Re: Russian Copyright

From: Stephen Fishman <sfish55[_at_]yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 19:03:20 -0800 (PST)

On Wed, 20 Jan 1999, Robert Cumbow <cumbr[_at_]perkinscoie.com> wrote:
>
> I would appreciate hearing from anyone with a knowledge of Russian
> copyright.
>
> Specifically, I would like to find out how the copyright (if any) on a
> Russian book, published in the Russian language in 1966 (under Soviet
> administration), would be treated today in (a) the Russian Federation
> and (b) the United States.
>
> Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

Re the U.S.: The Soviet Union had no copyright relations with the U.S. until May 27, 1973 when the Soviets signed the Universal Copyright Convention. So a work published in the Soviet Union in 1966 would have been in the public domian in the U.S. at the time of publication. However, the U.S. copyright in most such works was restored on Jan. 1, 1996 by an amendment to the U.S. copyright law intended to put the U.S. in compliance with the GATT TRIPS Agreement. So long as the 1966 work was not in the public domian in the Soviet Union, it is now copyrighted in the U.S. the copyright lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years or for 95 years if it was a work made for hire.

I don't know the status of the work in Russia. If you find any good sources on Russian copyright law, please let me know about them.

Stephen Fishman
<sfish55[_at_]yahoo.com>

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