Time, Authors’ Rights and Neighboring Rights. Historical Reflections in European Civil Law Countries

Duration has been one of the most debated aspects in the history of authors’ rights over the last three centuries, as can be seen by retracing the main historical-legal turning points that have determined its evolution towards the current structure, and by analyzing the fundamental guidelines and main suggestions from legal science and case law. The Author examines, therefore, the decisive contributions of Locke and Napoleon and that of the international Berne and Geneva Conventions. The history of the duration of authors’ rights and its concrete upward modulation are the result of two opposing and conflicting needs: those of the author and his heirs to obtain the acknowledgment of their legitimate enjoyment of the economic benefits deriving from the intellectual work, and that of the collective cultural heritage which requires the authors’ rights and their heirs on the economic exploitation of the work to be qualified as rights limited in time. The Author also dwells on the international situation relating to the harmonization of the term of duration, and on the development of neighboring rights, that have since the beginning of the 20th century had a place within the sphere of authors’ rights, even though with a shorter duration term than the latter.