|
International obligations and copyright law: a United States
of America perspective
Min
Chou and Oliver G. Zhou
Abstract | Paper in
Portable Document Format (PDF)
Part of a
panel discussion on how the World Intellectual
Property Organisation (WIPO) Copyright Treaty has been interpreted in four
jurisdictions around the world and the stresses placed on
legislators.
This paper briefly reviews the
historical development and principles of the Berne Convention, the World
Intellectual Property Organization Copyright Treaty (WIPO), the Universal
Copyright Convention (UCC), and the Copyright Law, the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (DMCA), and the Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act
(UCITA) in the United States. Then, it explores the legal paradigm behind the
legal trend in digital age and how that affects the operation of library
services in general, and the interlibrary loan and document delivery practice
in particular, as well as the potential legal liabilities arising in digital
environment.
The authors examine a number of
critical legal principles such as "Fair Use Doctrine," "First Sale Doctrine,"
and their inherent problems associated with the emerging Internet technology
and electronic content licensing mechanism from both U.S. and international
perspectives. Recent copyright cases and some typical clauses of licensing
agreement governing the distribution and use of electronic contents will be
analyzed to illustrate the impact of the new legal landscape to the
interlibrary loan service.
The authors further examine a
number of factors in shaping the future of the copyright protection mechanism
and how libraries should cope with the potential legal pitfalls for the
purposes of insulating the libraries from copyright infringement liabilities.
The paper concludes with a number of possible solutions, including favorable
license agreements with copyright owners or database providers, and the
proactive role libraries should play to defend the library's fundamental value
to provide information to users in the world of freedom and democracy.
|