Copyright is the right to copy and publish a particular work. The terms "copy" and "publish" are quite broad. They also cover copying in electronic form, the making of translated versions, the creation of a television program based on the work, and putting the work on the Internet.
Copyright protection is automatic upon creation of the work. In some countries, registration with a Copyright Office has some benefits (like the ability to sue, or to receive more money in damages).
This is a list of countries and their copyright terms, the lengths of their standard copyrights, in years. When a work's copyright term ends, the work passes into the public domain.
The list also includes entries for non-country entities: the United States, Berne Convention, and the Universal Copyright Convention, which set minimum terms for their member states or signatories. The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), though not included, requires a copyright length of at least 50 years after death.
The Berne Convention stipulates that the duration of the term for copyright protection is the life of the author plus at least 50 years after his death. For some categories of works, the minimum duration is shorter. For example, the minimum term for applied art is 25 years. Movies have a minimum term of 50 years. Countries are of course free to choose a longer term of protection. Most countries have done so.
The member states of the European Union have, following an EC directive, increased the term to life of the author and 70 years after his death. Although this was not the original intention, this extension applies retroactively. Works that had ended up in the public domain because the author was dead for 50 years now received an additional twenty years of protection.
Most European countries, on the other hand, follow the principle that copyright protection is granted automatically upon creation of the work. This principle was first laid down in the Berne Convention (1886). The Berne Convention specifically forbids (in article 5) that a member country can require any formality for getting copyright protection.
In 1989, the Berne Convention became effective in the U.S., and from that moment on also U.S. authors automatically obtained copyright on their works. However, many U.S. texts on copyright still echo the old registration principle, which can be very confusing at times.
To confuse matters even more, the requirement for registration has not been abolished completely. To start a lawsuit against infringers, it is still necessary to register the work. Further, registration offers the possibility to obtain statutory damages, rather than only the actual damages from the infringer.
In most countries, the duration of copyright is dependent on the duration of the author's life. After he dies, his estate can exercise the copyright for at least 50 more years. In many countries, the term is even longer: 70 years after the author's death.
A work is protected by copyright if it is a literary or artistic work. This is quite a broad expression, and almost all products of creative and original effort are copyrighted. Note that copyright protects only specific expressions of an idea, not the idea itself.
A collection of facts may be copyrighted, assuming there is some creative activity involved in compiling the collection. Several countries provide a separate protection regime for collections of facts that qualify as "databases", but this regime has nothing to do with copyright.
Legend
- 0, no copyright = Not copyrighted
- Life + xx years = Copyrighted for authors' lifetime plus xx years after their deaths
- xx years after publication, creation, etc. = copyrighted for xx years since publication, creation, etc., of works
- Until year end = Copyrighted until the end of a calendar year, i.e. December 31
- Berne = Country has signed the Berne Convention, see Berne in the "Countries, ..." column
- TRIPS = The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is an international agreement administered by the World Trade Organization (WTO) that sets down minimum standards for many forms of intellectual property (IP) regulation as applied to nationals of other WTO Members.This also indicates that this country has at least a minimum of 50 years after the death of the creator til the copyright expires.
- WCT = The World Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty, (WIPO Copyright Treaty or WCT), is an international treaty on copyright law adopted by the member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 1996.
Table
See also
- Official text copyright
- Rule of the shorter term
- Moral rights
- CERLALC, an intergovernmental organization promotes the development of book publishing and copyright issues in Latin America and the Caribbean.
- List of parties to international copyright treaties
Notes
References
External links
- Summary of copyright terms in various countries, with links to summaries or copies of national laws
- UNESCO Collection of National Copyright Laws with links to the official documentation for most listed countries
- The duration of copyright in various countries
