Who is the author?
The author of a work is the person who has brought the intellectual creation into being (Section 4 of the Copyright Act). The author is almost always also the “titleholder”, i.e. the person who holds the copyright.
The Copyright Act includes the following three provisions whereby, in deviation from the basic rule, someone other than the actual author holds the copyright. That person then counts as the legal “author”.
1) If the work has been created according to a different person’s design and under that person’s direction and supervision, then that person is deemed to be the author of the work (Section 6 of the Copyright Act).
2) If activities carried out in the context of employment involve producing certain works, then it is the employer that is deemed to be the author (Section 7 of the Copyright Act). At Dutch universities, however, matters are different where scientific/scholarly research is concerned and it is the researcher who is deemed to be the author. This website is based on that principle.
A number of higher education institutions are working on a copyright policy – or already have one in place – that is based on these new principles or which incorporates this approach.
3) If a legal entity – for example a private or public limited company – publishes a work as deriving from it without specifying a natural person as the author, then the legal entity is deemed to be the author of the work (Section 8 of the Copyright Act).
What constitutes a “work”?
Section 10 of the Copyright Act specifies when one can speak of a “work”. That section gives a non-exhaustive list which shows that a “work” need not just be a book, a brochure, or another piece of writing but can also be an oral presentation, a piece of music or choreography, an architectural or photographic design, a computer program, or a database.
A “work” within the meaning of the Copyright Act is an embodiment of the author’s ideas, thoughts, or feelings that is in some way perceptible to the senses. In case law, the criterion has also been developed that the work must have an original character of its own or bear the personal stamp of the author.
Ideas, thoughts, methods, theories, etc. are not protected.
Copyright continues to apply for 70 years after the death of the author. When the author dies, the copyright is transferred to his heirs.