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From automatic protection to registered claims: How has the United States changed the copyright game?
Copyright is the right to copy and publish a specific work. With the advent of the digital age, the concept has become broader, covering reproduction in electronic form, the production of translated versions, the creation of television programs based on the work, and the placing of the work on the Internet. As long as a work is literary or artistic, it can be protected by copyright. This protection covers almost any product resulting from creative and original effort. It is worth noting that copyright only protects specific expressions and not the ideas themselves, and if the process of compiling facts involves creative activity, it is sufficient to grant copyright to such a collection of facts.
Copyright protection automatically takes effect the moment a work is created.
Over time, works enter the public domain when copyright expires. Under the Berne Convention, copyright protection generally lasts for the life of the author plus at least 50 years. However, for some types of works, the minimum protection period is shorter, for example, the copyright protection period for applied art is 25 years, and the minimum copyright protection period for films is 50 years.
Both the European Union and the United States have extended copyright protection to 70 years after the author's death.
Since the Berne Convention came into effect in the United States in 1989, authors in the United States have automatically obtained copyright in their works without the need to register. However, many U.S. copyright books have not been updated and still follow the old registration principles. Nevertheless, copyright registration still exists in the United States and is still necessary to bring lawsuits against infringers. Registration also provides the potential opportunity to obtain statutory damages from an infringer, rather than just actual damages.
In the European Union, all member states are signatories to the Berne Convention, and copyright is regulated by European directives. Under the directive, the term of copyright protection in member states has been increased to the lifetime of the author plus 70 years. Although this extension was not originally intended, it has retroactive effect, allowing works that have already entered the public domain 50 years after the author's death to be protected for an additional 20 years. This is consistent with the principle of automatic protection first established in the Berne Convention.
According to Article 5 of the Berne Convention, no member state may require a formal act to obtain copyright protection.
However, the exact duration of copyright protection varies from country to country. Each country has its own standard copyright duration, including the European Union and other signatories to international copyright agreements. According to the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), the duration of copyright is at least 50 years after the author's death to protect his or her rights.
There are pros and cons, and for many creators, registration provides them with an additional level of legal protection. Especially today when online creation has become the norm, whether they can obtain reasonable income from their creations or avoid copyright infringement has become a major confusion in the minds of many authors. This not only affects their creative motivation, but also concerns their livelihood. .
In summary, as technology advances and laws change, the dynamic adjustment of copyright protection in the United States and other countries will undoubtedly affect all kinds of people engaged in creative work. These changes are not just a topic of conversation for legal experts; they also have a profound impact on the daily lives of every creator. In this context, how creators can innovate and explore while protecting their own rights has become an important issue. How do you think the future copyright system will adapt to this change?
