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Article 47: The performance, publishing and audiovisual production contracts referred to
in the present Chapter shall be in writing, on pain of relative invalidity. The same shall
apply to performance authorizations granted free of charge.
In all other cases, the provisions of contract law shall apply.
Article 48: The transfer of copyright must be mentioned specifically in the deed of
assignment and the scope, purpose, place and duration of the exploitation of the rights
assigned must be established.
The assignment of the rights of audiovisual adaptation must be the subject of a written
contract in a document separate from the contract relating to the publication as such of
the printed work.
The assignee shall undertake by such contract to seek exploitation of the right assigned in
compliance with the practice within the profession and, in the case of an adaptation, to
pay the author remuneration in proportion to the revenue received.
Article 49: The author may assign the rights in his work in whole or in part. Such
assignment must include a proportional share of the revenue from the sale or exploitation
for the benefit of the author.
The author's remuneration may, however, be assessed as a lump sum in the following
cases:
1 – where it is impossible in practice to determine the basis for calculating a share;
2 – where there is no means of monitoring the application of the share;
3 where the calculation and monitoring costs would be disproportionate to the desired
results;
4 where the nature or conditions of the exploitation make it impossible to apply the rule
of proportional remuneration, either because the author's contribution does not constitute
one of the essential elements of the intellectual creation of the work or because the use of
the work is merely incidental to the subject of the exploitation;
5 in the event of the assignment of a software program;
6 in the other cases provided for in the present Law.
It shall also be lawful for the parties, at the request of the author, to convert the royalties
deriving from the contracts currently in force into lumpsum annuities for periods to be
determined by the parties.