Re: Copyright & The New World Economic Order

On Sat, 10 Jul 1999, Jeroen Hellingman <jehe[_at_]kabelfoon.nl> wrote:
>

[snip]
> On Fri, 9 Jul 1999, Harry Hillman Chartrand <h-chartrand[_at_]home.com> wrote:
> >

[snip]

The details of national copyright laws are far more differentiated than either of these posters suggest. It seems to me that these differences are just what has to be addressed: Maintain a patchwork of differentiated copyright laws in an increasingly networked world? Or follow harmonization -- via the Berne Convention, TRIPs Agreement, etc. -- to the end of global uniformity? Or distinguish issues on which differentiation remains legitimate and govern others uniformly? Following the last option -- to my mind, the best -- there is a further question: Who should differentiate? National legislators? Network-system operators? Judges? Depends on the issue ...

For example, the difference between fair use in the United States and more specific copyright exceptions in other systems lies, not in the scope of the exception, but in the power of U.S. judges to adjust it from case to case. That is why fair use seems so unpredictable. But you pays your money and takes your pick: either judicially flexible provisions or complex and rigid ones.

There are hard choices to be made, and platitudes and easy generalizations about the law and public interest are misleading.

     Paul Geller
http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~pgeller/
<pgeller[_at_]law.usc.edu> Received on Mon Jul 12 1999 - 15:57:34 GMT