ALL RIGHTS RESERVED… (In the Entertainment industry. What does all rights reserved mean?)

Copyrights All Rights Reserved / Photo Credit: Wikimedia

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED… (In the Entertainment industry. What does all rights reserved mean?)

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All rights reserved

"All rights reserved" is a copyright formality indicating that the copyright holder reserves, or holds for its own use, all the rights provided by copyright law. Originating in the Buenos Aires Convention of 1910, it no longer has any legal effect in any jurisdiction. However, it is still used by many copyright holders. The phrase "All rights reserved" is often used in conjunction with a copyright notice. Today it has no legal significance. In copyright law, by default all rights are reserved; nothing may be done with a copyrighted work without explicit permission.

Origins

The phrase originated as a result of the Buenos Aires Convention of 1910. Article 3 of the Convention granted copyright in all signatory countries to a work registered in any signatory country, as long as a statement "that indicates the reservation of the property right" (emphasis added) appeared in the work. The phrase "all rights reserved" was not specified in the text, but met this requirement. Today all members of the Buenos Aires Copyright Convention are also member of the Berne Convention. The Berne Convention states that unless explicitly stated otherwise, all rights are reserved. Further, a copyright law may not require any formalities as a condition for copyright protection.

Other copyright treaties did not require this formality. For example, the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC), adopted in 1952, adopted the © symbol as an indicator of protection. (The symbol was introduced in the US by a 1954 amendment to the Copyright Act of 1909.) The Berne Convention rejected formalities altogether in Article 4 of the 1908 revision, so authors seeking to protect their works in countries that had signed on to the Berne Convention were also not required to use the "all rights reserved" formulation. However, because not all Buenos Aires signatories were members of Berne or the UCC, and in particular the United States did not join UCC until 1955, a publisher in a Buenos Aires signatory seeking to protect a work in the greatest number of countries between 1910 and 1952 would have used both the phrase "all rights reserved" and the copyright symbol.

Obsolescence

The requirement to add the "all rights reserved" notice became essentially obsolete on August 23, 2000, when Nicaragua became the final member of the Buenos Aires Convention to also become a signatory to the Berne Convention. As of that date, every country that was a member of the Buenos Aires Convention (which is the only copyright treaty requiring this notice to be used) was also a member of Berne, which requires protection be granted without any formality of notice of copyright.

Some rights reserved

Even though the phrase "all rights reserved" has no legal significance today, it is still used with almost all copyright notices. The only practical function is that of a warning: the author realizes he has a copyright and he really means to keep it.

The Creative Commons initiative uses a slightly different phrase, some rights reserved, to indicate its more liberal approach to copyright. The phrase then is used as a link text to the applicable Creative Commons license. Their "dedication to the public domain" statement uses the phrase "No rights reserved".

All rights reversed

Occasionally people use the phrase "All rights reversed" instead of "reserved". Usually this is done as a joke. When it is meant seriously, it indicates the author does want others to use his copyrighted work. The phrase by itself is not enough; a license must explicitly state the rights that are granted.

The phrase continues to hold popular currency and serves as a handy convention widely used by artists, writers, and content creators to prevent ambiguity and clearly spell out the warning that their content cannot be copied freely.

Sources, References & Credits: Google, Wikipedia, Wikihow, Pinterest, IMDB, Linked In, Indie Wire, Film Making Stuff, Hiive, Film Daily, New York Film Academy, The Balance, The Numbers, Film Maker, TV Guide Magazine, Media Match, Quora, Creative Skill Set, Investopedia, Variety, No Film School, Daily Variety, The Film Agency, Best Sample Resume, How Stuff Works, Career Trend, Producer's Code of Credits, Producers Guild of America, Film Connection, Entertainment Careers, Adhere Creative, In Deed, Glass Door, Pay Scale, Merriam-Webster, Job Monkey, Studio Binder, The Collective, Production Hub, The Producer's Business Handbook by John J. Lee Jr., Honathaner, Eve Light. The Complete Film Production Handbook, Brian Dzyak (2010). What I Really Want to Do on Set in Hollywood: A Guide to Real Jobs in the Film Industry, Andrew Dawson; Sean Holmes (2 August 2012). Working in the Global Film and Television Industries: Creativity, Systems, Space, and Patronage, Clearance Guidelines for Producers, Mast, and Gerald. "Film Study and the Copyright Law", from Cinema Journal, Arnoud Engelfriet, “The phrase "All rights reserved", "International Copyright". U.S. Copyright Office, “Copyright Registrations and Formalities". World Intellectual Property Organization, Iusmentis, Work Press, http://www.wga.org/, https://www.copyright.gov/,

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