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Full-Text Articles in Law

A Realist Approach To Copyright Law's Formalities, Michael W. Carroll Nov 2016

A Realist Approach To Copyright Law's Formalities, Michael W. Carroll

Michael W. Carroll

Rejecting the conventional story that formalities in copyright law were abolished by the Berne Convention, this Article demonstrates that privately administered systems of formalities play a significant role in the administration of copyright law worldwide. Indeed, they must because copyright is designed to support a transaction structure which requires rightsholders who seek to attract licensing partners to go through some formal step to identify themselves and the works in which they have a legal or beneficial interest. Canvassing the landscape of mandatory and voluntary public and private systems of formalities, this article argues that: (1) national policymakers retain more policy …


Digital-Age Claims For Old-World Rights, Joseph M. Beck, Allison M. Scott Nov 2016

Digital-Age Claims For Old-World Rights, Joseph M. Beck, Allison M. Scott

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.


A Shattered Visage: The Fluctuation Problem With The Recognized Stature Provision In The Visual Artists Rights Act Of 1990, Keshawn M. Harry Oct 2016

A Shattered Visage: The Fluctuation Problem With The Recognized Stature Provision In The Visual Artists Rights Act Of 1990, Keshawn M. Harry

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.


Nobility Of Interpretation: Equity, Retrospectivity, And Collectivity In Implementing New Norms For Performers' Rights, Antony Taubman Oct 2016

Nobility Of Interpretation: Equity, Retrospectivity, And Collectivity In Implementing New Norms For Performers' Rights, Antony Taubman

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.


Reforming Copyright To Foster Innovation: Providing Access To Orphaned Works, Pamela Brannon Sep 2016

Reforming Copyright To Foster Innovation: Providing Access To Orphaned Works, Pamela Brannon

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.


Soviet Accession To The Universal Copyright Convention: Possible Implications For Future Foreign Publication Of Dissidents’ Works, Lee J. Ross Jr. Jun 2016

Soviet Accession To The Universal Copyright Convention: Possible Implications For Future Foreign Publication Of Dissidents’ Works, Lee J. Ross Jr.

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.


The Performance Rights Act And American Participation In International Copyright Protection, Jennifer Leigh Pridgeon Jun 2016

The Performance Rights Act And American Participation In International Copyright Protection, Jennifer Leigh Pridgeon

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.


Trips And Its Achilles' Heel, Peter K. Yu Apr 2016

Trips And Its Achilles' Heel, Peter K. Yu

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.


Reconciling The "Moral Rights" Of Authors With The First Amendment Right Of Free Speech, John T. Cross Mar 2016

Reconciling The "Moral Rights" Of Authors With The First Amendment Right Of Free Speech, John T. Cross

Akron Intellectual Property Journal

The article concludes that the First Amendment does not significantly limit the enforcement of those moral rights recognized by state and federal law. Several features of moral rights laws support this conclusion. First, many acts that infringe moral rights do not qualify as speech, and therefore receive no First Amendment protection. For example, the droit de suite, or resale right, is clearly constitutional under this rationale, as it involves no speech whatsoever. Second, even when the offending act is speech, most moral rights laws can be justified, depending on the circumstances, by one or more of several arguments. Indeed, many …


The Evolution Of Copyright Law And Inductive Speculations As To Its Future, Orit Fischman-Afori Mar 2016

The Evolution Of Copyright Law And Inductive Speculations As To Its Future, Orit Fischman-Afori

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.


A New Hope For Copyright: The U.K. Supreme Court Ruling In Lucasfilm Ltd. V. Ainsworth And Why Congress Should Follow Suit, Kristen Elisabeth Bollinger Feb 2016

A New Hope For Copyright: The U.K. Supreme Court Ruling In Lucasfilm Ltd. V. Ainsworth And Why Congress Should Follow Suit, Kristen Elisabeth Bollinger

Journal of Intellectual Property Law

No abstract provided.


The Effect Of The 1886 Berne Convention On The U.S. Copyright System's Treatment Of Moral Rights And Copyright Term, And Where That Leaves Us Today, Samuel Jacobs Jan 2016

The Effect Of The 1886 Berne Convention On The U.S. Copyright System's Treatment Of Moral Rights And Copyright Term, And Where That Leaves Us Today, Samuel Jacobs

Michigan Telecommunications & Technology Law Review

The 1886 Berne Convention was the most influential copyright related treaty for over a century, and provided important minimum substantive protections for authors. Key provisions included the establishment of the principle of National Treatment, the abolishment of formalities in order to receive copyright protection, a required copyright term of life of the author plus fifty years, and most offensive to the U.S. copyright system, the mandate that signatories provide authors non-economic moral rights. Despite the international importance and widespread acceptance of the Berne Convention, the U.S. did not join the Convention for over one hundred years, making it one of …


Copyright Competition: The Shifting Boundaries Of Convergence Between U.S. And Canadian Copyright Regimes In The Digital Age, David Amar Jan 2016

Copyright Competition: The Shifting Boundaries Of Convergence Between U.S. And Canadian Copyright Regimes In The Digital Age, David Amar

Brooklyn Journal of International Law

The great copyright debate between protecting creators and encouraging information-sharing has always been a contentious and likely unresolvable battle. However, with the crafting of new legislation designed to rein in unscrupulous sharing in the age of online sharing and piracy, the discussion grows ever more heated. The economies of Canada and the U.S. have always been intertwined, and in a copyright context, this has never been clearer. Since Canada began to appear on the U.S. “Special 301” piracy reports, the two nations have been locked into a system of promulgating ever-more restrictive copyright policy, the logical extreme of which may …


Copyright In Pantomime, Brian L. Frye Jan 2016

Copyright In Pantomime, Brian L. Frye

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

Why does the Copyright Act specifically provide for the protection of “pantomimes”? This Article shows that the Copyright Act of 1976 amended the subject matter of copyright to include pantomimes simply in order to conform it to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. It further shows that the Berlin Act of 1909 amended the Berne Convention to provide for copyright protection of “les pantomimes” and “entertainments in dumb show” in order to ensure copyright protection of silent motion pictures. Unfortunately, the original purpose of providing copyright protection to '“pantomimes” was forgotten. This Article argues that …


Intellectual Property In News? Why Not?, Sam Ricketson, Jane C. Ginsburg Jan 2016

Intellectual Property In News? Why Not?, Sam Ricketson, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

This Chapter addresses arguments for and against property rights in news, from the outset of national law efforts to safeguard the efforts of newsgathers, through the various unsuccessful attempts during the early part of the last century to fashion some form of international protection within the Berne Convention on literary and artistic works and the Paris Convention on industrial property. The Chapter next turns to contemporary endeavors to protect newsgatherers against “news aggregation” by online platforms. It considers the extent to which the aggregated content might be copyrightable, and whether, even if the content is protected, various exceptions set out …


Berne-Forbidden Formalities And Mass Digitization, Jane C. Ginsburg Jan 2016

Berne-Forbidden Formalities And Mass Digitization, Jane C. Ginsburg

Faculty Scholarship

This Essay addresses the Berne Convention's prohibition on the imposition of "formalities" on the "enjoyment and the exercise" of copyright, and the compatibility with that cornerstone norm of international endeavors to facilitate mass digitization, notably by means of extended collective licensing and "opt-out" authorizations. In the Berne context, "enjoyment" means the existence and scope of rights; "exercise" means their enforcement. Voluntary provision of copyright notice and of title-searching information on a public register of works and transfers of rights is fully consistent with Berne and should be encouraged. But the Berne Convention significantly constrains member states' ability to impose mandatory …