Copyright

Flashcards regarding copyright law.

Copyright

One of the most complex areas of IP, applies to a wide range of creative activities, and also applies to the information society.

International Agreements related to Copyright

Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works 1886, TRIPS Agreement 1995, and WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) 1996.

Diverging legal and cultural backgrounds in Copyright

Anglo-American approach promotes authors’ creativity to benefit the public domain with creativity that has economic benefit. Continental Europe views focuses on claims of creators to ensure the authenticity of their works.

Copyright Law

A fundamental principle of copyright law that a copyright does not protect an idea, but only the expression of an idea.

Automatic protection

Copyright protection results automatically from the point of creation.

Copyright Registration

Registration is voluntary. Although, the US has copyright register – US Copyright Office.

Protected Works

Original Literary, Dramatic, Musical and Artistic works, Cinematography films, sound recordings, broadcasts; and typographical arrangement of published editions.

Literary Work Definition

A “literary work” should be something that afforded information, instruction or pleasure in the form of literary enjoyment.

Dramatic Work Definition

Includes a work of dance or mime. Any work of action capable of being performed before an audience.

Musical Work Definition

Means a work consisting of music, exclusive of any words or action intended to be sung, spoken or performed with the music.

Artistic Works Definition

Generally include paintings, drawings, sculpture, works of artistic craftsmanship, architectural works of art, engravings and photographs.

Eligibility for Copyright Protection

Entitlement to protection under the relevant national law, fixing the work in a form of expression, and originality.

Fixation in Copyright Law

Implies something more than a temporary or fleeting nature.

Originality in Copyright Law

The work concerned must be original in the sense that it must not be a verbatim reproduction of a prior work, but not in the sense that it must itself be a product of original or inventive thinking.

EU Law: Originality

Author’s ‘own intellectual creation’.

US Law: Originality

Independent creation plus ‘modicum of creativity’.

Canada Law: Originality

Effort alone not sufficient, but creativity not required either. ‘Non-mechanical and non-trivial exercise of skill and judgement’.

Duration of Copyright Protection

Minimum term of protection is the life of the author plus 50 years.

Author

The person who created the work or made the production of the work possible. Always have the moral rights in the work.

Moral Rights

Protect non-economic interests.

Moral Rights (UK)

The right to attribution, the right to object to derogatory treatment of a work, the right to object to false attribution, and the right to privacy of certain photographs and films.

Authorship Importance

Term of literary, artistic and musical works based on authorship and basis for enforcing moral rights

Owner of Economic Rights

Economic rights:The exclusive right to do and authorise the doing of reproducing the work; performing it; translating it; making any adaptation of the work etc.

Joint Authorship

All the authors own the copyright in the work – there is one copyright, with all parties owning a share in the whole.

Entrepreneurial Works

Cinematography films, sound recordings, broadcasts; and typographical arrangement of published editions.

Copyright and International Conflict of Law

Area of law which has developed to resolve three particular issues that a court may be faced with in deciding a case which has a foreign element: whether a court in a particular country has jurisdiction to hear a case; which laws should apply; the recognition and enforcement of judgements of foreign courts.

Rome II Regulation

The law applicable to a non-contractual obligation arising from an infringement of an intellectual property right shall be the law of the country for which protection is claimed.

Computer-generated works

In some common law jurisdictions, copyright law allows for ‘computer-generated works’ to receive copyright protection.

UK Computer-Generated Works

In the UK, the creator is “the person by whom the arrangements necessary for the creation of the work are undertaken.

US Computer-Generated Works

Non-human AI cannot author works because they "lack" the element of human creation.