Good News Copyright Contracts Act
Some time ago, Pictoright expressed its disappointment with the proposal for the ‘Strengthening of Copyright Contracts Act’. For visual creators, this proposal would only minimally strengthen their legal position vis-à-vis users of images, and many of the recommendations of the Federatie Beeldrechten were dropped by the legislator. But after this setback, good news for image creators did come from The Hague last week.
A new addition was made to the proposal, strengthening the position of relatives of deceased (image) creators. This was done by stipulating that upon the creator’s death, the ‘moral rights’ accrue to the next of kin, unless something else has been arranged. This means that next of kin can now more easily take action against, among other things, mutilation or defacement of the work of a deceased artist. Think, for example, of poor maintenance of a work or modifications that are harmful to the creator’s reputation. Previously, this required creators to explicitly bequeath these rights in a will or codicil, which unfortunately was not always done, causing these rights to be forfeited. This will now change. Pictoright welcomes this change, especially in the age of artificial intelligence.