Copyright Prerogatives in Audiovisual Work: The Documentary

Abstract The issue of copyright remains a topic of constant interest, especially in today’s society, where the field of artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly present. This study focuses on these issues and is both theoretical and interdisciplinary, combining aspects of private law with those of mass media. The article will present various interpretations of the documentary (as an original creation), as it is a genre at the intersection of different specializations. The focus will then be on illustrating the variety of documentary typologies, with the multitude of forms and subjects they can address. By correlating legislative elements from the EU with those of our country (with an emphasis on the latter), we will examine the documentary from the perspective of copyright, identifying both the influence of moral rights and those of economic rights on the mentioned journalistic genre. Additionally, we will propose a new research direction for a future study, highlighting some of the limitations that arise in the creation and dissemination of documentaries, imposed by copyright law.