A changing landscape: copyright in Cyprus
In Cyprus, copyright law proceeds from domestic legislation and international treaties to which Cyprus is party. The latter has a superior force in Cyprus national legislation.
Copyright in Cyprus is regulated by the Copyright & Neighbouring Rights Law of 1976 to 2006.
The conventions to which Cyprus is party include the International Convention for the protection of Literary and Artistic Works, known as the Berne Convention.
The Berne Convention was adopted in 1979, and the Universal Copyright convention was adopted in 1990, while Cyprus also acceded to the 1971 Paris Revisions of the Berne Convention and the Universal Copyright Convention. And while Cyprus has not yet ratifi ed the law instigating the Rome Convention, it has has enacted Law No.14 (III)/1999 concerning this and the European Directive 2001/29/EC on copyright.
Copyright is the statutory right to stop others copying or exploiting in any way original work, ie, artistic work, literary work, music recordings, broadcasts, computer software, etc, without permission from the owner of the rights.
The Copyright Law protects Cypriot nationals for works which are published anywhere in the world and the nationals of foreign countries for works which are published in Cyprus. Only the owners of a copyright have the exclusive right to reproduce, translate and off er their works to the public.
Rights are recognised under the law for every protected object whose beneficiary is at the time of the creation of the right, or if it is a broadcast, the time of the transmission of the broadcast, a qualifying person, namely:
