Re: Self-Executing Status of WIPO Copyright Treaty

On Sat, 19 Jun 1999, Seth Greenstein <sethdg[_at_]concentric.net> wrote:
>
> The WIPO treaty is not self-executing in the U.S. It was the judgment
> of certain government authorities that legislation was needed to
> implement the treaties, which provisions were included in the DMCA.
> Even so, the U.S. has to deposit the instruments of ratification of
> the two treaties with WIPO.

This seems to me to miss the point of Prof. Helfer's question. Assume that the US deposited the instruments of ratification of the WIPO Treaties and that the Treaties went into effect. Suppose, further, that some provision, say, sect. 110(5) of the Copyright Act, as revised by the FMLA, does not fully comply with Berne terms. Is it still effective in the US? Now, Art. 1 of the WIPO Copyright Treaty reconfirms that the Berne Convention is not superseded. What did Congress intend, if anything, regarding that treaty provision when it passed the DMCA, the FMLA, etc.? Would it make any difference? Note that, even by passing sect. 104(c) of the Copyright Act, Congress did not necessarily preclude Berne self-execution. Senate Comm. on the Judiciary, The Berne Implementation Act of 1988, S.Rep. No. 100-352, 100th Cong., 2d Sess., 38 (1988).

     Cordially, Paul Geller
http://www-bcf.usc.edu/~pgeller/
<pgeller[_at_]law.usc.edu> Received on Tue Jun 22 1999 - 00:16:52 GMT