Page:Country of Origin and Internet Publication - Applying the Berne Convention in the Digital Age.pdf/2



It is increasingly common for copyright works to be made available to the public for the first time via the Internet. Online publication allows a work to be published simultaneously throughout the world to every country with Internet access. While this is certainly advantageous for the dissemination and impact of information and creative works, it creates potential complications under the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works ("Berne Convention"), an international intellectual property agreement to which most countries in the world now subscribe. The Berne Convention contains national treatment provisions, which require member countries to extend baseline rights and protections to foreign copyright works. Rights accorded under the national treatment provisions may not be subject to any formality, such as registration requirements. Member countries are free to and some do impose formalities on the exercise of rights in relation to domestic copyright works. In the United States, for example, the Copyright Act of 1976 establishes a requirement that copyright owners register their work with the Copyright Office before they can commence a civil action for infringement of their work. Additionally, the U.S. law limits the availability of certain remedies depending on when the work was registered.

The Berne Convention contains "country of origin" provisions, which amongst other things seek to assist member countries in determining whether copyright works are domestic or foreign. Under the Convention, determining the country of origin of a published work is simply a matter of ascertaining where that work was first published or simultaneously published. The rules provide that for works first published in a country of the Union, the country of origin will be that country. For works published simultaneously in several countries of the Union which grant different terms of protection, the country of origin will be the country with the shortest term of protection, and for works published simultaneously in a country of the Union and a country outside of the Union, the country of origin will be the Union country. Historically, determining the country of origin of a published work