The (new) Copyright Remuneration Rules For Authors And Performers

The amendment to the Austrian Copyright Act introduces a whole range of new provisions on copyright contract law, strengthening the position of authors and performers¹. In our first Legal Insight ("Austria: The (new) Copyright Contract Law") we provided some background information and an overview of the new provisions, which are partly based on the DSM Directive² and partly adopted from German law. Now we want to examine what to expect from the provisions and what to look out for when drafting copyright agreements in the future.

Let's start with the new remuneration rules based on the DSM Directive:

The DSM Directive introduced a principle for appropriate and proportionate remuneration of authors and performers. Moreover, a bestseller clause was introduced which entitles them to additional adequate remuneration if the originally agreed remuneration proves to be clearly disproportionately low. But what does this mean for rights holder?