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Torremans, Paul --- "Legal isues pertaining to the restoration and reconstitution of manuscripts, sheet music, paintings and films for marketing purposes" [2007] ELECD 294; in Torremans, Paul (ed), "Copyright Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: Copyright Law

Editor(s): Torremans, Paul

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845424879

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Legal isues pertaining to the restoration and reconstitution of manuscripts, sheet music, paintings and films for marketing purposes

Author(s): Torremans, Paul

Number of pages: 21

Extract:

2 Legal issues pertaining to the restoration and
reconstitution of manuscripts, sheet music,
paintings and films for marketing purposes
Paul Torremans1



Introduction
I must admit that I was somewhat taken aback when I started to think about
this topic. It seemed so broad and yet very specific at the same time. Very soon
though I came to the conclusion that the legal issues to which the topic refers
are anything but special issues that relate only to restoration and reconstitu-
tion. Instead, it seems to me that the main focus should be on the central
concepts of copyright. There are by definition at least two creators involved
when one talks about restoration and reconstitution. And they did undertake
their creative activity at different times. This raises questions about original-
ity. Is the work of the person restoring or reconstituting a work making an
original contribution for the purposes of copyright law? In order to answer the
question we need to be very clear about the requirements of originality. We
need to define the concept very clearly. A second question that arises is
whether there is a separate copyright work resulting from the restoration or
reconstitution. In answering both questions the concept of authorship and the
way we define it may be of crucial importance.
As a result of this initial realisation, I concluded that it was not a wise idea
to try and analyse these issues one by one in an abstract way. That would
amount to writing a copyright ...