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Consider the following topic and write a short essay of about 300 words.
Tell us about your position on the copyright issues discussed in the lecture on current issues.
· How do you think they should or will be resolved in the future?
· Do you think the copyright laws should remain as they are or change?
· Do you think the laws will change?
· Do you think the trend of extending the term of copyrights should or will continue? Please share with us the reasons for your answer.
Copyright Law Economics
For many years, copyrights lasted for a relatively short fourteen years, arguably enough time for an author to make a profit. When viewed as a piece of property, the longer the term remaining on the copyright, the more valuable the monopoly becomes. Over the years, the owners of copyrights put tremendous pressure on lawmakers to lengthen the term of these monopolies because it makes their property more valuable. Now, not surprisingly, you find that copyright monopolies now extend until the death of the author plus seventy years. One might ask, “How does extending copyrights 70 years beyond an author’s death inspire the author to create new works?”
The Threat of Content Industries
These long-lasting monopolies are valuable and are collected as investments by the wealthy and those seeking to exert control over a section of the marketplace. Indeed many content industries, such as recording companies, video and film production companies, newspapers, and publishing houses, are stockpiling intellectual property with the intention of selling it back to the public bit by bit.
In addition to using copyrights to exert a monopolistic grip over vast stores of information for profit, content industries enjoy complete control over the access to the information they hold. They determine what information can and cannot be revealed to the public and the circumstances of its release.
This complete control of information not only eliminates the doctrine of “fair use,” it is a direct affront to the free flow of information and constitutes a threat to democracy itself.
The big loser in all of these business maneuverings is the general public. By delaying the passage of works into the public domain, their free use is denied to the public for generations into the future.
Creativity Feeds on Creativity
It is difficult to find an idea that was born in a vacuum. Most creative individuals find their inspiration in the world around them and in past works and new emerging ideas. Combining existing ideas to form a new creation is an age-old formula for invention.
Sadly, the long life spans of copyrights put an undue burden upon upstart inventors and authors of all types. The creative individual of today must be alert to the fact that much of the material that he or she would like to use is not available for use or too expensive to license.
Copyright Laws vs. Creativity
The number of innovative inventions and ideas that have been killed because of copyright laws are numerous. You seldom hear about them because their lives are cut short. Wealthy companies and individuals can and do use copyright, patent, and trademark laws to stop upstart competitors and suppress conflicting political viewpoints by threatening legal action.
The prospect of engaging in a long and costly legal battle with an adversary with deep pockets is daunting. Even if authors of new works are working within the law, they know that they will not survive the legal battles and usually abandon their ideas.
Foreign Treaties
Intellectual property is created by a variety of national laws. Over the past years, the United States and a number of other countries have entered into agreements that set international guidelines to allow for a more uniform protection of intellectual property.
These agreements make it easier for authors and inventors to apply for intellectual property rights in other countries and to seek redress if their rights are violated on foreign soil.
Let us take a look at the most important of these treaties and how they affect intellectual property laws on an international level.
GATT/International Trade Agreement
The most inclusive of these treaties is the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, or GATT treaty. GATT is an agreement signed by 117 countries in the mid-1990’s. It brings together provisions from a number of previous international treaties that now apply to all GATT member nations.
GATT created the World Trade Organization, also known as the WTO as its regulatory body.
The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspect of Intellectual Property Rights, the TRIPS Agreement, is the part of the GATT treaty that applies to intellectual property rights.
TRIPS/Intellectual Property Rights
TRIPS sets a minimum term of 50 years after the death of an author for all copyrights. It also establishes a mechanism for settling international intellectual property disputes. In applying intellectual property laws, GATT member countries agree not to give more favorable treatment to their own citizens over the citizens of other countries and not to give more favorable treatment to the nationals of one member nation over another.
Furthermore, GATT member nations agree to abide by the intellectual property agreements included within the Berne Convention, the Paris Convention, the Rome Convention, and the Treaty on Intellectual Property in Respect of Integrated Circuits (IPIC).
Let us now take a look into these earlier treaties individually.
Berne Convention/Copyright Law
The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works assures that signing nations will apply national copyright laws equally to foreign authors as to authors from their own country. It also assures that member nations will protect an author’s moral rights.
Moral rights, although not well known in the United States, give the author some control over how his or her work is used. Should the work be changed or adapted in an unauthorized way, the author can preclude the association of his or her name with the resulting work.
Paris Convention/Patent and Trademark Law
Patent and trademark laws in the United States focus upon who comes up with an idea first or who uses a trademark first. This is known as the first to invent system. However, all other countries in the world place emphasis on who was first to file for protections. These contradictions have caused many difficulties over the years. These difficulties have largely been resolved through international treaties.
The International Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, the Paris Convention, applies to patent and trademark law. It assures that inventors are allowed to file for a patent on their invention or register a trademark in another participating country within one year of filing in their own country. The Paris Convention, although an improvement on the previous situation, still requires separate filing in each country, a costly and time-consuming process.
PCT/Patent Law
A more streamlined process has been created under a separate treaty, the Patent Cooperation Treaty, or PCT. The PCT allows for a uniform patent application form that allows a single filing to be processed and applied to all member countries.
U.S. inventors can file for PCT patent protection with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The World Intellectual Property Organization, WIPO, administers this agreement from its location in Geneva, Switzerland.
Many nations including the United States, but not all GATT members, have agreed to PCT.
Rome Convention/Copyright Law
The International Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms, and Broadcasting Organizations, the Rome Convention, establishes minimum copyright protections for broadcasters, performing artists, and recording companies.
The WIPO Performances and Phonogram Treaty expands upon the Rome Convention by protecting the use of encryption and other technological measures used to prevent illegal copying of copyright protected works.
IPIC/Copyright Law
The Treaty on Intellectual Property in Respect of Integrated Circuits, IPIC, applies to computer technology. It requires signing countries to outlaw illegal copying and importing of illegal copies of integrated circuits.
