the content to be deleted without taking an establishment.
Important information: copyright does not arise by registration. Proof stands as a burden separate from the birth.
The term of protection, the professional union, and proof
Even if the birth of copyright is not bound to registration, its term is in the statute. The term is detailed in the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works according to the type of work and to whether the right holder is a natural person; in this article, checking the current text of the article is suggested, instead of fixing a year from memory. When the term is full, the economic rights may open to a debate on the public domain; the trace of the moral rights is read differently in some files.
A record with a professional union (in fields such as music, a literary work, and cinema) is functional for collection and for a collective licence. The record is not a condition of the birth of the right; it makes proof and the management of the licence easier, however. Not being a member of the union does not leave the work unprotected.
Proof is in practice a race of dates. The metadata of the draft, the email, the cloud version, the notarial establishment, and the record of publication stand together. Testimony of "I made it" may stay weak by itself. In the other direction, an allegation of a "new work" with a small change on someone else's work does not solve the problem of permission for the adaptation either.
In software, the source code, the interface, and the documentation may be debated in separate layers. A breach of an open-source licence is both a copyright file and a contract file. It is not said that "the code is open to everyone" before the duty of attribution in the licence text, and of transferring it with the same licence, is read.
Quotation, the exception, and the commission meeting
Statutory quotation and some education and public exceptions are narrow. Citing the source does not legitimise publishing the whole of the work on a commercial account. The appearances of parody, news, and criticism want a concrete measure; there is no template permission.
In a commission meeting, the following headings should be written: which economic rights, which period and medium, whether it is exclusive, the price, the format of delivery, the authority to change, and the stating of the name. A scope that is not written opens later to an interpretation of "everything everywhere". An annex to an employment contract and an independent contract for a work should not be mixed.
A transfer and a licence should not be melted in the same sentence. A transfer is close to the economic right changing hands; a licence is permission to use. The moral rights still stand apart. The general security and penalty clauses in the contracts of commercial law cannot pass the mandatory line of the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works.
The class of trade-mark registration is not part of this meeting. If the logo will be both a work and a trade mark, the two regimes want two sentences of contract. A single heading of "transfer of intellectual property" is often not enough.
Communication to the public, the platform, and establishment
The typical appearance of a digital infringement is communication to the public: the work being opened on the internet to the access of third persons. Reproduction (downloading, a copy file) is often added beside it. A platform complaint form may remove the content quickly; it does not finish the question of ownership of the right and of compensation, however. If there is no screenshot of the page that was removed, the proof is also gone. For this reason establishment is thought of before the notice.
The establishment may be a notary, a report of an informatics expert, or an establishment by the court. The URL, the date, the account name, and the trace of a commercial advertisement pass onto the record. An approach of "we will look tomorrow" empties the file with the content being deleted.
A moral infringement appears often in the digital environment: the name being deleted, the work being distorted and made into material for humour or for advertising, a wrong attribution to its owner. Pecuniary compensation does not arise automatically and high in every moral infringement; the concrete intervention is written.
The right of adaptation comes to the fore in translation, adaptation, a remix, and the forking of software. If there is no permission of the owner of the original work, "I also gave labour" does not break the monopoly of the adaptation. An open licence may stand in for the permission; a fork is not opened before the copyleft or attribution condition of the licence is read.
These headings stand apart from the danger of confusion in a trade-mark infringement. In the same logo file the two regimes may come side by side; the sentences of the petition are still separated.
Examples of a photograph, software, and an adaptation
In a photograph, individuality is looked for in the angle, the light, the frame, and the choice of the moment. A simple identity photograph, or a frame of an automatic security camera, is not counted as a work in every file. If the scope of the licence of a commercial stock photograph (the web, print, social media, the period) is exceeded, the infringement does not fall with "I used it small".
In software, what is protected is as a rule the original expression in the source code. The idea, the logic of the algorithm, or the function may not by itself give birth to a monopoly. The interface texts and the documentation may open a separate debate on a work. The rule of the economic right of employer and employee should not be mixed with the licence sentence in the commission contract.
An adaptation is bound to the original work in translation, adaptation, a remix, and the forking of code. If there is no permission or open licence, "I also gave labour" does not produce a new monopoly. In a compilation, individuality in the selection and the arrangement is looked at separately. These examples are independent of the list of trade-mark classes.
A tariff and a collective licence of a professional union make taking permission one by one easier in practice; the tariff does not remove the right holder in the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works. An author who is not a member of the union may also assess the routes of application against an infringement. Establishment and the notice stand independent of membership. A list of licence tariffs does not stand in for the concrete contract.
Questions that come up often
Does copyright arise by registration?
No. Within the frame of the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works No. 5846, copyright as a rule arises by itself with the creation of the work. The obligation of registration in a trade mark or a patent is not carried here. A notarial establishment, registration systems, or a record with a professional union may make proof easier; it is not a condition of the birth of the right. If there is no character of a work, registration does not produce protection either. For proof, the draft, the dated file, the record of publication, and the correspondence are kept. An unpublished draft may also be protected if it is a work. This article is general information. How is a trade mark registered? is a separate route of industrial property.
What are the moral rights, and may they be waived?
The moral rights are gathered under headings such as disclosing the work to the public, asking that the name be stated, preventing a change being made in the work, and a claim from the possessor of the work. These rights are tightly bound to the personality; they are not transferred freely like the economic rights. Permission may be given by contract for some uses; a sentence of "I sold all of my moral rights", however, is read carefully in most files. The name not being stated, or a distorting change, opens a debate on a moral infringement. The concrete type of work (music, software, architecture, a photograph) changes the appearance. It is general information; there is no promise of a definite result.
What do economic rights and a licence mean?
The economic rights cover economic uses such as adaptation, reproduction, distribution, performance, and communication to the public. The right holder may use these powers themselves, may transfer them, or may give a licence. A licence gives not the ownership of the right, but permission to use it for a particular period, place, language, and medium. An exclusive licence and a simple licence give birth to a different result. A written and clear scope reduces a later debate of "everything is free everywhere". A sharing without a price may also be counted as a licence; the scope should still be written. What will be transferred is the economic right; the moral right stands apart. The contract also intersects with commercial law.
Are copyright and a trade mark the same protection?
They are not. Copyright protects an original intellectual effort as a work; as a rule there is no condition of registration. A trade mark protects the sign that distinguishes the goods or the service, and the strategy of registration is central. A logo may open a debate both as a work and as a trade mark; the regimes are still separate. A copyright infringement is not an action about a counterfeit product; a trade-mark infringement is not an action about copying a book either. The period, the proof, and the authorities of application differ. For this reason the trade-mark articles do not stand in for this text. For the detail, the articles on registration and on infringement should be read. The concrete sign and the type of work are looked at together.
To whom does the right in a work produced for the job belong?
An employment relation, a commission, and a contract for a work may give birth to different results. The Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works foresees special rules about the use of the economic rights in particular professional and service relations; it is not said from memory that "it always belongs to the employer" or "it always belongs to the employee". If the subject, the period, the medium, and the price are not written in the contract, the later debate on use grows. In an independent designer or a software developer, the commission contract is read separately. The moral rights still tend to remain with the author. The concrete contract and the actual definition of the duty are taken as the basis. The current text of the article should be checked. It is general information.
Is sharing on the internet always an infringement?
No. If there is permission from the owner of the right, a licence, a statutory exception, or an area of free use, the sharing may be in accordance with the law. Quotation, education, and some exceptions of disclosure to the public that is open to the public are interpreted narrowly; "I cited the source" does not acquit every copy. Using someone else's photograph, music, or software on a commercial account is a frequent appearance of infringement. The platform's complaint form does not stand in for the legal establishment; it provides evidence and tempo, however. The character of the infringement is read with the elements of reproduction and of communication to the public. The concrete sharing and the text of the licence are taken as the basis. There is no promise of a definite penalty or of compensation.
Which routes are assessed in a copyright infringement?
A notice, removal of the content, an interim measure, pecuniary and non-pecuniary compensation, return of the gain, and in some situations a criminal complaint, may be spoken of. The choice of route changes according to whether the infringement is commercial, the evidence, and the urgency. A notarial establishment, a screenshot, the URL, and the date record are taken early. The measures of a trade-mark infringement are not an automatic copy of this file; that route is in the article what can be done in a trade-mark infringement?. If there is a licence contract, a breach of contract is also debated first. Not every sharing requires a criminal complaint. A template route is not chosen before the concrete work and the form of the infringement are examined.
Which types of work does the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works cover?
The statute regulates the main groups of works of science and literature, of music, of fine arts, and of cinema. Software, a photograph, architecture, the stage, and adaptations are also debated in these groups according to their concrete qualities. The protection turns not to the idea itself, but to the original expression of that idea. An ordinary list, a news text, or an administrative form that is not original enough is not counted as a work in every file. An adaptation and a compilation give birth to a problem of respect for the original work and of permission. Determining the type also changes which economic right was infringed. It is not said that "every content is a work" before the concrete product is examined. It is a general frame.
Conclusion
Copyright is the economic and moral powers of the author in the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works. The birth is not bound to registration. A licence limits the use; it does not always transfer the ownership. Trade-mark protection is a separate regime.
This article is general information. The concrete work, the contract, and the current text of the article are taken as the basis. Intellectual property law and the articles on trade-mark registration and infringement are the other wing of the cluster.