EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S REPORT ON AUTHORSHIP OF CINEMATOGRAPHIC FILMS: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The report by European Commission concerning authorship of cinematographic films which declared that no harmonisation is required in the concerned area – stands to be merely a silent administrative move across the globe. Probably, both the makers and users of law have grown weary of the flood of Community legislation in the media sector. This also comes as a surprise due to the very fact that the European law governing cinematographic films stands at the notch of conflict between the Common Law regime and the droit d’auteur system of Civil law nations. As is known, on one hand, there are a host of people, which are regarded as creators and having copyright over a cinematographic film, while the latter fails to envisage a view other than producer being the single owner of the film. Although there were steps taken to avoid any disparage to the economics of the domestic market by designating the principal director as the usual author of the cinematographic work in the Directive on Renting and Lending right, the measure explicated its inadequacy within a short span of time. Over this, the question whether such recognition would entail hardships for exploitation of cinematographic films in the member states, was taken up by the European Commission in the report on authorship of Cinematographic films, which has been critically analysed throughout the length of the current paper.