Re: Users' rights under Berne Protocol

On Wed, 24 Apr 1996, Neil Netanel wrote:
>
> A general and more robust fair use right sounds good to me in principle.
> However, my sense from discussing this issue with Europeans is that they
> would be opposed to more open-ended fair use provisions in domestic
> copyright law, in part because the idea that courts would have such broad
> case-by-case discretion is foreign to their tradition of civil law
> adjudication.

They wouldn't have to implement a US style fair use clause. All I am proposing is a tidying up of existing provisions in Berne, with perhaps modest expansion in some places. No worse than the 'gap plugging' that copyright owners are so fond of on the exclusive rights side of the fence. The proposal I made would merely simplify and clarify the extent to which countries are _permitted_ to enact exceptions, if they so choose.

> What is the U.S. proposal regarding Art. 9(2)?

The US appear to be proposing a narrow exception clause in the Berne Protocol a la TRIPs article 13, which mirrors the wording of Art 9(2) but applies it to all exclusive rights, not just the right of reproduction.

     | jamie wodetzki
   \ / copyright research officer
 a c l i s
   / \ no responsibility taken for damage or harm arising from     / \ reliance on comments made by me in this context Received on Wed May 01 1996 - 08:37:27 GMT