An author is a natural person who creates an original work of the mind in the literary, artistic, or scientific field. The author is the person who, through their intellectual work, gives rise to a work protected by copyright. This work can take various forms, such as writings (books, articles), works of art (paintings, sculptures), audiovisual works (films, series), musical works, software, photographs, and many others.
As the creator, the author holds specific rights in their work, which fall into two main categories:
- Moral rights: These protect the author’s personality as expressed in their work. They include the right to respect for the integrity of the work, the right of paternity (to be recognized as the author), the right of disclosure (to decide whether to make the work public), and the right of withdrawal or repentance. These rights are inalienable, perpetual, and nontransferable.
- Economic rights: These rights allow the author to derive economic benefits from their work. They include the right of reproduction (the right to copy the work), the right of representation (the right to distribute the work to the public), and the right of adaptation (the right to transform the work). Economic rights are, in principle, limited in time (generally 70 years after the author’s death) and may be assigned or transferred.
In summary, an author is the intellectual creator of an original work and has rights to protect and exploit it.
In some cases, a company may be considered the author or, more precisely, the copyright holder of a work, even though it is not the author in the strict sense. A company may hold the rights to a work as a collective work, a work created by employees or under a contract of commission, or through a transfer of copyright.