Entertainment Industry and the Legal Framework of Intellectual Property
The entertainment industry — film, television, music, publishing and digital platforms — is regulated in Georgia primarily by the law on copyright and neighbouring rights. This law determines who owns the economic rights in a work, how they are transferred by contract, which rights remain with the author, and what special rights publishers and broadcasting organizations hold. For participants in the industry every project must therefore be legally structured: which right belongs to whom and which transfers are fixed in the agreement.
Most disputes in the entertainment sector begin precisely with the ownership of rights: a producer believes everything belongs to the studio, while the author considers that the collaboration meant only a permission to use the work. Avoiding these conflicts requires exact knowledge of the norms establishing the regime for publishers, audiovisual works and works made in the course of employment, as well as the procedure for transferring economic rights.
The Publisher's Special Rights
The law grants publishers a special right to use the works incorporated in encyclopedias, encyclopedic dictionaries, scientific works, periodic and continuing collections, newspapers, journals and other periodical publications. The publisher is entitled, in any use of such works, to indicate its own name or to demand such indication. The use of a work incorporated in a newspaper, journal or other periodical publication by another person without the consent of the publisher or of the author is prohibited, except for the cases provided for by the law.
A separate rule concerns exclusive material: where such material published in the press or another mass information medium is used by another information medium, it is mandatory to cite the medium of first publication. At the same time, the authors retain the exclusive right to use their own works, unless the copyright contract provides otherwise — the publisher's right does not supersede the author's right, and editorial policy must balance both interests.
Audiovisual Works: Co-Authors and the Producer
The law names as the authors — co-authors — of an audiovisual work the director, the author of the scenario, the author of the dialogues and the author of a musical work with or without text created specifically for that work. Concluding a contract on the creation of the work entails the transfer by the co-authors of the exclusive right of use to the producer, unless the contract provides otherwise, and the producer is entitled to indicate its own name in any use — the legal backbone of every production credit.
The co-authors retain the right to receive remuneration from the user — a broadcasting organization, a cinema theatre and others — for any use of the work, and any different agreement between the producer and the authors on this point is void. This right is exercised only through an organization for the collective management of economic rights. Furthermore, the author of an earlier work that has been processed or incorporated as an integral part of the audiovisual work, and the author of a work created during the production that has independent significance, retain copyright in their own works and may exploit them independently, provided the contract does not state otherwise and such exploitation does not impede the normal use of the audiovisual work.