Answer to Question #249511 in Management for Princess

Question

Can the state or an international organization own copyright in terms of the act

Answer 1

Discussion

Copyright is a legal means of protecting an author's work. It is a type of intellectual property that provides exclusive publication, distribution, and usage rights for the author. Many different types of content can be protected by copyright e.g. books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings. Copyright protects the form of expression of ideas, rather than the ideas, information or concepts expressed. Copyright literally means the right to copy but has come to mean that body of exclusive rights granted by law to copyright owners for protection of their work. Copyright protection does not extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, title, principle, or discovery.

The primary purpose of copyright law is not so much to protect the interests of the authors/creators, but rather to promote the progress of science and the useful art or knowledge. To accomplish this purpose, copyright ownership encourages authors/creators in their efforts by granting them a temporary monopoly, or ownership of exclusive rights for a specified length of time. However, this monopoly is somewhat limited when it conflicts with an overriding public interest, such as encouraging new creative and intellectual works, or the necessity for some members of the public to make a single copy of a work for non-profit, educational purposes.

The Office of the Register of Copyrights has overall responsibility for the Copyright Office and its statutory mandate, specifically for legal interpretation of copyright law, administering the provisions of Title 17, promulgating copyright regulations, advising congress and other government officials.

Copyright is a creation of law in each country. Nevertheless, nearly 180 countries have ratified a treaty, the Berne Convention administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization that sets a minimum set of standards for the protection of the rights of the creators of copyrighted works around the world. In addition, there have been efforts to harmonize copyright law in some regions. The differences in national copyright laws, however, can represent a challenge for global organizations with employees working in different countries and sharing content across boundaries. Several international treaties encourage reasonably coherent protection of copyright from country to country. They set minimum standards of protection which each signatory country then implements within the bounds of its own copyright law.

Exceptions and limitations to copyright are special cases defined by law where the general principle that the prior authorization of the rights-holder is necessary to make use of a work does not apply. That is, in the public interest of maintaining a balance between the interests of rights-holders and those of content users, copyright-protected works may in some cases be used without the authorization of the rights-holder.

Generally, exceptions and limitations to copyright are subject to a three-step test initially set out in the Berne Convention and repeated in a number of other international agreements. Briefly stated, the Berne Convention provides that an exception or limitation to copyright is permissible only if;

• It covers only special case.
• It does not conflict with the normal exploitation of the work.
• It does not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author.

Within that standard, exceptions and limitations vary substantially from country to country in number and scope, who is entitled to benefit from them, and whether or not they include an obligation to compensate the rights-holders whose rights are so limited.

In many countries, copyright collective management organizations (also known as collecting societies or “collective management organizations” or “CMOs”)

• License large-scale use of works on behalf of large numbers of rights-holders.
• Collect royalties for those uses.
• Distribute these royalties back to rights-holders.

There are collective management organizations that specialize in different categories of works and creators. In the field of text and image-based works these organizations are called Reproduction Rights Organisations (RROs). They typically deal with the licensing of secondary uses of books, journals, newspapers and magazines, in both their paper formats and their online or digital formats and in some cases also with visual content such as motion pictures, photographs and illustrations.

Copyright Clearance Center(CCC), the parent organization of Rights-Direct, is an RRO itself. There are RROs in almost 80 countries, ranging from sophisticated organizations with long histories to start-up organizations in developing countries. Most RROs belong to the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations. RROs around the world work with different licensing models either required or permitted by their local copyright law.

Conclusion

Copyright law is federal in most countries, those laws, in turn, vary widely: Some state and local governments expressly claim copyright over some or all of their copyright-able works, while others waive copyright and declare that all government-produced documents are in the public domain.

Reference

Patterson, L. R. (1968). Copyright in historical perspective. Vanderbilt University Press.