Re: Personal vacation film produced

On Tue, 9 Jun 1998, Terry Carroll <carroll[_at_]tjc.com> wrote:
>
> On Sat, 6 Jun 1998, Harold Federow <hfederow[_at_]u.washington.edu> wrote:
> >
> > On Fri, 5 Jun 1998, Terry Carroll <carroll[_at_]tjc.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > 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.
> >
> > Isn't the US copyright based on ownership of the Mexican copyright under
> > Berne?
>
> Not as I read Berne and its implementing legislation. The U.S. copyright
> is an independent U.S. copyright under 17 USC 104, not based on any other
> nation's copyright.
>
> > So wouldn't you have to look to Mexcian law to decide who owned
> > it and, therefore, who had the US copyright?
>
> Well, that's what I think is the open issue. I suspect the answer is no,
> but as I said, Berne Article 5 and the implementing legislation isn't
> particularly helpful on this point. I suspect that the full provisions of
> the U.S. copyright statute would apply, including the provisions about
> determining ownership. I don't see why the ownership of the U.S.
> copyright would be dependent on any other law other than U.S. law.

Suppose I publish it, in Spanish (no translation issues), in the US before the Mexican author. Does that mean I can get the US copyright as against the actual author????

Wouldn't that raise a Constitutional question since the copyright clause is to "secure to authors..." and I wouldn't be an author in any sense. Publisher, maybe. Author? No.

Just a late afternoon thought on a gorgeous (finally) Friday in Seattle.

Harold Federow
<hfederow[_at_]u.washington.edu> Received on Sat Jun 13 1998 - 03:21:23 GMT