Copyright law

The aim of the course is to introduce students Students are introduced to the basics of Intellectual Property Law by example of Polish Copyright Law. To this point a wide range of issues is discussed, among others:

1. Introduction to copyright – history and philosophy

2. Work of authorship

3. Authorship and ownership of copyright

4. Moral Rights

5. Economic Rights

6. Permissible use of protected works

7. Related rights.

To help students understand the gist of copyright principles and to make their knowledge flexible they are encouraged to bring English translations of their home-town copyright regulations with them.

The purpose of the discussion class is to define the intellectual property law issues. At first we are going to look for justifications for Intellectual Property and its international influences, as well as European and regional ones. Students will discuss the differences in ‘Copyright’ and ‘Droit d’Auteur’ regimes. We will learn the subject matter of copyright law (e.g. literary works, musical works), its material form, fixation and protection. Issues discussed are: authorship and ownership, nature of the rights, duration of copyright, its infringements and defences. More than that the subject of the discussion class will be related rights and right management.

We will discuss recent judgements and regulations that are familiar to the students, which will be asked to finds individual solutions relevant to a given case from their hometown perspective (referred mainly to foreign students).

J. Barta, R. Markiewicz : Prawo autorskie, Warszawa 2010

J. Barta, R. Markiewicz: Prawo autorskie i prawa pokrewne. Wprowadzenie, Kraków 2004.

J. Barta, R. Markiewicz (eds.): Prawo autorskie i prawa pokrewne. Komentarz, Warszawa 2011.

J. Sieńczyło-Chlabicz (ed.): Prawo własności intelektualnej, LexisNexis 2009

and other, indicated during the semester e.g. case law, particular documents (Polish Copyright Code available at WIPO page) and papers (available at Westlaw).

The student:

1) knows the principles of reasoning and of legal logic in copyright law,

2) has knowledge of institutions and legal figures characteristic of copyright law,

3) identifies relevant legal provisions, interprets them and comes to conclusions concerning acceptable or mandatory actions to be taken,

4) finds individual solutions (e.g. judgments, decisions) relevant to a given case concerning copyright law,

5) communicates with others and expresses opinions on copyright law issues,

6) analyses social events and phenomena while assessing individual and common interests of the involved parties;

Written and oral reports and presentations - student analyses theoretical and practical issues of copyright law relevant to a discussed problem or judgements.

The students presents what he was asked to prepare at home.

Discussion - students solves a task by discussing the topic in the group.

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