Exclusive rights

Under UrhG there are three main types of exclusive rights:

• the right to make copies of the work (§16 UrhG),
• the right to distribute (e.g. sell) the work (§17 UrhG),
• the right to make the work available to the public (s. 19a UrhG), e.g. via the Internet.

These rights are exclusive prerogatives of rightholders. It means that whoever wants to perform one of the acts covered by an exploitation right must have the rightholder's permission, unless the intended use falls within the scope of a copyright exception.

The rights, also called exploitation rights (or patrimonial rights) are exclusive rights that, unlike moral rights, have an economic significance. Unlike moral rights, patrimonial rights expire after the copyright term and they can be transferred (licensed out via an exclusive or non-exclusive license) to another person.

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