Prawo do autorstwa i współautorstwa : (uwagi na tle orzeczenia Sądu Najwyższego z dnia 25 maja 2011 r., II CSK 527/10)

The author addresses the problem of authorship and co-authorship in the context of the decision of the Supreme Court from 25 May 2011 (II CSK 527/10) concerning the copyright, but with some implications for scientific publications in general. The court's decision in question is important for the co-authorship and was rendered with regard to a medical publication of a rather popular character. The Supreme Court stated inter alia that a "verification of a scientific work consisting in removing scientifically questionable fragments amounts to co-authorship". One may express serious doubts whether the judgment is correct and could foster adequate interpretation of law and the establishing of good academic practice. Although co-authorship in the field of science is a controversial issue, which is notoriously difficult to regulate properly by law, and although custom and fairness very often play the prominent role, the analyzed judgment must be treated with caution. This is because taking into consideration both the facts of the case, as well as the result by which persons verifying a given text and making editorial changes (e.g. deleting some fragments) could be regarded as co-authors. The article argues that such an approach to a creative contribution cannot be approved. Nevertheless, the problem of proper designation of a "scientific contributions" (not being copyright works as such, but eligible for protection under Articles 23 and 24 of the Civil Code as a "scientific creations") deserves some effort.