Pursuant to Article 80 of Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works, film producers who carry out the first fixation of a film, after acquiring the authority to exercise the economic rights from the author and the performing artist, hold the exclusive right to authorize or prohibit the direct or indirect reproduction, distribution, sale, rental and public lending of that fixation; its communication and re-communication to the public by means of devices enabling the transmission of signs, sounds and/or images; its sale or other forms of distribution or presentation to the public by wired or wireless means; and its making available to the public in such a way that individuals may access it from a place and at a time of their choosing.
After acquiring the authority to exercise the economic rights from the author and the performing artist, the film producer becomes the exclusive rights holder over the fixation made, as regulated by law. These rights continue for 70 years starting from the date of the first fixation.
As a related rights holder, the film producer is entitled to file actions for the prevention of infringement, the cessation of infringement, and compensation with respect to the film for which the first fixation was made. The producer also has the right to pursue all legal and criminal remedies against unauthorized or pirated uses of the production.
On the other hand, prior to the amendments introduced to the Law on Intellectual and Artistic Works (FSEK) by Law No. 4630, the producer was considered the author of all productions. With the amendment introduced through Additional Article 2 of FSEK under Law No. 4630, the status of the producer as the author was preserved for all productions created before 1995, resulting in a dual structure regarding authorship of cinematographic works. Accordingly, for productions created before 1995, producers retained their status as authors; whereas for productions whose creation began after 1995, the “director, original music composer, screenwriter, and dialogue writer” are recognized as joint authors of the work.
