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Law No. 126 Of 28 June 1923 On The Literary And Artistic Property

Original Language Title:  LEGE nr. 126 din 28 iunie 1923 asupra proprietăţii literare şi artistice

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LEGE no. 126 126 of 28 June 1923 on literary and artistic property
ISSUER MINISTRY OF CULTS
Published in OFFICIAL BULLETIN no. 68 68 of 28 June 1923



+ Chapter 1 General provisions + Article 1 The right of literary and artistic property, that is, the property of intellectual creations, is respected and guaranteed in Romania, without fulfilling any formalities or records and without making any deposit, both to Romanians and Foreigners, equally. Industrial property remains apart from the provisions of this law. She is to be governed and guaranteed by her special law. + Article 2 Authors of all kinds of literary or scientific writings, music composers, painters, cartoonists, sculptors, architects, engravers, finally all creators of intellectual works, in any form and composition would manifest themselves, will enjoy themselves in everything. the time of life, as a property of their own, of the exclusive right to publish, represent or execute, authorise translations, adaptations and reproductions in any way, exploit themselves or sell their works, in whole or in part, to give or give them convey to others by will. + Article 3 In case of assignment or sale, the authors or their heirs retain the right of control over the published work, translations, reproductions or adaptations made after it, having the faculty to withdraw the assignment or authorization given, by way of judicial summons, with the right for the publisher to address the judiciary, if the publisher or the reproducer changes the ceded work, distorts it, publishes it or reproduces it contrary to the conditions in the contract or in a way prejudicial to the reputation the author, being able to claim damages The moral right of control cannot divest. He cannot form the object of any transaction. Any contrary clauses are null and void. + Article 4 After the death of the author, his heirs in the degree provided by this law, as well as their divestitures, will enjoy for 30 years the same rights that the author enjoyed. Provisions of art. 650 and the following from the civil code, relative to successions, are also applicable in this matter with the following derogations: 1. The surviving spouse shall enjoy the same rights as legitimate children; 2. In ascending and descending line, only the father and mother, the children of the author and his grandchildren of sons, can come to the succession; 3. In the collateral line, they have no right to succession but only the brothers and sisters of the author. Divestitures and heirs will enjoy the same rights as the heirs of Romanian authors, but under the condition of reciprocity, the duration of these rights cannot exceed the duration fixed by the Romanian law. However, if they expire soon in their country, they will also cease in Romania. + Article 5 If after the death of the author, their heirs or divestitures do not edit their works for 3 years, the ministry of arts has the faculty to do so, the benefits being shared after the removal of expenses, equally, between heirs or Divestitures aside and the ministry of the arts. + Article 6 After the passage of the 30 years from the author's death, his work fell into the public domain, anyone being free to reproduce and exploit it. When there are no heirs, legatees, divestitures, or creditors of the author, his work falls into the public domain immediately after death. After the death of the author, neither heirs nor publishers can make the work any modification, without it being apparently brought to the public's attention. The Ministry of Arts will be able to ask the courts to order the destruction of the reproduced specimens without complying with the above obligation, in addition to the fine provided in art. 48. The right of control provided by art. 3 will have it in this case only the Romanian Academy. This right is perpetual. Anyone can inform the Academy of such cases. + Article 7 The ownership of the authors is furnished, conceivable, free of charge or onerous and transmissible by succession ab intestine or testamentary, in whole or in part, throughout its duration or only on a certain time, the provisions of the code civil on successions, being applicable exactly, with the restriction established in art. 4 4 of this law. The rules of absence from the civil code are also applicable to the ownership of the authors. + Article 8 With regard to works that have not been published during the life of the author, he may, by will, prohibit that they be published a certain time which, however, may not be more than 30 years from his death, and may also indicate his person the institution tasked with executing its will. Provisions of art. 4 relative to the rights of heirs and divestitures shall also apply in this case. However, they will not be able to begin until after the expiry of the time when the work was forbidden to be published. Provisions of art. 3 3 and 6, para. II, they are also applicable in this case. + Article 9 As long as an author's work is in a state of manuscript, in the form of notes, sketch, plans, plastic works unexposed in public, etc., it is insesisable, so neither the author's creditors nor those of the heirs can get through an action. judicial right of seizure, prosecution or the right to publish it, translate, represent, execute, reproduce and expose in public. + Article 10 Also the author's creditors will not be able to acquire the right to print or reproduce a new edition of a work already published. This right belongs exclusively to the author. After death, however, the property rights to the works already published, left in its wake, enter the succession massa, being able to pursue creditors together with the other values left in succession, guaranteeing to the wife and minors half of the this value, which thus becomes indistinguishable. + Article 11 In matters of dramatic, musical and choreographic works, the right of publication is independent of the right of presentation or execution. Each of these two rights may be the subject of a separate contract of assignment in the special conditions of each right. + Article 12 In artistic matters: painting, sculpture, drawing, engraving, lithography, medals, geographical maps, topography, works of architecture, etc., the right of reproduction is also independent of the ownership of the work sold or ordered. He remains the artist if he did not give it up expressly. These two rights: ownership of the original work and its reproduction by manual, mechanical or chemical means, forming absolutely distinct rights, the divestment of one does not entail the assignment of the other. In case of silence of the contract the right of reproduction is supposed to be reserved to the author + Article 13 The transferee or publisher of a letter, scientific, musical or artistic work, putting the work on sale, cannot under any reason change the title of the work nor modify or complete its content or form, without invoking the author or those in right. + Article 14 The transferee or publisher, receiving for publication the work of an author, is obliged to print it according to the conditions in the contract. He cannot give it to another publisher without invoking the author, unless this assignment is included in the sale of the entire trade fund of a publishing house. If the divestment or publisher of a work as a term has not been stipulated, does not publish it in 3 years from the date of the contract and the handover of the manuscript, the author has the right to ask for the termination of the contract as well as damages for the damage moral and material caused by this delay. + Article 15 The ownership of the author of a musical composition implicitly includes the right to make or authorize the composition of arrangements, processing, transcriptions, etc., after the original work. + Article 16 When the author of a work of art authorizes her reproduction through the intercession of a special art of that of the original, the reproducer enjoys this new artistic product of all the property rights provided by this law. + Article 17 A literary or scientific work is considered as published from the moment it was printed and put on sale. As far as dramatic, musical and choreographic works are concerned, from the moment they were printed and made available to the public, and if they are in a state of manuscript, from the day of their first representation or public executions made with the invocation the author or those in law. Also artistic works, from the moment of their exposure in public or of their reproduction by means shown in art. 12 12 and 16. + Chapter 2 Literary works + Article 18 The right of literary ownership of works of literature, and of science, (poems, novellas, novels, critical studies, law, sociology, philosophy, etc.), includes the exclusive right of publication, reproduction, sale and exploitation of the work, such as and the right to authorize her translation into any other languages. + Article 19 It constitutes a touch of the right of literary property: 1. Publication by any means of reproduction of the works shown in art. 18, without the express invocation of the author, so also their translation; 2. Publication of a work in the state of manuscript, against the will of the author; 3. Reprint of a work or new edition that the author or publisher publishes against the conditions of the contract concluded between the Danes and before the exhaustion of the first edition. These provisions shall not apply to the publisher in the event of a total assignment; 4. The sale, without the knowledge and consent of the author, of a higher number of copies than the one established in the contract; 5. Publication of a collection of letters, literary or private correspondence, without the consent of the authors, writers or those in law. 6. Total or partial reproduction of a literary work from the intercession of film films or by any other mechanical means of optical or phonetic reproduction. + Article 20 On the contrary, it does not constitute a touch of ownership: 1. The textual citations of passages isolated from a writing already published, in the relevant reports or critical and polemical studies that are done on this work; 2. Indication and summary of the contents of a written letter, of a speech or conferences held in public; 3. Reproduction of unsigned articles from newspapers and magazines, information and telegrams in the conditions shown in art. 46 46 and 47; 4. Reproduction in the teaching books: anthologies, crestomates, publications for the culture of schoolchildren, reading books, compositions, grammars, dictionaries, etc., of isolated passages, poems and small literary or scientific pieces, in full or abstracts, with the obligation to show the name of the author and to the title of the work from which the reproduction or abstr 5. Recitation in public of poems or literary pieces, at school celebrations, official performances or public readings, made up by popular culture societies or for benefit purposes, with or without payment. + Chapter 3 Dramatic and musical works + Article 21 The ownership of a dramatic, musical and choreographic work (ballet, pantomime, etc.), encompasses the right to exploit by printing, putting it on sale, as well as its representation or execution in public. + Article 22 It is a touch of this property right: 1. Editing, representing or executing in public a dramatic, musical or choreographic work, without authorizing the author; 2. Printing or representation in public, partially of separate acts or scenes after dramatic works, or the printing or execution in public of arrangements, transcripts or extracts from musical or choreographic works; 3. Unauthorized reproduction of musical works on plates of gramophones, scrolls and any other parts intended for the instruments of mechanical sound reproduction; 4. Reproduction in total or in summary of a dramatic work or the libretto of a musical or choreographic work by intercession of cinema films or by any other processes and mechanical means of reproduction. + Article 23 On the contrary, it is not a touch of the right of artistic property 1. Citation of isolated passages, of stage or small extracts taken from dramatic or musical works, made in the prominent notes, or dramatic or musical criticisms, as well as the publication of collections intended specifically for schools, in small pieces or compositions dramatic or musical already published, with the obligation to indicate the name of the author and the title of the work from which they were extracted; 2. Reproduction in isolation of scenes, roles or musical partitions, for the exclusive use of artists or of oral or instrumental executors, reproductions that are not intended to be put into trade; 3 3. Representation or execution in public of separate acts, pieces of music or choreographic scenes at school celebrations or official performances, organized by popular, choral or instrumental societies, or for benefit purposes, with or without payment. + Chapter 4 Artistic works + Article 24 The right of artistic ownership of works of art: painting, drawing, lithography, engraving, medals, sculpture, geography and topographic maps, terrestrial or marine, architectural works, etc., includes the exclusive right for their author to publish, sell or display that work, to authorise its reproduction by any plastic, mechanical or chemical process and to give or sell these reproductions. + Article 25 The reproducer of a work of art through the intercession of a special process of that of the original, when the reproduction is made with the authorship of the author, will also be enjoyed by the ownership and its derivatives on his new artistic creations. + Article 26 It is a touch of the right of artistic property: 1. Any unauthorized reproduction of the author of his artistic work by any means would be carried out; 2. The sale of works of painting, sculpture or any other artistic production, fraudulently signed with the name of any reputed artist, imitating his signature or the special sign adopted by him, in order to deceive the buyer. + Article 27 On the contrary, it is not a touch of the right of artistic property 1. Reproduction of paintings, sculptures and any other object of art, located in public or state museums and pinacotages, as well as statues and monuments placed in public gardens, squares or roads, except when artists-authors have expressly and exclusively reserved their right of reproduction on these public works of art; 2. Reproductions isolated from works already published or exhibited, as well as groups or portions of those works made for the purpose of explaining the text of a work of criticism or artistic analysis, of a history or dictionary of the arts, in the teaching books or publications for the culture of schoolchildren, when these latter works are the main part of the publication, and the reproductions of the accessory part, with the obligation to indicate the name of the author and the work after which the reproduction is made; 3 3. Reproduction through newspapers, magazines, yearbooks, almanacs or calendars, of artistic works exhibited in public, in the prominent notes or art criticisms that are made in these periodical publications, with the obligation for the reproducer to indicate the name of the author artist; 4. Reproductions by any technical means of national, official or popular celebrations, corteges, etc. + Article 28 When it comes to portraits, busts or statues, made according to particular orders, in this case, neither the artist painter or cartoonist, sculptor or engraver, nor even the owner of the bust or statue picture have the right to reproduce or exhibit it in public without the authorization of the person represented or those who ordered it. + Chapter 5 Anonymous, pseudonymous and posthumous works + Article 29 The ownership of anonymous literary or artistic works or pseudonyms, belongs to the person who contracted with the publisher and authorized the publication, or the publisher who printed the work. When it comes to artistic works, the property belongs to the exposition or the reproducer The duration of this right is that shown in art. 2 2 and 4, in the conditions provided for by these articles. If the true author is known, this right implicitly passes on him, except for the case of a partial or total assignment made to the publisher, in which the situation will be observed the deadlines provided for in the contract. In this case, if the author asks for it, the anonymity or the pseudonym used may be replaced by his name. + Article 30 When it comes to posthumous works, their owner or that by means of bidding will be discovered and given to light first, they enjoy the same right exclusively of property as their author, in the conditions provided by art. 2 2 and 4 of this law. + Chapter 6 Translations and reproductions + Article 31 The translator of a literary work, or the reproducer by any means of a work of art, when these translations or reproductions are made with the authorization of the authors, enjoy the same rights of ownership over them as the author of the work Original. + Article 32 Authors, however, can condition this right that grants translators or reproducers to their works. The contract concluded between the Danes will specify whether the authorization is given to a single person or to several, if it is given for a single edition or for several and in which languages authorize these translations. When it comes to the reproduction of works of art will specify the mechanical or chemical means and the nature of the material from which the author consents to the reproduction. + Article 33 For works that appear in several volumes or in several parts, the authorization given by the author must state whether it concerns the entire work or only a single volume or part. + Article 34 The translations of classical works, as well as of modern ones fallen in the public domain, are the property of those who have translated them. This right, however, cannot be an obstacle for others to do other translations according to the same works. + Chapter 7 Rights of collaborators + Article 35 The collaborators of a literary or artistic work have equal rights to the common work that is indivisible, out of contrary conventions. If the work consists of music and words (libretto), it is not considered as indivisible. The musical composer or the author of the libretto have the right to exploit their work jointly or separately, each in its own way, according to the nature of the production of each, through publications, translations or public executions. However, they do not have the right in case of misunderstanding to choose another collaborator for the respective party. + Article 36 When a work is made up by several authors, without the collaboration of each of them constituting a distinct part, in order to be published or divested, the authorization of all is necessary. Also, if the ownership of such a work is transmitted through succession equally to several heirs or are in competition some of the collaborators with part of the heirs of the others. In case of misunderstanding between the Danes, the tribunal will decide, helped by the need of the lights of some special experts of each work, having as a criterion the general interest of culture. + Article 37 When it comes to an encyclopedia, a dictionary, or another work of this kind, which is made up by different authors, on the basis of their literary, scientific, artistic, philosophical, etc., and whose names appear at the head of the work, However, without being able to determine the work part of each, the property belongs to them jointly and equally. The rules contained in the previous article are also applicable to them. + Article 38 If the articles or the working part of each of the collaborators of such works is signed or is known to be known as written by the authors each of them is exclusively enjoyed by the ownership provided by this law on the signed articles or special part of the work that belongs to him personally. He has the right to publish this part separately. + Article 39 The collaborator of a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work, who does not want to participate in her exploitation, can ask that his name not appear on the work and refuse to be a party, to operating expenses, also giving up the benefits that would eventually produce that work. In any case, its refusal may not prevent the publication or exploitation of the work. Waivers do not presume, they must be expressly manifested. + Article 40 The right of ownership, in case of collaboration takes equally for the benefit of all collaborators all the time of their lives. The heirs, legatees or divestments of each collaborator will enjoy this right until the passage of 30 years from the death of the surviving collaborator. In the absence of heirs or divestitures of one of the collaborators, the party shall pass for the benefit of the other collaborators or their successors. + Article 41 In case of collaboration, the assignment of a work can only be given to a single publisher. The exception is made only in the case provided by art. 35, relative to musical works, accompanied by words (libret), when the collaborator or collaborators of the musical or libretto can, in case of misunderstanding, assign their work to different publishers. + Chapter 8 Official acts and publications; oral production + Article 42 I cannot make up an exclusive right of literary property: official acts and publications (except those declared secret), draft laws, laws voted by Parliaments, decrees, decisions or ministerial circulations or other authorities, as well as the jurisprudence of the courts; also oral arguments and written conclusions or any other acts filed with courts and courts; parliamentary and political speeches, public conferences and any other oral productions falling in the public domain as soon as they were published in the Official Gazette or were Pronounced in public. Newspapers, magazines and any other periodical publications have absolute freedom to reproduce and publish them in summary or in full. + Article 43 For their collection, however, the following rules and conditions must be observed in brochures or volumes: 1. For collecting laws or jurisprudence, it is obligatory for that which publishes them to be a doctor or licensed in law or economic, financial, commercial, sociological, etc., and to have at least 3 years of practice or internship. as: magistrate, lawyer, teacher or official in a ministry or any other public institution; 2. For collecting parliamentary, political, legal, conferences or other works pronounced in public, it must be obtained the authorization in writing of their authors. + Article 44 The Romanian Academy, the Archives of the State, the Royal Society of Geography and any other similar societies or institutions: literary, scientific or artistic, recognized as moral persons, also the State, the counties or the communes, have the exclusive right property and therefore exploitation and reproduction of works ordered and published through their care, management and expense. The duration of this right, however, is no more than 20 years, which starts flowing from the year of publication. After the passage of this period of time the opera falls in the public domain, with the reserve provided in art. 6, para. II of the present law. Provisions of art. 20 20 and 27 are applicable in the cases covered by this Article. + Chapter 9 Newspapers, magazines, periodicals + Article 45 Newspapers, magazines and any other periodical publications are the exclusive property of persons or companies who publish them. Their title also constitutes a property right that is guaranteed to the one who created or used the former. A newspaper or magazine title ceases to form an exclusive right of property, within the meaning of the previous paragraph, if 10 consecutive years have passed since the day when the newspaper or magazine ceased to appear. This limitation, however, can be interrupted by the even irregular reappearance of the newspaper or magazine in the interval of these ten years. + Article 46 Articles or notes of a literary, scientific, artistic or legal character, which are published in newspapers, magazines or other periodical publications, are the property of those who wrote them, if they are signed by their authors. They cannot reproduce without their authorization. If they are not signed, they can reproduce in summary or in full, without the need for any authorization, but with the obligation to quote the place and where they are reproduced. + Article 47 Articles as well as polemics of political character or public interest, even when they are signed, miscellaneous facts, informations, telegrams or correspondences, do not constitute a right of property within the meaning of this law. They can reproduce without authorization, with the obligation to indicate the newspaper or the magazine from which they were reproduced. + Chapter 10 Misdemeanors, misdemeanors, punishments + Article 48 Any prejudice to the right of literary and artistic property constitutes the offence of counterfeiting punished by art. 339 and the next of the penal code Penalties edicted in art. 341 of the criminal code is amended as follows: The punishment of the counterfeit or the introducer will be fine from 2,000-10,000 lei, and for the seller fine from 1,000-5,000 lei. In particularly serious cases, the tribunal will also be able to pronounce the prison sentence up to a month. + Article 49 Apart from the crimes of counterfeiting, any calcare of the provisions edicted by this law constitutes a contravention and is punishable by a fine of 100 lei, up to 2,000 lei. Fines in case of insolvency of the convict turn into prison. The duration of the prison will be determined by the judiciary, counting as 50 lei a fine a day of imprisonment; the duration of the prison will not be possible in such cases for more than six months. + Article 50 In case of relapse, the tribunal has the right to double the fines both when it comes to counterfeits and when it comes to contraventions. + Article 51 They are also culpable for crimes of counterfeiting and punished according to art. 341 341 and 342 of the penal code: 1. Those who, for the purpose of misleading and deceiving the buyers, publish a work of a reputed author, on his own name, or on a borrowed name, or publish a work of his personal on behalf of a reputed author, as well as those who with good science put it on sale, reproduce it or represent it; so also those who commit the facts provided in art. 26, para. II of this law. If the work is fallen in the public domain, the representatives of the Romanian author or Academy, according to art. 6, para. II, have the right to bring action in damages, according to art. 998 of the civil code, against the author of these counterfeits. 2. Introducers in the country of any counterfeit work abroad, as well as putting it on sale, knowingly on the delicious provenance of this work. + Article 52 The crimes of counterfeiting, as well as the contraventions provided by this law, will be tried in the first instance, by the county courts, with the right of appeal to the respective Court, within 15 days from the sentencing when it is rendered contradictory or 15 days of communication when it is pronounced in absentia, and without right of opposition to any court. The civil party also has a right of appeal within the same period, but only in respect of the amount of compensation granted. + Article 53 Pronouncing the conviction, the tribunal, after the request of the injured party, will declare confiscated all the reproductions or specimens put up or intended to be put up for sale, while ordering the destruction of the pattern forms clichés, weeping, stones, the casts or compositions that served to the counterfeiting. The same measures will be taken by the court in the case provided by art. 26 26 para. II and art. 51 51 para. I of the present law. + Article 54 In case of illicit representation of dramatic, musical, choreographic works, etc., the tribunal may order the confiscation of manuscripts, librets, musical notes, partitions or roles divided by artists. In case of flagrant crime of representation or execution of such works, the prosecutor or his delegate, who makes the investigation, will confiscate all the money from the proceeds made, to serve for compensation. + Article 55 The author, heirs or their divestitures, have the right to ask the tribunal, even before the conviction is given, to order by way of injunctions, according to art. 66 bis of civil procedure, measures conservatives, following or seizing the objects listed in art. 53 53 and at the same time take the necessary measures to prevent the continuation or restarting of the delictos. The Tribunal is obliged to immediately rule on these requests, having the faculty to condition their admission by filing a bail from those who claim such measures. + Article 56 Upon necessity, the Tribunal may resort to the lights of expert experts, to clarify matters in relation to damages caused to the authors, or those in law, on the occasion of the commission of the offences of counterfeiting or Misdemeanors. + Article 57 The competent court to judge is that of the domicile of the injured author, the heir or the transferee. When there are several authors, heirs or divestitures with special domiciles, then the competent court is the one in Bucharest. + Article 58 The criminal action, as well as the civil action in compensation, results from the offence of counterfeiting or of the offence committed, is prescribed after crossing of 3 years from the day of publication, representation, reproduction, execution or sale of the work counterfeit or misdemeanor perpetrated. The punishment is prescribed by the passage of 5 years from its pronouncement definitively. The damning decision remaining final will be published in two newspapers of the most widespread, on the words of the convicted one. + Chapter 11 Final provisions + Article 59 This law will enter into force throughout the country from the date of promulgation and its publication through the Official Gazette. + Article 60 When an author's work has been transferred to an editor by the author himself or his heirs, before the promulgation of this law, the transferee will only be able to benefit from the 10-year term after the author's death, according to art. 2 of the press law of 1862, since the convention of the parties between the author and the publisher, or between the heirs and the publisher, had the basis of this number of years provided for by the The present law, however, extending the right of heirs to 30 years, for the remaining time until the completion of this number of years, the exploitation right of the work lies with the heirs, outside a new convention that would intervene between heirs and editors for the rest of the time until the 30 years are completed. + Article 61 For the works already fallen in the public domain, this law has no retroactive effect, the rights of the heirs as of the divestments being permanently extinguished by the expiration of the 10 years from the death of the author, provided by the law of 1862. This law does not alter the legal relations already established by virtue of the old law. + Article 62 The wife-author, under any matrimonial regime would be married, is dispensed with any marital or judicial authorization for all acts that will do them in the exercise of her literary and artistic property rights. + Article 63 Press law of April 1, 1862, in her part concerning "literary and artistic property" (art. 1-11), as well as all the laws on the literary property in force until today in the desrobite territories, are repealed. The law of 24 March 1904, amended by the law of 19 Decemvrie 1922, remains in force and will apply throughout the country. ------------