What is Authorship?

Most people think that Authorship is only about Financial Compensation for the exploitation of our work.

In some countries, the Law does not allow this, so a question may arise: “why should I care about something that has no value to me”?

The truth is that there is much more than money in Authorship.

Authorship has two aspects;

· The financial aspect

· The MORAL aspect

For example, in your country, is it obligatory by Law to have your name on the title sequence? 

If so, this is due to the moral aspect of Authorship.

Another important part of the moral aspect is our right to grade our own work. I am sure this is of great interest to all of us – regardless of the financial aspects of Authorship.

We also have the right to get copies of our work and use them for non-profit purposes; e.g. our reels.

Then, we can publish still frames either on the web or in books. The frames are ours, the producers own the shots only.

People are not aware of this. We need to inform them.

The IMAGO Authorship Committee has been working on a new survey, in order to assess the worldwide Authorship status for Cinematographers.

For this reason, we created a questionnaire.

The objective of the present questionnaire is to collect information on certain aspects of the relevant laws and regulations, and, if possible, further information, for example, specification of article, transcription of legal definition, etc. This aims to provide an overall view per country concerning cinematographers’ Authorship condition on cinema and audiovisual arts.

The questions are of a legal nature, so it is preferable that they are answered by a lawyer, specialized in author’s rights, cinema and visual/audiovisual arts. Other option is to contact your national Collective Management Organization (CMO), which represents your interests, asking for help and/or orientation.  In case no such person or CMO is available, please assign someone to answer it.

The Authorship Committee is convinced that this survey will provide valuable information to evaluate.

 We ask you to assign officially a person encouraged to answer the survey within the time limit. Please send us their relevant contact details. We require this to facilitate the procedure, especially in case additional feedback is required.

Please indicate the following CONTACT DETAILS:

– Name
– Position or title
– Society, Association, Organization
– Country
– Telephone
– Fax
– E-mail

Please send them to the Chair of the IMAGO Authorship Committee, Argyris Theos GSC, at  

Following that, we will send him/her a link to a web form.

Please note that this survey, if correctly conducted, will be a turning point in IMAGO’s strategy.

By joining IMAGO, all member Societies are expecting a positive outcome, but we need your cooperation to deliver.