Principles of copyright
 
Copyright is a legal convention which recognizes the paternity of a work to its author's natural person. It is based on two types of fundamental, inalienable, perpetual, imprescriptible and complementary rights: moral rights and patrimonial rights.
 

Moral rights

The author may at any time, claim paternity of a play and quash any change, mutilation or alteration which it might undergo and which might undermine his/her honour or reputation.
 
The author alone may authorize changes to his/her work. He/she also may, by virtue of withdrawal right and the right to repent, withdraw a play from circulation. Thus the user will respect the text and the viewer will be protected from any adulteration of the text.
 
Anyone responsible for alteration,abridgment, mutilation or change of work may be prosecuted. (
copyright violation).
 
Upon the death of the author, moral rights may be transferred to the heirs.

Patrimonial rights

Exclusive proprietory rights
 
A play belongs to its author. Whoever wishes to use it must obtain his/her consent. If the author consents, the user is granted a user's right or licence.
 
The author has sole right to produce, reproduce, perform, transform, adapt or publish, in full or in part a recognized original work or to authorize such activities.
 
In other words, the author alone, or his/her representative (agent, heir, copyright agency) may authorize, against remuneration, or prohibit performance of the play.

 
Remuneration right
 
The author allows the use of his/her work on the condition that he/she receive a remuneration in the form of either a flat fee or a percentage of the receipts.
 
Any stage performance of a play or an excerpt, whatever the circumstances, must be authorized in advance by the author and is subject to fees. This applies whether the user is a student, a teacher, a school (private or public) amateur, professional, whether performance occurs in a theatre, on a tour, as part of a festival or a benefit, or for an audience of children, whether admission is charged or not.