Copyright Protection Methods For The Script/Scenario 7 November 2018

According to Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works numbered 5846 (“Law No. 5846”), an idea and work of art must be a product of an intellectual effort, bear the characteristic of its author, be shaped and fall under one of the types of works enumerated under the law in order to be considered as a work and taken under protection. If a creation is considered as a work, such consideration results in the utilization of the work from the protection under the Law No. 5846. The definition of the work becomes important because of the necessity of being accepted as a work in order to protect the intellectual creations starting point of which is the thought under the scope of Law No. 5846. According Article 1/B of" Law No.5846, “work is any intellectual or artistic product bearing the characteristic of its author, which is deemed a scientific and literary or musical work or work of fine arts or cinematographic work”. It is also stated that in cinematographic works the director, the composer of original music, the scriptwriter and the dialogue writer are joint authors of the work. The script is a word of Italian origin, meaning decor. It is possible to evaluate the scenario as a whole, which also includes dialogues and written parts forming the film and which generally do not give technical descriptions of the film. The script undoubtedly forms the skeleton of the film and is one of the film’s starting points. The important point to be considered here is that the scenario is not only the basic literary structure on which the films are based; but also a skeleton that is built on many creations having an audio-visual feature.

Intellectual property law is composed of two main titles which are copyright and industrial property. Copyrights can be listed as Intellectual and Artistic Works (Literary and Scientific Works, Musical Works, Cinematographic Works, etc.), Related Rights (Neighboring Rights), Computer Programs and Databases. Industrial property rights can be enumerated as patents, utility models, trademarks, etc. Copyrights protect the expression pattern in original, creative and artistic works. Therefore, it can be said that form and individuality are protected by copyright. Protection is provided not only for the expression of ideas; but also for method and pattern.

The author is defined under Law No. 5846. The author is the real person who creates the work. Therefore, publishers, producers and legal persons are not acknowledged as authors. An author is entitled by law to economic and moral rights. The economic rights are classified as right to exploit and types of financial rights are right of adaptation, right of reproduction, right of distribution, right of performance and right to communicate a work to public by devices enabling the transmission of signs, sounds and/or images. Moral rights are the authority to disclose the work to the public, the authority to designate the name, prohibition of modification and rights of the author against persons who own or possess a work. According to Article 18 of Law No. 5846 the authority to exercise economic rights belongs exclusively to the author and the producer or publisher of a work may exercise the economic rights only in accordance with a contract to be concluded with the author. Additionally, more than one person can be the author of a work. If a work created by more than one person can be divided into parts, each person shall be deemed the author of the part which he has created. However, when a work which is created by the participation of more than one person constitutes an indivisible whole, the union of the persons who has created it shall be deemed the author of the work. The provisions of ordinary partnership shall be applied to the union of authors. Therefore the authors have joint ownership on the work. The moral rights granted to the author are not limited in time, non-transferable and strictly related to the person. On the other hand, the financial rights of the author have a limited duration. Except to the extent stated in the law, the protection period shall last the entirety of the real person owner’s life-time and continues for 70 years after their death. In the event that there is more than one author, this period shall end upon the expiry of 70 years after the death of the last remaining author.

What are the remedies the author can apply?

The works protected under the Law No. 5846 benefit from natural protection from the moment the work was created.  There is no obligation to record (register) the work to any institution or have it approved by any institution. In order to protect a work, it must bear the characteristic of its author and be covered by the types of works enumerated in the law.

The main protection paths that the scriptwriter can refer to in order to protect the scenario prepared by him will be examined below. However, it is important to note that none of these ways will provide an absolute protection in terms of right ownership. These ways make only the proof convenient for the person who claims to be the author of the work.

1. The Recording and Registration (Voluntary)
2. Notarization
3. Make Work Public
4. Electronic Signature and Time Stamp Paper
5. E-mail

The Recording and Registration, according to Article 5 of the Regulation on the Recording and Registration of the Intellectual and Artistic Works, the authors can make an optional recording and registration regarding the works other than cinema and music works and computer games subject to compulsory recording and registration. This process is intended to ensure that the rights of the right owners are not violated and to provide proof of their right ownership without the purpose of entitlement of any right. Optional recording and registration procedures are carried out by the General Directorate of Copyrights under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Optional recording and registration is a non-obligatory act based on a declaration for the convenience of determination of the creator which does not grant any right to the applicant and absence of which does not cause loss of rights. Therefore, the document provided based on the declaration at the end of the recording and registration process does not grant any right to the applicant; it only provides convenience for the proof of the author, i.e. the person or persons who created the work.. Those who want to benefit from the income tax exemption under the Article 18 of the Income Tax Law No. 193, are required to complete the optional recording and registration process before the General Directorate of Copyrights and apply to the relevant departments of the Ministry of Finance with the related documents. Optional recording and registration applications can be made by the persons who create the work or by legal heirs or their proxies.

The above-mentioned statement supports the fact that the recording and registration process will not create an absolute right ownership. Because, at the end of the recording and registration process, there is a document which is only based on the declaration and given without any examination or procedural review. Therefore, such document which is given based on a declaration without examination of the originality, shape or quality and without even examining whether it has the characteristics of the work or not, will not create absolute right ownership. For this reason, the recording and registration process has no force in terms of the right ownership, but it makes sense for the ease of proof.

Notarization, one of the methods of protecting the copyright of the scenario is notarization. Notarization and recording and registration process is the same with respect to the nature of the result. This process, which is carried out by the notary public, is charged per page.

Make Work Public, there is no requirement for registration in copyright, even if the registration is declarative. The author's right is born on its own motion and is protected as soon as the work disclosed to the public. The work can be made public by entering competitions, participating in festivals, sharing on websites, by offering to institutions such as TRT or by pressing the scenario in the printing house (by placing a publication date on the front page.) A work submitted to the public with the consent of the right holder is deemed to be made public and legal protection begins.

Making a work public plays an important role in copyrights because the right ownership is identified at that moment. In principle, the person who publicly announced, made the work public, took the work out of the intimate space is considered the owner of the work as well as holder of a right, until proven otherwise.

Electronic Signature and Time Stamp Paper, some internet platforms perform time-stamped paper processing for a certain fee. Electronic signature and time stamped paper remark the date on transactions on the internet. The document or work will be electronically sealed at the actual time and date, so that a valid evidence of the right ownership will be obtained before the court. According to the Electronic Signature Law No. 5070, these transactions are legitimate. Such internet platforms guarantee the right ownership on works by using digital timestamps that have legal validity, as well as if the work is used by someone else, the right ownership can prove the moment of creation of the work on this platform at a low cost. Due to the service they provide through the internet, these platforms can be considered as a way of “online ownership”.

E-mail, it can be performed free of charge by mail sites. The work is considered as protected at the time that the script is sent to a familiar person, lawyer or himself/herself. In this respect, previously, the intellectual and artistic work printed on the paper was protected by sending it to the person himself/herself by registered and reply paid letter and by not opening the envelope.

In consequence, the works protected within the scope of the Law No. 5846, benefit from natural protection starting from the moment the work was created. There is no need for registration to originate copyright on the contrary to industrial property rights (trademarks, patents, etc.). As a matter of fact, none of the above-mentioned copyright protection methods provide absolute protection of the right ownership of the work. Each of these alternative protection methods, which will provide ease of proof in the event of any disputes that may arise in the future, will constitute primary evidence before the court. However, it is important to note that such method do not prevent the theft of the script or the work. Finally, although the works benefit from natural protection when they were created except for the compulsory recording and registration process, it is possible to carry out the abovementioned procedures in order to protect the rights on the work and to provide proof in determining the right ownership.

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