VENEZUELA Law and Practice Contributed by: Dana Bentata, Anette Beyer and Biddy Fraga Bentata, Bentata Abogados
expressed or the physical medium on which it is fixed. This definition is technology-neutral and sufficiently broad to accommodate certain modern software in its various forms, although it does not resolve the treat- ment of AI-generated outputs. See 7.2 AI-Generated Works and Inventorship/Authorship . 3.2 Requirements for Copyright Protection Copyright protection is automatic from the date of creation and does not depend on registration or any other formality pursuant to Articles 1 and 5 of the LDA. Registration is nevertheless available through the Registry of Intellectual Products ( Registro de la Pro- ducción Intelectual ), but its function is evidentiary, not constitutive; under Article 104 of the LDA, registration serves as proof, absent evidence to the contrary, of the existence of the work, its disclosure or publication, and the identity of the stated right-holder. The principal substantive requirement for copy- right protection is originality. The work must also be expressed in some perceptible form; an entirely unexpressed idea, concept or method does not qual- ify for protection, consistent with the Berne Conven- tion. While fixation is not a blanket requirement, the statute does require it in certain categories, including (i) choreographic and mimed works, which are pro- tected where the stage movement has been fixed in writing or another form, and (ii) computer programs. Beyond these categories, an unfixed work, such as an improvised speech or performance, may nonetheless qualify for protection provided it meets the originality threshold. 3.3 Authorship and Ownership Article 7 of the LDA defines the author as the natural person who creates the work. The statute also recog- nises joint authorship for works created in collabora- tion by two or more natural persons. In those cases, rights belong jointly to the co-authors and are gener- ally exercised by mutual consent, although each may separately exploit their own contribution if it can be used independently and doing so does not prejudice the common work. Where the contributions of the co-authors cannot be separated, the work must be exploited collectively, and no single co-author may act unilaterally in a manner that prejudices the others.
For works created by employees or by commission, the law adopts a broad presumption in favour of the employer or commissioning party, in accordance with Article 59 of the LDA. Unless otherwise agreed, works created in the course of employment or on commis- sion are presumed to be assigned to the employer or commissioning party for the full term of protection and without limitation. This presumption is rebuttable, and parties are free to contractually vary the allocation of rights. A similar rule applies specifically to computer pro- grams, where exploitation rights are presumed assigned to the program’s producer in the absence of proof to the contrary under Article 17 of the LDA. Together, these provisions mean that employers and commissioning parties in Venezuela generally enjoy a strong default position with respect to works created for them. 3.4 Scope of Rights and Moral Rights Authors hold the exclusive patrimonial and moral rights to exploit the work. Under the LDA, patrimonial rights include the rights of reproduction, public com- munication, distribution, translation, adaptation, and other forms of authorised exploitation. These rights may be transferred in whole or in part, exclusively or non-exclusively, and may be licensed to third parties for specific uses, territories or periods of time. The LDA affords particularly strong protection to moral rights. These encompass the right of attribution and the right of integrity (ie the right to object to any modi- fication, distortion or mutilation of the work that would be prejudicial to the author’s honour or reputation). Pursuant to Article 5 of the LDA, moral rights are inal- ienable, unattachable, unwaivable and imprescripti- ble. This protection is further reflected in Article 122 of the LDA, under which the applicable criminal penalty may be increased by one half where an infringement is committed in a manner likely to prejudice the author’s honour or reputation. 3.5 Term of Protection and Termination The term of copyright protection is the life of the author plus 60 years, counted from January 1 of the year following the author’s death. In the case of
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