Re: French copyright law...

On Thu, 13 Mar 1997, Emil Pellicer wrote (about the Directive 93/98 harmonizing the terms of protection in the EU):
>
> I am curious as to how this extention will effect two types of works.
> First, will all works currently protected by copyright benefit from
> this extention or only those copyrighted after the extention becomes
> law?

The Directive says that all works which are still protected in one Member State on July 1, 1995 enjoy the term of life +70 in all Member States. Since Germany has had a term of life +70 since 1/1/1966 - and taking into account the Phil Collins case decided by the ECJ - the answer is basically: every work by an EU-author protected in Germany on July 1, 1995 is protected anywhere in the EU for a term of life +70.

> Second, will this extention have the effect of "re-protecting"
> works which have fallen into the public domain under the fifty year
> term but which could still be protected under the seventy year term?

Yes. But there is a good faith clause in the Directive if I remember correctly.

Alexander Klett
<aklett[_at_]blue.weeg.uiowa.edu> Received on Fri Mar 14 1997 - 16:29:05 GMT