Re: copyright expiration as a spur to creativity

On 28 August 1998, Moritz Roettinger <moritz.roettinger[_at_]dg23.cec.be> wrote:
>
> On Fri, 28 Aug 1998, Timothy Arnold-Moore <tja[_at_]mds.rmit.edu.au> wrote:
> >
> > Could we ever get the Europeans with their moral rights tradition to
> > participate?
>
> Seems to me difficult. Why don't the US (and the other copyright
> approach countires) introduce more elements of the European moral rights
> tradition into their legislation?

1. Because they *are* copyright countries. Moral rights philosophy, grounded in notions of human rights of personality, run entirely contrary to copyright which is predicated on notions of property in the narrow sense i.e. defining allocation of *economic* resources. Traditionally, in countries that have copyright (as opposed to authors' rights) an author's "moral interests" have been protected by a mixture of rights and remedies outside copyright proper e.g. contract, defamation, breach of confidence, etc.

Some copyright countries have now conceded defeat to the civil law view and have specific statutory moral rights protection - starting with Canada in 1931, these now include the UK, New Zealand and South Africa - whilst others (most notably Australia) still stick their guns (although not necessarily for much longer - Australia may well have moral rights legislation by the start of next year). However, even in those copyright countries where statutory moral rights have been introduced, they are weak (e.g. subject to waiver and consents, limited to certain types of work, subject to a large number of permitted uses) and they are not much used/noticed/litigated over (two reported cases in the UK in nine years)

The US is in a halfway position - it uses common law rights/remedies, some state statutory provisions and one very limited Federal measure, the Visual Artists Rights Act 1990 - but, on my viewing from the UK, has adopted a "thus far but no further" approach to its dealings with the subject.

Gary Lea
<g.r.lea[_at_]btinternet.com> Received on Mon Aug 31 1998 - 10:15:21 GMT