Copyright Law
All Rights Reserved
The meaning of “ All Rights Reserved”
The words “ All Rights Reserved” are often present in published works and at the end of the film credits. The phrase is normally used as a copyright notice.
In South Africa you don’t have to register a work for copyright protection for it to be protected as copyright is automatically assigned to it. Instead of inserting a whole paragraph of the rights reserved by the holder thereof, authors and film producers simply insert the words “All Rights Reserved”.
The words “All Rights Reserved” are used simply to depict that the rights are still held by the originator of the work and imply that the originator is willing to take legal action against the infringement of such rights.
It simply states that no part of the work may be copied, stored, electronically or in any form, made available or distributed, reproduced or commercially benefitted from without the express written permission of the copyright holder.
The words “All Rights Reserved” do not imply that you cannot make a movie based on the novel or use the music at all, only that you need to get permission from the creator of the work to do so and that there may be an agreement involved before you do so.
The phrase was originally used because of the 1910 Buenos Aires Convention which required some form of a statement to be made to ensure protection against infringement.
The convention required the phrase be added to indicate that the rights, including the rights to publish the work, belonged to the copyright holder.
Today it is commonly used to warn against infringement as it is no longer required to add such a notice.
If you need help in wording copyright notices or setting up agreements with copyright holders in order to reproduce or use an “All Rights Reserved” work, contact us at Smit & Van Wyk today.
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