Bilateral copyright agreements of the United States are agreements between the United States and another country which allow U.S. authors to claim copyright protection in the other country and authors from that country to claim protection under United States copyright law.
The agreements can take one of two forms with respect to the United States:
Treaties which deal only with copyright matters are usually known as "conventions": however, certain other treaties (e.g., peace treaties) also contain provisions concerning copyright.
It is impossible to give a definitive list of countries which are affected by the proclamations listed below. The law of succession of states allows for the de facto continuation of a treaty or agreement when a territory becomes independent, and many of the proclamations had effect in former dependent territories.
The United States Department of State has the responsibility to determine whether an agreement is still in force or not with respect to a given territory: it does not make this determination unless there is an actual case in question. For several former dependent territories, the question has yet to be posed and the status of their copyright relations with the United States is listed as "uncertain" by the U.S. Copyright Office. [1]
If the country concerned has continued to protect U.S. copyrighted works since independence, the agreement may be considered to be still in force: under U.S. law, the decision lies with the Secretary of State. The President also has the option of issuing a proclamation under 17 U.S.C. 104A, which has the effect of recognizing the copyrights of the country concerned but provides safeguards for anyone who has used works in the United States while believing they were in the public domain. This latter option has been used once since it was introduced by the Uruguay Round Agreements Act in 1994, with respect to Vietnam. [2]
Proclamations issued before January 1, 1978, the effective date of the Copyright Act of 1976, remain in force under section 104 of that Act, which provides that: "All proclamations issued by the President under section 1(e) or 9(b) of title 17 as it existed on December 31, 1977, or under previous copyright statutes of the United States, shall continue in force until terminated, suspended, or revised by the President."
As of January 1,2006 [update] , the U.S. State Department lists the following bilateral treaties in force. [3]
Date of proclamation | Effective date | Country | Notes[ clarification needed ] | Reference |
---|---|---|---|---|
1891-07-01 | 1891-07-01 | Belgium, France, Great Britain and British possessions, Switzerland | 27 Stat. 981 | |
1892-04-15 | 1892-04-15 | Germany | 27 Stat. 1021 | |
1892-10-31 | 1892-10-31 | Italy | Letters between William F. Wharton and Saverio Fava. Based on copyright law 1012/1882 in Italy and 1891 copyright act. Ratified with Italian royal decree 17/1893 after USA presidential proclamation 35/1892; later denounced; restored in 1948. No set expiry. [4] [5] | 27 Stat. 1043 |
1893-05-08 | 1893-05-08 | Denmark | 28 Stat. 1219 | |
1893-07-20 | 1893-07-20 | Portugal | 28 Stat. 1222 | |
1895-07-10 | 1895-07-10 | Spain | 29 Stat. 871 | |
1896-02-27 | 1896-02-27 | Mexico | 29 Stat. 877 | |
1896-05-25 | 1896-05-25 | Chile | 29 Stat. 880 | |
1898-12-10 | 1898-12-10 | Spanish possessions | Treaty | 30 Stat. 1754; TS 343 |
1899-10-19 | 1899-10-19 | Costa Rica | 31 Stat. 1955 | |
1899-11-20 | 1899-11-20 | The Netherlands and Dutch possessions | 31 Stat. 1961 | |
1903-10-08 | 1904-01-13 | China | Treaty | 33 Stat. 2208 |
1903-11-17 | 1903-11-17 | Cuba | 33 Stat. 2324 | |
1905-07-01 | 1905-07-01 | Norway | 34 Stat. 3111 | |
1905-11-10 | 1906-05-10 | Japan | Conv. | 34 Stat. 2890 |
1907-09-20 | 1907-09-20 | Austro-Hungarian Empire | 35 Stat. 2155 | |
1908-05-19 | 1908-08-06 | Japanese possessions in Korea | Conv. | 35 Stat. 2041 |
1908-05-19 | 1908-08-06 | Japanese possessions in China | Conv. | 35 Stat. 2044 |
1910-04-09 | 1909-07-01 | Austro-Hungarian Empire, Belgium, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain and British possessions, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands and Dutch possessions, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland | 36 Stat. 2685 | |
1910-06-29 | 1910-06-29 | Luxembourg | 36 Stat. 2716 | |
1910-12-08 | 1910-12-08 | Germany | m | 36 Stat. 2761 |
1911-05-26 | 1911-06-01 | Sweden | 37 Stat. 1682 | |
1911-06-14 | 1910-09-09 | Norway | m | 37 Stat. 1687 |
1911-06-14 | 1909-07-01 | Belgium | m | 37 Stat. 1688 |
1911-06-14 | 1910-06-29 | Luxembourg | m | 37 Stat. 1689 |
1911-11-27 | 1911-05-29 | Cuba | m | 37 Stat. 1721 |
1912-01-30 | 1912-10-16 | Hungary | Conv., m | 37 Stat. 1631 |
1912-10-04 | 1912-10-04 | "the subjects of Tunis" | 37 Stat. 1765 | |
1915-01-01 | 1915-01-01 | United Kingdom and the British Dominions, Colonies and Possessions with the exception of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Newfoundland | m | 38 Stat. 2044 |
1915-05-01 | 1915-05-01 | Italy | m | 39 Stat. 1725 |
1916-08-04 | 1916-08-04 | Danish West Indies | Treaty | 39 Stat. 1706; TS 629 |
1917-02-09 | 1916-12-01 | New Zealand | m | 39 Stat. 1815 |
1918-04-03 | 1918-03-15 | Australia | m | 40 Stat. 1764 |
1918-05-24 | 1918-05-24 | France | m | 40 Stat. 1784 |
1920-02-27 | 1920-02-01 | Sweden | m | 41 Stat. 1787 |
1920-04-10 | 1920-02-02 | United Kingdom and the British Dominions, Colonies and Possessions with the exception of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Newfoundland | mx | 41 Stat. 1790 |
1920-12-09 | 1920-12-09 | Denmark | mx | 41 Stat. 1810 |
1920-12-16 | 1921-09-01 | Thailand | Treaty | 42 Stat. 1928; TS 655 |
1921-08-24 | 1921-08-24 | Austria | Treaty | 42 Stat. 1946; TS 659 |
1921-08-25 | 1921-08-25 | Germany | Treaty | 42 Stat. 1939; TS 658 |
1921-08-29 | 1921-08-29 | Hungary | Treaty | 42 Stat. 1951; TS 660 |
1922-05-22 | 1922-05-22 | Austria | x | 42 Stat. 2273 |
1922-05-25 | 1922-05-25 | Germany | x | 42 Stat. 2271 |
1922-05-25 | 1922-05-25 | New Zealand | x | 42 Stat. 2274 |
1922-06-03 | 1922-06-03 | Italy | x | 42 Stat. 2276 |
1922-06-03 | 1922-06-03 | Hungary | x | 42 Stat. 2277 |
1923-02-26 | 1922-10-02 | The Netherlands and Dutch possessions | m | 42 Stat. 2297 |
1923-12-27 | 1924-01-01 | Canada | m | 43 Stat. 1932 |
1924-06-26 | 1924-07-01 | South Africa | m | 43 Stat. 1957 |
1924-11-22 | 1923-07-01 | Switzerland | m | 43 Stat. 1976 |
1925-03-11 | 1920-08-01 | Austria | m | 44 Stat. 2571 |
1925-11-18 | 1925-07-01 | Chile | m | 44 Stat. 2590 |
1927-02-14 | 1927-02-16 | Poland | m | 44 Stat. 2634 |
1927-04-27 | 1927-03-01 | Czechoslovakia | m | 45 Stat. 2906 |
1928-05-14 | 1928-05-14 | Romania | m | 45 Stat. 2949 |
1928-12-15 | 1929-01-01 | Finland | m | 45 Stat. 2980 |
1929-09-28 | 1929-10-01 | Irish Free State | m | 46 Stat. 3005 |
1932-02-23 | 1932-03-01 | Greece | m | 47 Stat. 2502 |
1933-09-29 | 1933-10-01 | Palestine (excluding Trans-Jordan) | m | 48 Stat. 1713 |
1934-04-07 | 1934-04-07 | Danzig | m | 48 Stat. 1737 |
1934-08-23 | 1934-08-23 | Argentina | m | 49 Stat. 3413 |
1934-10-10 | 1934-10-10 | Spain | m | 49 Stat. 3420 |
1937-11-13 | 1938-10-01 | Thailand | Treaty | 53 Stat. 1731 |
1944-03-10 | 1944-03-10 | United Kingdom, certain British Territories and Palestine (excluding Trans-Jordan) | xx | 58 Stat. 1129 |
1946-11-04 | 1948-11-30 | China | Treaty | 63 Stat. 1299 |
1947-02-10 | 1947-09-15 | Italy | Treaty | 61 Stat. 1245; TIAS 1648 |
1947-02-10 | 1947-09-15 | Romania | Treaty | 61 Stat. 1757; TIAS 1649 |
1947-02-10 | 1947-09-15 | Hungary | Treaty | 61 Stat. 2065; TIAS 1651 |
1947-03-27 | 1947-03-27 | France | xx | 61 Stat. 1057 |
1947-04-24 | 1947-04-24 | New Zealand | xx | 61 Stat. 1065 |
1948-10-21 | 1948-10-21 | Philippines | m | 62 Stat. 1568 |
1949-12-29 | 1949-12-29 | Australia | xx (12 months) | 64 Stat. A385 |
1950-03-26 | 1950-12-29 | United Kingdom, certain British Territories and Palestine (excluding Trans-Jordan) | o | 64 Stat. A412 |
1950-05-04 | 1950-05-15 | Israel | m | 64 Stat. A402 |
1950-05-26 | 1950-12-29 | France | o | 64 Stat. A413 |
1950-05-26 | 1950-12-29 | New Zealand | o | 64 Stat. A414 |
1951-09-08 | 1952-04-28 | Japan | Treaty | 3 UST 3169; TIAS 2490 |
1951-11-16 | 1951-11-16 | Finland | xx | 66 Stat. C5 |
1951-12-12 | 1951-12-12 | Italy | xx | 66 Stat. C13 |
1952-02-04 | 1952-02-04 | Denmark | xx | 66 Stat. C20 |
1952-10-15 | 1952-10-15 | Monaco | m | 67 Stat. C16 |
1953-11-10 | 1952-04-28 | Japan | m | 5 UST 118 |
1954-10-21 | 1947-08-15 | India | m | 5 UST 2529 |
1957-04-02 | 1957-04-02 | Brazil | m | 8 UST 424 |
1960-06-15 | 1960-06-15 | Austria | xx | 74 Stat. C69 |
1966-05-29 | 1968-06-08 | Thailand | Treaty | 19 UST 5843; TIAS 6540 |
1967-07-12 | 1967-07-12 | Federal Republic of Germany | xx | 18 UST 2369 |
1987-05-18 | 1987-05-18 | Singapore | 101 Stat. 2134 | |
1992-03-17 | 1992-03-17 | People's Republic of China | 57 F. Reg. 9647 | |
1998-12-23 | 1998-12-23 | Vietnam | r | 63 F. Reg. 71571 |
2000-07-13 | 2001-12-10 | Vietnam | Conv. | H. Doc. 107-85 |
2000-10-24 | 2001-12-17 | Jordan | Conv. | H. Doc. 107-15 |
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educational, or musical form. Copyright is intended to protect the original expression of an idea in the form of a creative work, but not the idea itself. A copyright is subject to limitations based on public interest considerations, such as the fair use doctrine in the United States and fair dealings doctrine in the United Kingdom.
Itar-Tass Russian News Agency v. Russian Kurier, Inc., 153 F.3d 82, was a copyright case about the Russian language weekly Russian Kurier in New York City that had copied and published various materials from Russian newspapers and news agency reports of Itar-TASS. The case was ultimately decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The decision was widely commented upon and the case is considered a landmark case because the court defined rules applicable in the U.S. on the extent to which the copyright laws of the country of origin or those of the U.S. apply in international disputes over copyright. The court held that to determine whether a claimant actually held the copyright on a work, the laws of the country of origin usually applied, but that to decide whether a copyright infringement had occurred and for possible remedies, the laws of the country where the infringement was claimed applied.
Bilateralism is the conduct of political, economic, or cultural relations between two sovereign states. It is in contrast to unilateralism or multilateralism, which is activity by a single state or jointly by multiple states, respectively. When states recognize one another as sovereign states and agree to diplomatic relations, they create a bilateral relationship. States with bilateral ties will exchange diplomatic agents such as ambassadors to facilitate dialogues and cooperations.
A tax treaty, also called double tax agreement (DTA) or double tax avoidance agreement (DTAA), is an agreement between two countries to avoid or mitigate double taxation. Such treaties may cover a range of taxes including income taxes, inheritance taxes, value added taxes, or other taxes. Besides bilateral treaties, multilateral treaties are also in place. For example, European Union (EU) countries are parties to a multilateral agreement with respect to value added taxes under auspices of the EU, while a joint treaty on mutual administrative assistance of the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is open to all countries. Tax treaties tend to reduce taxes of one treaty country for residents of the other treaty country to reduce double taxation of the same income.
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The Buenos Aires Convention is an international copyright treaty signed in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on 11 August 1910, providing mutual recognition of copyrights where the work carries a notice containing a statement of reservation of rights (Art. 3). This was commonly done with the phrase "All rights reserved" next to the copyright notice. This implementation varied as US law only required the author and year of publishing. Copyright protection under the convention is granted for the shorter of the terms of the protecting country and the source country of the work. The rather vague nature of the requirement for a statement of reservation led to the development of longer and more legalistic wordings, which have persisted despite the developments in international copyright law.
The International Copyright Act of 1891 is the first U.S. congressional act that extended limited protection to foreign copyright holders from select nations. Formally known as the "International Copyright Act of 1891", but more commonly referred to as the "Chace Act" after Sen. Jonathan Chace of Rhode Island.
The Uruguay Round Agreements Act is an Act of Congress in the United States that implemented in U.S. law the Marrakesh Agreement of 1994. The Marrakesh Agreement was part of the Uruguay Round of negotiations which transformed the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) into the World Trade Organization (WTO). One of its effects is to give United States copyright protection to foreign works that had previously been in the public domain in the United States.
The Bricker Amendment is the collective name of a number of slightly different proposed amendments to the United States Constitution considered by the United States Senate in the 1950s. None of these amendments ever passed Congress. Each of them would require explicit congressional approval, especially for executive agreements that did not require the Senate's two-thirds approval for treaty. They are named for their sponsor, conservative Republican Senator John W. Bricker of Ohio, who distrusted the exclusive powers of the president to involve the United States beyond the wishes of Congress.
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In the United States copyright law, a copyright notice is a notice of statutorily prescribed form that informs users of the underlying claim to copyright ownership in a published work.
In copyright law, related rights are the rights of a creative work not connected with the work's actual author. It is used in opposition to the term "authors' rights". Neighbouring rights is a more literal translation of the original French droits voisins. Both authors' rights and related rights are copyrights in the sense of English or U.S. law.
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The international copyright relations of Russia were virtually non-existent for much of the Imperial era continuing into the history of the Soviet Union until the Cold War. The Russian Empire had only a few bilateral copyright treaties with other nations were concluded; these treaties moreover were weak and of short duration. The treaties from Imperial times had all expired by the time of the Russian Revolution.
Since 2008 copyright in Afghanistan has been governed by the law on the support the right of authors, composers, artists and researchers.
Trinidad and Tobago – United States relations are bilateral relations between Trinidad and Tobago and the United States.
The Treaty Clause of the United States Constitution establishes the procedure for ratifying international agreements. It empowers the President as the primary negotiator of agreements between the United States and other countries, and holds that the advice and consent of a two-thirds supermajority of the Senate renders a treaty binding with the force of federal law.
Layout designs (topographies) of integrated circuits are a field in the protection of intellectual property.
Remedies for copyright infringement in the United States can be either civil or criminal in nature. Criminal remedies for copyright infringement prevent the unauthorized use of copyrighted works by defining certain violations of copyright to be criminal wrongs which are liable to be prosecuted and punished by the state. Unlike civil remedies, which are obtained through private civil actions initiated by the owner of the copyright, criminal remedies are secured by the state which prosecutes the infringing individual or organisation.
Vigenza italiana Dal 28/10/1892 Vigenza internazionale Dal 28/10/1892 INDETERMINATA. DENUNCIABILE IN QUALSIASI MOMENTO SENZA PREAVVISO. Provvedimento legislativo RD N. 17 DEL 12.01.1893 - GU N. 31 DEL 07.02.1893 Pubblicazione ove reperire il testo Note e clausole RIMESSO IN VIGORE CON NOTA DEL 12.03.1948 - GU N. 217 DEL 17.09.1948. PUBBLICAZIONE OVE REPERIRE IL TESTO: TRATTATI E CONVENZIONI VOL. XIII PAG. 200.
The exchanges of notes between the United States and Italy, on the basis of which the proclamations of October 31, 1892 and May 1, 1915, were issued, were the subject of a note delivered on March 12, 1948, to the Italian Foreign Office by the American Embassy at Rome with respect to pre-war bilateral treaties and other international agreements which the United States desired to keep in force or revive pursuant to Article 44 of the Treaty of Peace with Italy. The note stated in part that the Government of the United States of America wishes to include the reciprocal copyright arrangement between the United States and Italy effected pursuant to the exchange of notes signed at Washington October 28, 1892, and the exchanges of notes signed at Washington September 2, 1914, February 12, March 4, and March 11, 1915, among the pre-war bilateral treaties and other international agreements with Italy which the United States desires to keep in force or revive. Accordingly, it is understood that the aforementioned arrangement will continue in force and that the Government of each country will extend to the nationals of the other country treatment as favorable with respect to copyrights as was contemplated at the time the arrangement was entered into by the two countries. (Department of State Bulletin, April 4, 1948, p. 455).