Generic Copyright
Austrian copyright law is, similar to most other continental European countries, conceived as a set of authorship rights which focus on a natural person, the creator of a piece of work or art. This stands in contrast to the copyright system in Anglo-Saxon countries, the USA and GB in particular, where intellectual property is viewed as a material possession separate from the person who created the work. As opposed to the Anglo-Saxon copyright system, Austrian copyright law always requires a natural person, the creator of the work, to be the original copywright owner. Artificial persons, or legal entities, can either be original owners of “ancillary copyrights”, a related law (”Leistungsschutzrecht”), or, owners of various exclusive and non-exclusive (work) user licenses derived by the author.
Furthermore, Austrian copyright law embraces distinct personal copyright rights, some unrenounceable, such as the right to claim copyright, the right to publish the contents of the work, the right to keep the integrity of the work, etc.
A piece of work is protected as a whole and as its individual parts, for example, one also needs permission from the copyright owner to only use a few bars of a song. In compliance with an EU directive, a 70-year protection period post mortem auctoris generally applies for copyrighted work in Austria. According to a 1996 amendment to the Copyright Law, this protection period also applies to films and commences the year following the death of the last deceased of the key figures which include the director, the screenwriter, the dialogue writer, and the composer of the score if specifically written for the film. Complex transitional regulations apply for movies produced before the amendment passed. Ancillary copyrights (Leistungsschutzrechte) are generally protected for a period of 50 years from the date of completion or publication of the work.
Quotes may be reproduced, broadcast, used in public speech, and made available to the public if only short segments of the published work are used (“short quote“). The same rules apply to a published work of educational and scientific nature if quotes appear in mainly educational science publications and are of justifiable length (“long quote“). However, Austrian copyright law does not allow any similar free releases when it comes to quotes from movies.
Detailled information about Austrian Copyright Law can be found under Media and Law online.