An optimal copyright regime, based on fostering the development of new intellectual works, depends on well designed limitations. This article aims to analyze such rights' functionality with respect to musical works, in order to evaluate, in this field specifically, the flexibility of copyright protection and its adequacy for the creation of new works. To perform such task, the creative process of brazilian samba expert, noel rosa, is examined. A remarkable assumption of risks by derivative works' authors, the irregular formalization of legal relations between copyright owners and the profissionalization of certain authors are seen as direct answers to the legal incentives currently in force. The uncertainty derived from such answers exposes the tension between some of the analyzed norms' objectives and their actual effects.
copyright; public domain; intellectual work; author's moral rights
