A work is said to be in divise when it is elaborated by several authors in a concerted way and one cannot identify the contribution of each.
“When copyright is undivided, and without prejudice to article XI.245/1, § 2, the exercise of this right is regulated by agreement. In the absence of agreements, none of the authors may exercise it individually, except for the courts to decide in the event of disagreement.
However, each of the authors remains free to pursue, in his own name and without the intervention of the others, the infringement of copyright and to claim damages for his part.
The courts can always subordinate the authorization to publish the work to the measures which they will consider useful to prescribe; they can decide at the request of the opposing author, that this one will participate neither in the expenses, nor in the profits of the exploitation or that his name will not appear on the work”.
The rights of the different authors of an undivided work are not identical. On the one hand, the co-authors have copyright over the entire work itself. On the other hand, the accessory creators only have rights to their personal creation.
To distinguish one from the other, it is not important that the contributions are equal, or that they have elaborated the work, locked together in the same room; it is not indispensable either that their collaboration is of the same kind. What characterizes a co-author; it is the intimacy of his contribution with that of the other creators, intimacy that reveals itself by its indispensable character when the work is completed: without this contribution, the common work could certainly have seen the day but it would have been different.
As for the modalities of the exercise of the rights of the co-authors, it should be noted that the co-authors are free to settle this question between them by agreement.
Read: BERENBOOM, Le nouveau droit d’auteur, Bruxelles, Larcier, p. 202.
In NFTs, collaborations between artists are commonplace and encouraged:
- A static plastic work (a painting) is animated to become a short video or animated image (GIF)
- A work in 2 dimensions and rendered virtually in 3D
- A musical work is composed for a plastic work or vice versa
- Works from different universes (visual, audiovisual, musical, scenographic) are assembled to form one or several new original works
- …
Read: Artist Michinori Chiba joins NFT x Anime’s “SAMURAI cryptos” project
“This project is a challenge for the next generation of Gonzo,” said Shinichiro Ishikawa, president of Gonzo and producer of this project. “We will continue to introduce more and more SAMURAI from the world’s best creators. I am really excited and delighted about this project.” He added Hironobu Ueno, CEO of double jump.tokyo, a partner in this project, said, “We are very excited about this ambitious new project, which will be an anime that starts with NFT and the Discord community, rather than traditional anime. It starts with television and manga.”.”
It is therefore necessary to take advice and carefully examine the general conditions or contractual provisions relating to the undivided ownership of common or undivided works. Better yet, draft these contracts ensuring that the conditions are clear and precise, balanced and exhaustive (covering all the aspects to be considered).
