Towards Author’s Paradise: The new Dutch Act on Authors’ Contracts, in G. Karnell, A. Kur, P-J. Nordell, J. Axhamn, S. Carlsson (ed.), eddy.se ab, Visby (eds), Liber Amicorum Jan Rosen, 2016, pp. 397-407

Country

Netherlands

Author

P. Bernt Hugenholtz

Link

https://www.ivir.nl/publicaties/download/1729.pdf

Summary

"[404] Art. 25e establishes the right to dissolve an exploitation contract in case of non-usus. This ‘use-it-or-lose-it’ provision allows authors to terminate an agreement if the ‘exploiter’ of his work fails to “sufficiently exploit the copyright in the work within a reasonable period after having concluded the contract, or does not sufficiently exploit the copyright after having initially performed acts of exploitation.” The Explanatory Memorandum accompanying the bill offers an interesting economic argument for this legislative intervention. By allowing authors to recover rights not properly exploited, unused catalogs of rights will be revived and competition between intermediaries will be enhanced. A termination of transfer does not require judicial intervention; a written notice to the author’s counterpart will suffice. The assignee will thereafter have the burden of proving that he has sufficiently exploited the work. Upon termination, the assignee is obliged to transfer the right back to the author. Authors may also invoke the right of termination and reversion against third party rightholders."

Contributed By

Lucie Guibault