Who is the owner of a romance and what rights are there over translation of it?
Even in the case where a contract has not been undersigned, it is certain that the author’s name must be indicated on the published work. In such case, even if the work has not been deposited at the SIAE, all rights recognised by the law on copyright can be claimed, considering that this type of deposit is used mainly for unpublished work. Surely depositing a romance at the Unpublished Work Section of the SIAE is always convenient, as there would be no risk of dispute by others.
However, when the owner of the economical rights is the publishing house commissioning the work and who has all rights, as surely would appear on the “copyright notification” reported on the back of the cover together with a circled C followed by the same publisher, this means that the publisher has the right of publishing the work and of paying a compensation to the author, which is a percentage of the selling price of it.
Regarding the translation of the romance, this falls normally under the “elaboration” of the work, therefore the rights related to it are not automatically transferred with the edition contract unless specifically provided for (art 119 of the copyright legislation). This means that there is a right to translate the work and therefore the right to underwrite a new publishing contract for the translated romance.