Legal Aspects of the Information Society. - Free Technology Academy

GNUFDL • 7 Intellectual property: authors' rights and copyright
1.4. Regulatory framework
In this section, we will briefly review the main legal frameworks providing the
protection of Authors' rights, beginning with an international perspective and
including European and national regulation.
1.4.1. Authors' rights at international level
The international framework for the protection of Authors' rights is made up
of certain international treaties or conventions (treaties between countries mainly
aimed at harmonising the legal regime) and certain international organisations,
who monitor and develop new laws, among other functions. Let us start
with the organisations.
• Organisations.The most important source of regulation of Authors' rights
at the international level is now the World Intellectual Property Organization
(or WIPO). Created in 1967, WIPO is a specialised agency of the United
Nations whose main purpose is to develop an international intellectual
property system rewarding creativity, fostering innovation and contributing
to economic development, while at the same time protecting public
interests. As such, it sponsors international treaties to harmonise the legal
framework and remove barriers to the exploitation of works.
Another international organisation interested in Authors' rights is the
World Trade Organization (known by its initials WTO), an international organisation
in charge of the rules governing trade among countries. The
WTO began to show interest in Authors' rights in the mid nineties, due
to the growth in international trade in services and works susceptible of
copyright protection.
• Treaties/Conventions. The first and foremost treaty on Authors' rights is
the BerneConventionfortheProtectionofLiteraryandArtisticWorks
of1886, with its most recent revision having been drawn up in 1979.
The Berne Convention is based on three main principles:
– National treatment. Works originating in any of the contracting states
must receive in each of the other contracting states the same protection
as granted to the works of their own citizens.
– Automatism and simplicity. Protection shall be automatic and shall
not be subject to the compliance of any formality.
– Moral rights. The Convention encompasses moral rights, i.e., the right
for an author or his/her family to claim authorship of the work and
to oppose any damage to its integrity.