Re: Russian Copyright

On Thu, 29 Jul 1999, Michael Seadle <seadle[_at_]mail.lib.msu.edu> wrote:
>
> Person X is preparing a text book on Russian and wants to use current
> newspaper materials as readings. She asked whether newspaper articles
> were protected and who owned them.

For the state of protection of a Russian work inside any other Berne country, look first to the copyright law of that country. For the state of law in that country, get a lawyer who knows it. There may be possible deviations from that law in rare cases. Do not ask about this possibility outside a lawyer-client relation.

The Russian Federation joined the Berne Convention on March 13, 1995. For adherences, see <http://www.wipo.int/eng/ratific/e-berne.htm>. Thus any work created on or after that date properly connected to the Russian Federation (notably, with a Russian author and/or first publication in the Federation) is protected in other Berne countries. An older Soviet work might be, too, subject to complex conditions. (The shift from "Russian" to "Soviet" gives you a glimpse of some of the factors that contribute to complexity here.)

National treatment, that is, the law of the country where protection is sought, not Russian law, should apply to most issues on which the scope and conditions of protection will turn inside that country (for example, Swedish law in Sweden, Chinese law in China, etc.). Note that rare (and, I think, erroneous) case law in some Berne countries, like the U.S. and France, muddles national treatment. One issue on which Russian law might apply outside the Russian Federation is the ownership of rights in the Russian work.

Paul Geller <http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~pgeller/> <pgeller[_at_]law.usc.edu> Received on Sat Jul 31 1999 - 00:03:31 GMT