PORTUGAL Law and Practice Contributed by: Ana Rita Paínho, Mariana Costa Pinto and Leonor Ruano Silveira, SÉRVULO
3.3 Copyright Authorship The author is the person who creates the intel - lectual work. The law presumes authorship based on the name indicated on the work or announced upon public disclosure. In cases where a work is created under an employment contract or commissioned by another party, authorship remains with the crea - tor unless an agreement states otherwise. If no agreement exists, the creator retains copyright, but the employer or commissioner may have certain usage rights. Only human authors can claim copyright. Works generated by AI, animals or other non-human entities do not qualify for copyright protection. When a work is created collaboratively by mul - tiple individuals, each author holds rights over the work as a whole unless individual contribu - tions can be separately distinguished. If con - tributions are separable, each author retains individual rights over their portion while sharing rights over the unified work. In the absence of an agreement, ownership is presumed to be equal among collaborators. 3.4 Copyright Rights The rights of copyright owners include economic rights (patrimonial) and moral rights (non-patri - monial). • Economic rights: copyright grants the owner exclusive control over the reproduction, distribution, public performance, adaptation and other forms of exploitation of the work. These rights allow the owner to license, sell or authorise third parties to use the work commercially. • Moral rights: in addition to economic rights, copyright law recognises moral rights, which
ensure that the author retains the right to be identified as the creator, to prevent modifi - cations that harm the integrity of the work, and to object to uses that may damage their reputation. Moral rights cannot be transferred or waived and continue even after economic rights are assigned. 3.5 Term of Protection and Termination Copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. In the case of works with multiple authors, protection continues until 70 years after the last surviving author’s death. For corporate works and anonymous or pseudony - mous works, the term is generally 70 years from the date of publication or disclosure. Copyright protection expires automatically once the term ends, at which point the work enters the public domain. Once a work is in the public domain, it can be freely used by anyone without permission. While economic rights expire, moral rights con - tinue indefinitely and can be exercised by heirs or the state to protect the integrity and authen - ticity of the work. 3.6 Collective Rights Management Systems Portugal has collective management organisa - tions (CMOs) that represent authors, compos - ers, artists and producers in managing copyright rights. These organisations oversee the licens - ing of copyrighted works, collect royalties from users (such as broadcasters, streaming services and public venues) and distribute revenue to rights holders. These CMOs also enforce copy - right protections and take legal action against infringement on behalf of their member.
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