Re: web-publishing & copyright...

Carl Oppedahl <carl[_at_]oppedahl.com> wrote:
>
> It is all too easy to assume, when preparing a response to a question,
> that the person asking the question is in the same country as oneself.
> (Most of the participants in this list, including most of those who
> responded to Mr. Day, are in the US.) But Mr. Day's email address ends
> in ".ca" and his .sig mentions Carleton University (which is in Canada)
> which suggests Mr. Day is located in Canada and may, in fact, be
> interested in knowing how to protect his short stories under Canadian
> law.
>
> Did those who quoted the Berne language to Mr. Day take the trouble to
> check to see whether Canada is a signatory to the Berne Convention?
> Did they check further to see whether Canada has actually passed the
> enabling legislation that brings Berne into effect in Canada?

Canada was subject to Berne norms initially through British Imperial Copyright legislation but by 1931 was self-governing such that it was able to sign up to the Rome Act (1928). Interestingly, as at January 19, 1998, WIPO recorded that it was still only a signatory to the Rome Act but, equally interestingly, Canada was the first common law jurisdiction to adopt specific legislation to comply with Art 6bis (moral rights).

Gary Lea
<g.r.lea[_at_]btinternet.com> Received on Wed Mar 18 1998 - 14:21:53 GMT