Ghostwriting in Polish Copyright Law – A New Perspective Needed?

Abstract

It is worthy of note that the so-called ‘ghostwriting’ contracts are subject to much debate under the copyright legislation of most countries. There is usually little concern where moral rights are perceived as waivable, which appears to be the current situation in most common law systems. However, in most civil law systems in continental Europe, where it may have been explicitly stated that these rights are not transferable (and sometimes unwaivable too), statutory law struggles to find the answer as to whether ghostwriting constitutes an unenforceable or even illegal activity. Yet, it is known that in the legal doctrine of certain countries (Germany, Switzerland) ghostwriting contracts are in principle allowed under copyright law. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the ghostwriting contract from a ‘hometown’ perspective, which happens to be Polish copyright law.