International Copyright Law

There is no such thing as international copyright protection. There is not a universal law that will give an individual protection of their intellectual property throughout the entire world. Nonetheless, the importance of this issue is mounting. As the world capitalizes on ever increasing globalization, the borders of countries are disappearing. The author Thomas Friedman would say the competitors of today’s world are left with a flat playing field as a result of globalization. Although the field the world is competing on may be called flat, there still lacks a uniform code of laws that regulates how the game is played in regards to protecting intellectual property. As the United States continues to explore international copy right laws, it is pertinent for one to understand the copyright rules that its citizens must abide by within their own walls. With a solid understanding of the copyright laws that reside in the United States, one can then fully synthesize the implications of the latest explorations of international law and what this means for those within the media field. Although it might not be of primary concern of media law to mass communicators, copyrights are important and often involve those in this specific line of work. Mass communicators are concerned with copyrights that “protect creative works such as books, periodicals, manuscripts, music, film and video productions, computer software and works of art” (Overbeck, 227). With this in mind, it is essential to understand why such property law exists. Original lawmakers of copyright laws were interested in encouraging creativity. The biggest driving agent of creativity is the opportunity to profit from the creation of one’s works. They therefore wanted to make sure that a person’s right to make this profit was protected. With this protection, however, comes some controversy. In the past, intellectual property laws have been called monopolistic in that it creates monopolistic controls on

Cited: Fogerty V. MGM Holdings Corporation, Inc, 379 F.3d 348 (6th Cir. 2004). www.findlaw.com, retrieved 2007-12-11. Eldred et al. v. Ashcroft, attorney general, 537 U.S. 186 (2003). www.findlaw.com, retrieved 2007-12-11. Capitol Records v. Naxos of America, 4 N.Y.3d 540 (2005). www.findlaw.com, retrieved 2007-12-11. Lamothe v. Atlantic Recording Corporation, 847 F.2d 1403 (9th Cir. 1988). Overbeck, Wayne. major Principles of Media Law. Australia: Thomson, 2008.