As the author of your artwork, you decide how you commercially exploit your artwork. Fundamentally, you can prohibit the use of your artwork and you can authorise other people to use your work in return for fair remuneration. 

A distinction is made between two types of exploitation:

  • Physical forms of exploitation: reproduction and distribution of your art;
  • Non-physical forms of exploitation: performing and broadcasting of your art.

However, there are certain cases in which people may use your artwork without needing your permission. This free use serves to balance interests: as the author, you are allowed to exclude others from using your artwork to a large extent. At the same time, it is in the public interest to guarantee the free use of creative works for certain reasons. For example, authors cannot prohibit the use of their works by other people for purely private or scientific purposes. You can read more on this in the chapter on the free use of works. 

As a rule, authors are entitled to exploitation rights. 

Info: In the case of ancillary rights, other people can also be rights holders, e.g. performing artists or those artists whose productions do not enjoy copyright protection. See the chapter on ancillary copyrights.

A special rule applies to the production of commercially produced films (e.g. cinema films). In Austria, there used to be a "cessio legis" rule for commercially produced film works: if a film work was produced, the exploitation rights automatically belonged to the film producers, i.e. the people who were responsible for the economic and organisational performance of a company (producers). The (co)authors of the work—e.g. director, camera crew—therefore did not automatically receive the exploitation rights. This has been changed: now, film producers only receive exclusive rights of use in case of doubt—i.e. unless otherwise agreed. Film authors and film producers are each entitled to half of the statutory remuneration claims. 

Reproduction rights

The right of reproduction is the right to copy a work—in whatever way—i.e. to reproduce it ("copyright").

Any copying process is deemed to be reproduction, regardless of the method or storage medium used. 

Example: Photocopying (e.g. with a scanner or printer), taking photographs, creating a drawing, recording a theatre performance, film, or piece of music with a video camera or tape recorder.

Distribution rights

Distribution rights concern the right to make a work publicly accessible. 

Passing on a protected work of art in the private sphere (e.g. among close friends) does not constitute distribution. It is therefore important that the work is offered, given away, sold, or lent to a wider circle of undefined people, for example. The work is therefore "put into circulation". 

Example: Uploading a work to a website, exhibiting in a museum, playing a piece of music or a film at a public viewing.

The author's distribution right to a specific work expires as soon as it is sold or given away with their consent, i.e. another person becomes the owner of the work. This rule only applies to this piece of work.

Example: You are an author and produce 150 copies of your book. You sell 100 of them to a bookshop. Your distribution right to these 100 copies expires. The bookshop and its customers can now distribute the books, e.g. sell them on, give them away, or lend them out. This does not apply to the 50 copies that you have kept: you have not yet put them into circulation and therefore nobody else is allowed to distribute them.

If you contractually authorise someone else to use your artwork, you can also specify the countries in which the artwork may be used. You can therefore contractually restrict the distribution rights. 

Example: You grant a publisher in New York permission to publish your book only in the USA. The publisher is not allowed to publish your book in other territories. 

Example: You lend your painting to a museum and grant permission for it to be exhibited only in Austria.

A special rule applies within the EU/EEA, whereby the principle of "Europe-wide exhaustion" applies. This means that the distribution rights are already exhausted throughout the EU/EEA as soon as the work has been made publicly available in a single member state with the author's consent. Further distribution within the entire EU/EEA is automatically permitted from this point onwards.

Rental/public lending right

You can transfer your artwork to others for a certain period. You can charge a fee for this transfer, but you do not have to.

If other people rent out your works for a fee, you are entitled to an appropriate share of this income. 

Recitation, performance, and presentation rights

If someone wants to perform or present a work in public, they need the consent of the rights holder. The difference between the three types of exploitation is explained below:

  • Recitation rights refer to the performance of linguistic works, the type of which is not important. They could therefore be poems, novels, scientific articles, or political speeches;
  • Performance rights relate to the visual performance of spoken works, choreographic and pantomime works, and film works. Something must be shown "to the eyes of the audience". This includes, for example, playing a film, performing a concert or ballet live, or streaming a theatre performance on the internet;
  • Presentation rights refer to the public reproduction of works of fine art, such as paintings, photographs, and works of art, by means of purely optical reproduction using projectors, slide projectors, or other types of screen projection.

Public performances are characterised by the following features: quite a large number of people, a new audience, people who do not belong to a private group or family circle, and an undefined number of potential recipients, e.g. using a different technical process and the audience's willingness to receive. 

The recitation, performance, and presentation of works to a private circle of friends or family is permitted without the author's consent because friends and family are not members of the public. 

Info: In Austria, birthday parties, weddings, and other family celebrations are not considered public, even if more than 100 guests are present.

Broadcasting rights

Broadcasting rights constitute the right to broadcast a work wirelessly, i.e. to play it live on the radio or stream it on the internet (e.g. by simulcasting or webcasting).

Broadcasting rights differ from performance rights in that the audience can be in different locations. You can find out how broadcasting rights differ from interactive playback in the following sub-chapter. 

Broadcasting rights, like in all copyright law, follow the principle of territoriality. For each country in which a person wishes to broadcast your work (e.g. song, musical), they must obtain a broadcasting licence from you.

Example: You have created a pop song. A radio station wants to play your song in Austria and Hungary. The radio station must obtain a broadcasting licence for both countries. 

Right of communication to the public (interactive playback)

Making something available to the public (part of the right of communication to the public) is the right to make works accessible in digital networks so that users can play them at any time. If a work is made available on the internet in such a way that users can access it at any time and from any place ("on demand"), this constitutes interactive playback.

Example: You are a performance artist and have given someone permission to film your performance (reproduction). If the person also wants to upload your performance to an online platform so that other people can view the recording at any time, the person must obtain your permission for this interactive playback. 

Info: Since 2021, owners of an on-demand platform (e.g. YouTube) are obliged to obtain the consent of the authors if users wish to upload copyrighted works to the platform (Section 18c UrhG).

Editing rights

Editing is the modification of an original work. The person doing the editing modifies a copyrighted work. In doing so, they create a new work protected by copyright (provided the new work fulfils the necessary criteria; see the chapter on works of art protected by copyright).

Example: Translation of a book, film adaptations of a novel or screenplay, arrangement of musical works, remixing of a song, appropriation art, painting over a photo with acrylic paints, digital alterations to photos using editing software. 

In Austria, case law is very strict, especially in the field of music. If, by virtue of its “aural impression”, a musical work is deemed similar to an original work, the person editing it must obtain the original author's consent for the utilisation of this new work. 

Example: You are an author and have written a play; you are therefore the author of this linguistic work. Your play is set in the 14th century. A theatre wants to show the play as if it were set in the 21st century. This is only permitted if 1. you have given your consent to the adaptation of the play, and 2. you have given your consent to the public performance of the work.

Works in the public domain—i.e. whose term of protection has already expired—may be edited and commercially exploited by anyone.