Dutch copyright law

According to the Dutch Copyright Law (called Auteurswet), a Dutch copyright (called auteursrecht) is the exclusive right of the author of a work of literature, science or art, to publish and duplicate such work (article 1).

A copyright comes into existence by making the work. No formalities, such as copyright registration, are necessary to obtain a copyright. The duration of a copyright is 70 years after the death of the author (article 37).

The term "work" includes many materials, such as books, brochures, films, photographs, musical works, works of visual art and geographical maps (article 10). Further, the Dutch Supreme Court has ruled that to be considered a work, it should have its own, original character with the personal imprint of the author (HR 4 January 1991, NJ 1991, 608(Van Dale/Romme)).

The exclusive right to publish a work includes amongst others the publication of a copy of (part of) the work, the public recitation thereof and to rent or lend (part of) the work to public institutions (article 12). The exclusive right to duplicate a work includes amongst others the recording, the translation, the music arrangement and the adaptation for the screen of the work (article 13).

In certain circumstances, one is allowed to make a copy of copyright materials.

The Belgium law has similar regulation in their Auteurswet (art. 22 § 1, 5°).

On 10 April 2014 the European Court of Justice ruled the Dutch exclusion for home-copying to be infringing the directive 2001/29/EG - article 5 § 2- b and § 5. According to EU directive, this makes homecopying unlawful. There have been other cases in which Dutch Auteurswet has been ruled unlawful. The Netherlands however has not changed said article nor complied to the request to make prosecuting those whom homecopy possible.

Historically, governments issued monopolierechten (monopoly-rights) to publishers for the sale of printed work. Great Britain was the first to change this in 1710 with the Statute of Anne, which stated that authors, not publishers, had the right to claim a monopoly on the work. It also entailed protection for buyers of printed work in that publishers were no longer allowed to control the use of sold works. Furthermore, it limited exclusive rights to 28 years, after which the work or works would be released to the public domain.

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Wikipedia