Copyright

Copyrights are gaining more importance than ever in this highly digital world. As it has become easier for ideas and works to be copied and reproduced, reproduction can be damaging to both national economies and innovation. Being just one form of intellectual property, copyright is the right that creators have over their literary and artistic works to prevent others from making copies of their works without permission – among other rights. For the copyright to be protected, the manifested work needs to be original. Originality or creativeness under UAE Copyright Law is defined as the element that makes the work “genuine” and “distinguishes” it from other works. Therefore, the work has to be new and original, not copied from another work. In terms of these original works, they include:

• Books, brochures, articles, and other written Works;
• Smart applications, computer programmes and applications, databases, and similar works determined by a decision of the Minister.
• Lectures, speeches, oral and written sermons and other works of a similar nature.
• Theatrical works, musical shows, and pantomime.
• Musical works, either with or without words.
• Audio, visual, or audio-visual works.

Under the form of collective management, authors and publishers give mandates to ERRA to represent them, grants licenses on their behalf that authorize permission for third-party use, collect and distribute remuneration. Therefore, ERRA plays a fundamental role in protecting copyright.