Autoria conjunta: uma visão industrial, legal e social do cinema e da televisão

Authorship has been one of the most approached themes by reputable theorists of several areas of knowledge, which focus on artistic studies throughout history. However, does this inquiry reside only on a quest for insight about the human being and of his/her practices or is there something more? Can the absence of knowing where the authorship resides bring repercussions? Notice that, when one speaks of authorship in works created by several individuals, a concrete or even reliable answer can’t be obtained. Thus, the study of two artistic formats that fit in this reality, the fictional cinema and the television drama series, was proposed. When investigating these two areas, the existence of common problems was spotted: each theorist legitimates his/her own author, whether they are academics in Philosophical Studies, Film Studies, Television Studies, Communication Sciences, Cultural Studies, Sociology of Media or of other scope of interest; society no longer questions who the author is, and the image of authorship that it creates is mostly imposed by marketing and publicity; the industry is driven by languages of power and money, leaving the art and the concern for authorship in the background and the law names different authors in each country and considers that all audio-visual works should be protected as they were the same. In this research an initial study about the evolution of the notion of authorship and of the author throughout history was elaborated. An observation of the theories and approaches of who is the author of the cinematographic fictional work and of a TV drama series for the specialists of these two fields was made, followed by a study of the same theme between the audience and the individualized spectator of nowadays. At last, one of the major purposes became to dissect the legislation of the two main legal systems’ representatives, responsible for defending cinema and television works, namely the Portuguese national law, that is the Author’s Rights and Related Rights, and the American law, which is Copyright. This legal study was made because of the importance and influence that the law has, both in the production of the work and in its publication and divulgation. This has shown to be the area which can bring the greatest consequences related to authorship, not only on an economic level, but also artistic and cultural. This thesis is a contribution to the study of authorship, as in its scope it would not be possible to verify who is or are the authors of a work, given the numerous positions that needed study. Some occupations from the production department were selected and two studies were carried out, one for cinema and the other for television. Through these, it was found that the necessary conditions and characteristics which confirm the existence of a joint authorship, are met in both areas.