International Copyright
Most countries have a form of copyright law, that is, the subsequent protection of a creator’s rights to his/her work in all forms and the limiting of that protection to allow the public to adapt and build from that work (American Library Association [ALA]).
In this way, copyright differs from other intellectual property protections. Trademarks, for example, are concerned with the branding of a specific product name or showing publicly that something is under a certain ownership (United States Patent and Trademark Office), while copyright deals specifically with the right to publish and profit from a work, or, in other words, the right to make a “copy” of a work (World Intellectual Property Organization).
International copyright deals with the interplay between two or more countries’ copyright systems, a process which quickly can become more complicated as differences in copyright law reveal themselves. For example, some countries may not have any intellectual property rights, while others may have stronger protections in place than others (ALA).
In reality, an “international copyright law” does not exist. Rather, there are a number of international treaties which handle intellectual property rights and copyright issues across the nations involved in those acts. Under many of these treatises, a person’s intellectual property can be protected from its inception in participating countries (United States Copyright Office).
The Internationalization of Copyright
While throughout the 19th and 20th centuries countries developed intellectual property rights more extensively, increasing internationalization led to the need for copyright laws upon which more than one country could agree.
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works produced an international intellectual property agreement to which most countries in the world now subscribe (Fitzgerald, Shi, Foong, Pappalardo, & Kylie, 2011). The agreement was first adopted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886 and has been updated several times throughout the 20th century by the signatories of the convention, known as the Berne Copyright Union (World Intellectual Property Organization [WIPO]).
The main provision of the Berne Copyright agreement is that countries involved in the union will provide automatic protection for works first published in other union countries and for unpublished works whose authors are residents of such countries. In other words, works originating in one union country will have the same copyright protections in another as if the work originated there. The minimum protection for a work under this treaty is the author’s life plus fifty years (WIPO).
The Buenos Aires Convention produced another notable treaty and was created between the United States and much of Central and South America. Ratified in 1914, it is similar to the Berne Convention agreements in that it guarantees protection of a work in participating countries as if that work had originated in treaty (IP Mall).
The Universal Copyright Convention agreements ratified at Geneva in 1952 sought to expand international copyright protections even further. Its creators, members of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, felt “convinced that a system of copyright protection appropriate to all nations of the world and expressed in a universal convention” was needed, or rather, an alternative to certain aspects of the Berne agreements was needed (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization).
States that felt this way included developing nations and nations like the Soviet Union that believed the Berne Convention’s strong copyright protections benefited “developed Western copyright-exporting nations,” or nations which stood to make gains from their larger volumes of artistic works over others. However, today most countries have signed onto the Berne Convention and the significance of the Universal Copyright Convention has diminished (Intellectual Property Office).
International Copyright and the World Today
While treaties resulting from historic conventions have improved the state of intellectual property protection across the world today, there are a number of recent examples of how copyright infringement is still very much at the forefront of international affairs.
Software piracy is a major aspect of today’s international copyright infringement issues, costing software manufacturers billions of dollars annually. Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Asia-Pacific area are regions that have been associated with this activity, though it occurs frequently in western countries as well. It should be noted that as intellectual property rights improve even more in the international realm, countries are becoming better at dealing with the piracy of software (Hamister & Braunscheidel, 2011).
However, the economic makeups of nations are key factors in the rise of pirating due to high-priced software, especially in nations with low gross national product. Other factors include the readily-available nature of pirated software, weak copyright regulations, debate over the ethics of copyright enforcement, the status of IT infrastructure, and the regional level of internet access (Bagchi, Peeter, & Cerveny, 2006).
The Pirate Bay trial is a well-known example of international digital copyright infringement. A BitTorrent, file-sharing website based out of Sweden, the Pirate Bay operated heavily from its creation in 2003 until 2006, allowing users to download various media files for free. In a combined criminal and civil case, the site’s three founders were sentenced and fined in 2009. However, the Pirate Bay site continues to operate even today and the site’s own political party, the Pirate Party, continues to levy for support in Sweden, citing the need for the freer dissemination of digital information (Levine, 2012).
Annotated Bibliography
American Library Association (ALA). Retrieved 6 April, 2013. Web.
As part of their services to promote good copyright policy as it pertains to libraries, the ALA offers information on international copyright as part of its “issues” section in order to explain a complex topic. Its pages on IC include an introduction, information on bilateral free trade agreements, U.S. and Chile and Singapore Free Trade Agreements, the Hague Convention, the World Intellectual Property Organization, and more.
Bagchi, Kallol, Peeter Kirs, and Robert Cerveny. “Global Software Piracy: Can Economic Factors Alone Explain The Trend?.” Communications Of The ACM 49.6 (2006): 70-75. Business Source Complete. Web. 9 Apr. 2013.
This article discusses software piracy as a global problem. Specifically, the article looks at how software piracy can differ among nations, discussing “economic, regulatory, cultural, and technical reasons why rates of software piracy vary” around the word.
Fitzgerald, Brian F.; Shi, Sampsung Xiaoxiang; Foong, Cheryl, & Pappalardo; Kylie M. Country of Origin and Internet Publication: Applying the Berne Convention in the Digital Age.” Journal of Intellectual Property (NJIP) Maiden Edition, (2011): 38-73. Web. 9 Apr. 2013. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/48050/
This academic paper out of the Queensland University of Technology interprets the intellectual property agreements made at the Berne Convention through a digital lens. Primarily the authors discuss how content published on the web is simultaneously published internationally as long as other nations have an internet connection, thus complicating the terms of the Berne agreements.
Hamister, James, and Michael Braunscheidel. “Software Piracy And Intellectual Property Rights Protection.” Allied Academies International Conference: Proceedings Of The Academy Of Information & Management Sciences (AIMS) 15.2 (2011): 1-4. Business Source Complete. Web. 10 Apr. 2013.
This article considers international software piracy in terms of “economic, national cultural and legal enforcement of intellectual property rights laws.” It also provides a background for the rise and current status of software piracy.
The IP Mall for the University of New Hampshire School of Law provides digital resources of academic material produced by the school, public domain works on law, as well as work published by IP Mall users. A copy of the Buenos Aires Convention proclamation is available digitally on the site, a document which is in essence a layout of the convention agreements’ framework and provisions.
Intellectual Property Office (IPO). “Universal Copyright Convention.” Retrieved 8 April, 2013. Web. http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c–about/c–history/c–history–ucc.htm
The Intellectual Property Office in the United Kingdom is responsible for granting intellectual property rights in the U.K. and provides related resources for the general public, including a summary of the Universal Copyright Convention and its influence.
Levine, Robert. “A Pirate’s Life For Sweden.” Bloomberg Businessweek 4266 (2012): 74-75. Business Source Complete. Web. 12 Apr. 2013.
This article offers a full timeline of piracy in Sweden, beginning in 793 and arriving in 2012. While Scandinavian Vikings are mentioned, the Pirate Bay trial takes emphasis and its events are explained and analyzed.
United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). “Universal Copyright Convention.” Retrieved 10 April, 2013. Web.
http://portal.unesco.org/en/ev.php–URL_ID=15381&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
An organization created for greater dialogue among nations concerning educational, scientific, and cultural goals, UNESCO is a hub for information and documents on international relations. A copy of the Universal Copyright Convention agreements is available on the site which lays out the convention agreements’ framework and provisions.
United States Copyright Office. “Copyright Basics.” Retrieved 8 April, 2013. Web. http://www.copyright.gov/
The United State Copyright Office provides leadership and advice on copyright law and policy to Congress, federal agencies, the courts, and the general public. The publication “International Copyright Relations of the United States” sets forth the country’s copyright relations of current interest with the other independent nations of the world while giving a descriptive frame of what international copyright is and how it works.
United States Patent and Trademark Office. “Trademarks.” Retrieved 8 April, 2013. Web.
The USPTO is the Federal agency for granting U.S. patents and registering trademarks and provides information on each for the general public.
World Intellectual Property Organization. “The Berne Convention.” Retrieved 8 April, 2013. Web.
http://www.wipo.int/freepublications/en/intproperty/909/wipo_pub_909.pdf
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a United Nations agency dedicated to intellectual property and the stimulation of innovation and creativity through that property’s appropriate use. The electronic booklet referenced here “explains in layman’s terms the fundamentals underpinning copyright law and practice. It describes the different types of rights which copyright and related rights law protects, as well as the limitations on those rights.
WIPO also lays out the various international agreements which have occurred and gives summaries for each associated convention. This web page specifically describes the Berne Convention and its influence.