telif

Telif is the Turkish term for copyright, the set of exclusive rights granted to authors of original literary, artistic, and other creative works. It protects the expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves, and aims to encourage creation while supporting public access to culture and knowledge.

Protected works include a wide range of original creations fixed in a tangible form: books, articles, music, films, software, paintings, photographs, architectural designs, databases, and more. The scope covers both published and unpublished works, as defined by national law.

Telif rights in Turkish law are typically divided into moral rights and economic rights. Moral rights include attribution to the author and protection of the work’s integrity against distortion or mutilation. These rights are generally inalienable or only partially transferable. Economic rights authorize actions such as reproduction, distribution, public performance or display, translation, adaptation, and the creation of derivative works, and they can be licensed or transferred.

Duration of protection normally follows a life-plus-70-years rule for works by individual authors, though special rules apply for anonymous or pseudonymous works and for corporate authorship, with terms defined by the applicable law. After the term expires, works enter the public domain.

Limitations and exceptions exist to allow for quotation, education, criticism, private use, and other purposes, balancing authors’ interests with public access. Enforcement is handled through civil and, in some cases, criminal procedures, with remedies including injunctions, damages, and takedown orders. Telif forms part of the broader framework of intellectual property law in Turkey, alongside neighboring rights for performers, producers, and broadcasters.