Copyright is the right that belongs to authors (creators) of literature, scientific and artistic works (copyright works) and which includes a serial of economic and moral rights of authors with regard to his copyright work. Copyright work begins to exist automatically, meaning by force of the law (article 8 of the Law on Copyright and Related Rights) from the moment when the author completed working on his copyright work. Therefore, if you completed work on your copyright work, you should know that you do not need to undertake any legal acts before the bodies of government administration to acquire copyright protection. It is enough that you have finished your copyright work, and the rights begin to exist from that moment- moment of creation and last during your lifetime and 70 years post mortem. Although copyright protection on the work exists from the date of creation of the work, there is an voluntary institute of depositing copyright protected work in the Intellectual Property Office which serves exclusively as the security of the material proof on the facts that may be important for the possible legal court suite or some other need with regard to the subject matter of depositing.
Copyright work is the original intellectual creation of an author, expressed in a certain form, regardless its artistic, scientific or some other value, its purpose, size, contents and way of manifestation, as well as the permissibility of public communication of its contents. The following shall be deemed works of authorship in particular: literature works (novels, poems, etc.), dramatic works, computer programs, data bases, films, musical works, choreographic works, works of fine arts such as: pictures, graphics, drawings and sculptures, then works of architecture, applied arts, cartographic works, plans, drawings, photographs, etc.
In the Republic of Serbia, the author has the following moral (personal) rights: right to be recognized as the author of his work; right to have the name of the author designated on every copy of the work; right of the author to have his work published and set the way in which it is to be published; right to protect the integrity of his/her work and right to oppose the exploitation of his/her work in a manner that is posing or could pose a threat to his honor or reputation.
In the Republic of Serbia, the author has the following economic rights: right to authorize or prohibit multiplication of work, authorize or prohibit marketing copies of the work in the channels of commerce, right to authorize or prohibit the renting of the copies of the work, right to authorize or prohibit the performance and representation of his work, right to authorize or prohibit performance of his/her work,, right to authorize or prohibit the broadcasting or rebroadcasting of his work, right to authorize or prohibit the public communication of his work, including making the work available to the public so that the members of the public may access it from the place and at the time they choose, right to authorize or prohibit the adaptation, arrangement or other alteration of work, right to authorize or prohibit the public communication of work that is broadcasted and public communication of work from the carrier of sound or picture.
Apart from the above mentioned moral and economic rights, the author in the Republic of Serbia enjoys some special, specific rights, such as: right to the access to the copy of the work, resale right, right to forbid exhibition of the original copy of the work of fine art and author’s priority right of modification of the works of architecture and right of the author for special remuneration ( private copy renumeration) and right of the author to remuneration in the case of lending of the copies of the work.