Protecting the Rights and Legal Interests of Authors and Performers

Abstract

A genuine cultural revolution has taken place in our country during the years of Soviet power, and our cultural potential is steadily mounting. Our science is growing rapidly, and our progress in science and technology is accelerating. One of the manifestations and consequences of these processes is the steady increase in the number of authors of works in science, literature, and art, of inventors and efficiency experts, and of performers of literary and art works. In 1980, the USSR published 80,700 books and booklets, many of which had not one, but several authors; 5236 journals and other periodicals; and 8088 newspapers.¹ In the same year, applications for inventions and efficiency proposals were filed by 46,550 authors; 315 full-length and 1332 short films were released; and 604 professional theaters were in operation throughout the nation.² Authors and performers now number in the hundreds of thousands. The number of persons engaged in creative activity will grow with our society's further scientific-technical and cultural progress. In this regard, new problems will arise in the protection of their rights and legal interests. This protection is of great importance for unveiling people's creative potential and for stimulating their creative activity.