Re: Personal vacation film produced

On Thu, 4 Jun 1998, Buford Terrell <terrell[_at_]gateway.stcl.edu> wrote:
>
> No way this can be work for hire without a written agreement to that
> effect. Speciality Inc. has the copyright here and duplication would
> be an infringement, although the question would really be determined by
> Mexican law, not U.S.

This is an interesting question. Certainly, under the applicable Berne Convention principle of national treatment, the issue of infringement is decided under U.S. law, because it's dealing with the infringment in the U.S. of the U.S. copyright (and presumably in a U.S. court).

However, in this case, all authorship activities took place in Mexico. What law is applied to determine who owns the resulting U.S. copyright? The law of the nation where the authorship took place, or the law of the nation whose copyright is being enforced, and that is enforcing the copyright? Berne Article 5 isn't particularly helpful on this point.

--
Terry Carroll       |    "Dreamwerks clearly caters to the  
Santa Clara, CA     |    pocket-protector niche..."
carroll[_at_]tjc.com     |       - Dreamwerks Production Group v. SKG Studio,
Modell delendus est |         case no. 96-55595 (9th Cir. Apr. 21 1998)