Article 1: Copyright

(1) Authors shall have, with the creation of the work, the right of copyright in that work, which includes, as exclusive and absolute rights, the right to exploit the work (economic right) and the right to protect their personal connection with the work (moral right).

(2) The above-mentioned rights shall include the powers to authorize that are provided for in Articles 3 and 4 of this Law.

Article 2: Object of the right

(1) The term work shall designate any original intellectual literary, artistic or scientific creation, expressed in any form, notably written or oral texts, musical compositions with or without words, theatrical works accompanied or unaccompanied by music, choreographies and pantomimes, audiovisual works, works of fine art, including drawings, works of painting and sculpture, engravings and lithographs, works of architecture and photographs, works of applied art, illustrations, maps and three-dimensional works relative to geography, topography, architecture or science.

(2) The term work shall, in addition, designate translations, adaptations, arrangements and other alterations of works or of expressions of folklore, as well as collections of works or collections of expressions of folklore or of simple facts and data, such as encyclopaedias and anthologies, provided the selection or the arrangement of their contents is original. Protection afforded to the works listed in this paragraph shall in no way prejudice rights in the pre existing works, which were used as the object of the alterations or the collections.

(2a.) Databases which, by reason of the selection or arrangement of their contents, constitute the author’s intellectual creation, shall be protected as such by copyright. The copyright protection shall not extend to the contents of databases and shall be without prejudice any rights subsisting in those contents themselves. Database is a collection of independent works, data or other, materials arranged in a systematic or methodical way and individually accessible by electronic or other means.

(3) Without prejudice to the provisions of Section VII of this Law, computer programs and their preparatory design material shall be deemed to be literary works within the meaning of the provisions on copyright protection. Protection in accordance with this Law shall apply to the expression in any form of a computer program. Ideas and principles which underlie any element of a computer program, including those which underlie its interfaces, are not protected under this Law. A computer program shall be protected if it is original in the sense that it is the author’s personal intellectual creation.

(4) The protection afforded under this Law shall apply regardless of the value of the work and its destination and regardless of the fact that the work is possibly protected under other provisions.

(5) The protection afforded under this Law shall not apply to official texts expressive of the authority of the State, notably to legislative, administrative or judicial texts, nor shall it apply to expressions of folklore, news information or simple facts and data.

Article 3: Economic Rights

(1) The economic rights shall confer upon the authors notably the right to authorize or prohibit:
a) the fixation and direct or indirect, temporary or permanent reproduction of their works by any means and in any form, in whole or in part
b) the translation of their works
c) the arrangement, adaptation of other alteration of their works
d) concerning the original or copies of their works, the distribution to the public in any form by sale or otherwise. The distribution right shall be exhausted within the Community only where the first sale or other transfer of ownership in the Community of the original or copies is made by the rightholder or with his consent
e) the rental or public lending concerning the original or copies of their works. Such rights are not exhausted by any sale or other act of distribution of the original or copies. Such rights are not applicable to architectural works and works of applied arts. The rental and public lending have the meaning provided by the Council Directive 92/100 of 19 November 1992 (Official Journal of the European Communities No. L 346/61-27.11.1992).
f) the public performance of their works
g) the broadcasting or rebroadcasting of their works to the public by radio and television, by wireless means or by cable or by any kind of wire or by any other means, in parallel to the surface of the earth or by satellite
h) the communication to the public of their works, by wire or wireless means or by any other means, including the making available to the public of their works in such a way that members of the public may access these works from a place and at a time individually chosen by them. These rights shall not be exhausted by any act of communication to the public as set out in this provision
i) the import of copies of their works produced abroad without the creator's consent or the import of copies from a country outside the European Community, when the right over such import in Greece had been retained by the author through contract.

(2) The use, performance or presentation of the work shall be deemed to be public when the work thereby becomes accessible to a circle of persons wider than the narrow circle of the family and the immediate social circle of the author, regardless of whether the persons of this wider circle are at the same or at different locations.

(3) The author of a database shall have the exclusive right to carry out or to authorize: a) temporary or permanent reproduction by any means and in any form, in whole or in part, b) translation, adaptation, arrangement and any other alteration, c) any form of distribution to the public of the database or of copies thereof. The first sale in the Community of a copy of the database by the rightholder or with his consent shall exhaust the right to control resale of that copy within the Community, d) any communication, display or performance to the public, e) any reproduction, distribution, communication, display or performance to the public of the results of the acts referred to in (b). The performance by the lawful user of a database or of a copy thereof of any of the acts listed above which is necessary for the purposes of access to the contents of the databases and normal use of the contents by the lawful user shall not require the authorization of the author of the database. Where the lawful user is authorized to use only part of the database, this provision shall apply only to that part. Any agreement contrary to the provisions of the previous two sentences shall be null and void.

(4) Reproduction of electronic database for private use is not permitted.

Article 4: Moral Rights

(1) The moral rights shall confer upon the author notably the following rights:
a) to decide on the time, place and manner in which the work shall be made accessible to the public (publication)
b) to demand that his status as the author of the work be acknowledged and, in particular, to the extent that it is possible, that his name be indicated on the copies of his work and noted whenever his work is used publicly, or, on the contrary, if he so wishes, that his work be presented anonymously or under a pseudonym
c) to prohibit any distortion, mutilation or other modification of his work and any offence to the author due to the circumstances of the presentation of the work in public
d) to have access to his work, even when the economic right in the work or the physical embodiment of the work belongs to another person; in those latter cases, the access shall be effected with minimum possible nuisance to the right holder
e) in the case of a literary or scientific work, to rescind a contract transferring the economic right or an exploitation contract or license of which his work is the object, subject to payment of material damages to the other contracting party, for the pecuniary loss he has sustained, when the author considers such action to be necessary for the protection of his personality because of changes in his beliefs or in the circumstances.

(2) With reference to the last case of the preceding paragraph, the rescission takes effect after the payment of the damages. If, after the rescission, the author again decides to transfer the economic right, or to permit exploitation of the work or of a like work, he must give, in priority, the former other contracting party the opportunity to reconstitute the old contract with the same terms or with terms similar to those which were in force at the time of the rescission.

(3) The moral rights shall be independent from the economic rights and shall remain with the author even after the transfer of the economic rights.

Article 5: Resale Right - Droit de Suite

(1) The author of an original work of art shall have a resale right, to be defined as an inalienable right inter vivos, which cannot be waived, even in advance, to receive a royalty based on the sale price obtained for any resale of the work, subsequent to the first transfer of the work by the author. This right shall apply to all acts of resale involving as sellers, buyers or intermediaries art market professionals, such as salesrooms, art galleries and, in general, any dealers in works of art. The royalty shall be payable by the seller. When an intermediary art market professional is involved, he shall share liability with the seller for payment of the royalty (article 1, par. 1, 2 and 4 of Directive 2001/84).

(2) Original work of art means works of graphic or plastic art such as pictures, collages, paintings, drawings, engravings, prints, lithographs, sculptures, tapestries, ceramics, glassware and photographs, provided they are made by the artist himself or are copies considered to be original works of art. Copies of works of art, which have been made in limited numbers by the artist himself or under his authority, shall be considered to be original works of art for the purposes of the resale right. Such copies will normally have been numbered, signed or otherwise duly authorised by the artist (article 2 of Directive 2001/84).

(3) The royalty provided for in paragraph 1 shall be set at the following rates:
a) 5% for the portion of the sale price up to EUR 50,000.00;
b) 3% for the portion of the sale price from EUR 50,000.01 to EUR 200,000.00;
c) 1% for the portion of the sale price from EUR 200,000.01 to EUR 350,000.01;
d) 0,5% for the portion of the sale price from EUR 350,000.01 to EUR 500,000.00;
e) 0,25% for the portion of the sale price exceeding EUR 500,000.00.

However, the total amount of the royalty may not exceed EUR 12,500.00 (articles 3 and 4 of Directive 2001/84).

(4) The sale prices referred to in the previous paragraph are net of tax (article 5 of Directive 2001/84).

(5) The royalty provided above shall be payable to the author of the work and, after his death, to those entitled under him/her.

(6) The management and protection of the resale right may be entrusted to collective management organisations operating by resolution of the Ministry of Culture, for the category of works referred to in paragraph 2 (article 6 of Directive 2001/84).

(7) For a period of three years after the resale, beneficiaries and collective management organizations may require from any art market professional mentioned in paragraph 1 to furnish any information that may be necessary in order to secure payment of royalties in respect of the resale. The Greek Chamber of Visual Arts shall also be entitled to collect information (article 9 of Directive 2001/84).

(8) The term of protection of the resale right shall correspond to that laid down in articles 29, 30, 31, par. 1 and 2, of this law (article 8, par. 1, of Directive 2001/84).