ZAJĘCIE PRAW AUTORSKICH MAJĄTKOWYCH W POSTĘPOWANIU EGZEKUCYJNYM
BAILIFF’S SEIZURE OF AUTHOR’S ECONOMIC RIGHTS

Summary/Abstract: Under Article 18(1) of the Copyright Act, author's economic rights are not enforceable as longas they serve the author, with the exception of liabilities. Paragraph 2 of the cited article providesthat after the death of the author, the heirs may oppose enforcement in an unpublished work,unless the opposition would be contrary to the disclosed will of the author as to the distributionof the work. This provision introduces far-reaching limitations on enforcement, and itsinterpretation and application in practice by enforcement authorities raises many questions. Theaim of this article is to analyse Article 18 of the Copyright Act and to determine the scope ofapplication of the said provision, as well as the provisions of the enforcement proceedings underthe Civil Procedure Code, in particular the institution of a bailiff's seizure of author's economicrights. In the author's opinion, the construction of Article 18 of the Copyright Act introduces farreaching limitations to the enforcement of author's economic rights, which confirms a specialprivilege of the author. The aim of the article is also to consider this issue in relation to thepossibility of a bailiff's seizure of carriers of tangible author's rights. In this regard, the authorputs forward the thesis that the prohibition of enforcement expressed in Article 18 of theCopyright Act does not, as a rule, apply to tangible carriers, which are, in her opinion, things inthe civil sense. Nevertheless, the sale of a copy may sometimes constitute a distribution of awork and be in opposition to the prohibition expressed in Article 18(1).

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