The copyright is the exclusive right that an author or an editor holds to exploit for a given duration a literary or artistic work. In the case of official publications of the Community institutions, the copyright belongs to the European Communities as a whole, and not to each institution individually. Protection formalities are satisfied if all copies of a publication have a copyright notice, reproduction rights , informing the public of the protection of the author s rights in the publication in question. The reproduction rights may be accompanied by an explanation modulating the degree of protection. If not, the work is entirely protected, subject to the exceptions laid down in the various national legislation and international conventions.
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
Note The duration of protection of a Community publication in a given language begins from the date of its first publication. The year in the copyright notice is therefore not the year of publication of the original language version, but that of publication of the language version in question. When a publication is first printed in a given language, the year of publication and the copyright year are the same. In the event of reprinting, the copyright notice remains unchanged. On the other hand, in the case of new editions, which constitute new publications, the date of the copyright notice should correspond to the year of publication of the new edition.