Inheritance of the Copyrights in Russia

The study is devoted to the investigation of the copyrights inheritance institution in the Russian Federation, which has not received full and precise legal regulation at the moment. The paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the material and procedural aspects of the copyrights succession. The author gives a description of the three ways of an exclusive right inheritance on a work and comes to the conclusion that the most appropriate way of the exclusive right succession is to divide it into separate exclusive rights, each of which covers a different method of work use. Almost all moral rights are not transferable to heirs, while other rights of the author may be obtained by the author’s inheritors in the order of hereditary succession. The author also highlights the peculiarities of the inheritance in case of joint authorship, separation of the matrimonial and compulsory shares as well as legacy in relation to the exclusive right and the income from the work use. This paper characterizes the acceptance, measures for the protection and refusal of hereditary property, given that it includes the copyrights. The central part of the work is a legal opinion on the copyright inheritance features.