CONGO
Law on Copyright and Neighboring Rights
(No. 24/82 of July 7, 1982)
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(Articles 49 to ]07)
CHAPTER /)
Authors' Contracts
Article 49. Contracts by which an author or his
successors in title authorize the performance or
publication of his works shall be drawn up in writing,
failing which they shall be void. The same shall apply
to gratuitous authorizations to perform. Such
contracts must state the type of exploitation and the
mode of remuneration laid down by the author or his
successors in title. They shall be subject to the law of
civil and commercial contract. Transfer of authors'
rights shall be subject to separate mention being
made of each of the assigned rights in the instrument
of assignment and to the field of exploitation of the
rights being specified as to its scope, its purpose, the
place and the duration.
Article 50. A publishing contract is a contract
under which the author of a work or his successors in
title assign to the publisher, under specified conditions, the right to manufacture or have manufactured
sufficient number of copies of the work, on condition
that the latter ensures publication and dissemination
thereof.
Article 5]. A publishing contract must be in
writing. The form and mode of expression, the terms
of execution, of publication and, where applicable, of
the termination clauses shall be specified in the contract.
Article 52. The author shall be required to:
guarantee the publisher the undisturbed and, except as otherwise agreed, exclusive exercise of
the assigned right;
have that right respected and defend it against
any infringement;
permit the publisher to fulfill his obligations and,
in particular, deliver to him within the period of
time stipulated in the contract the subject matter
of the publication in a form permitting normal
manufacture.
Article 53. The publisher shall be required to
carry out or have carried out the manufacture of the
work in accordance with the conditions stipulated in
the contract, to effect no modification of the work
without written authorization from the author, to
have, unless otherwise agreed, the name, pseudonym
or symbol of the author appear on each of the copies,
to effect publication, unless agreed otherwise, within
the period of time that is usual in the trade and to
ensure permanent and sustained exploitation of the
work and commercial distribution in accordance with
the practices of the trade.
A rticle 54. The publisher shall also be required
to provide accounts and appropriate proof to establish the accuracy of his accounts. Failing this, he shall
be compelled to do so by the competent court.
A rtlclc 55. Notwithstanding Article 44, it shall
be unlawful for the author to give a publisher a right
of preference for the publication of his future works
of a given kind in excess of five new works for each
kind as from the date of signature of the publishing
contract concluded for the first work, or within a
period of five years from that same date for the
com pleted production.
A rticlc 56. A publishing contract shall end, independently of the cases set out in general legal pro-