Protecting one's work
What's a work ?
A work is the expression of the author's creative activity. Under both French and Community laws, only a natural person (not the companies) can be a work author.
In order to enjoy protection under the Intellectual Property Code, the created work has to be original and perceivable by the senses.
- Form: the work should be expressed in a tangible form liable to be disclosed to the public, namely a screenplay, a movie, a manuscript or a recorded play, a music score, a drawing, a photograph, a Website, a video game, etc.
That required form is the reason why ideas as such are not copyrighted, in the absence of any implementation. - Originality: the work is original when its bears the imprint of its author's personality. It should be the rather new formulation of a personal thought of the author, or of several authors in the event of a joint work. The intellectual and artistic choices which have led to its creation shall therefore not be exclusively dictated by technical and/or regulatory constraints.
Why should it be protected ?
A work which complies with the form and originality requirement is copyrighted immediately upon its creation, even though it is unfinished, regardless of its style, form of expression or merits. Hence, copyrighting an intellectual work is not conditional upon any legal deposit.
By contrast, a voluntary deposit of the work is recommended to every author, before he/she takes any steps towards work disclosure to the public (delivery to persons who are liable to exploit the work, a producer, a publisher, etc.). In fact, in the event of an infringement, and more generally of a copyright dispute before a judge, who has sole jurisdiction to assess the facts, the deposit, whether in physical or electronic form, is useful for the authors to submit a clear and indisputable evidence of the work content and creation date.
To deal with these issues, through its certification schemes fully ensuring both safety and privacy, e-dpo offers a quick, reliable and lawful solution for your work deposits.
Learn more about the legal validity of your deposit
Learn more about the safety and privacy as applicable to your deposits
Learn more about the functioning of e-dpo
Which works are to be deposited ?
e-dpo is made available to every author or creator, whether he/she is a member of a society of authors or not. Every work may be deposited with e-dpo, in any repertoire whatsoever (audiovisual sector, theatre, still images, science, literature, music, multimedia, radio, other) and regardless of its development stage (synopsis, screenplay…).
Learn more about the size and formats of the files to be deposited