According to the United States
Copyright Office, a copyright is a form of protection provided by the laws of
the United States to the authors of “original works of authorship,” including
literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works. Copyrights coverage can range
from a musical album to a computer program, and is the legal means to protect
this type of intellectual property.
Unfortunately, an international
copyright does not exist to protect original works the world over. Whether or not your work is protected in a
certain country depends on that specific country’s laws. Today, most countries have taken part in
international copyright treaties and conventions that simplify protection of
foreign works. These include the Berne Convention for the Protection for the Protection of Literary and Artistic
Works, the Universal Copyright Convention, the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty, the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty,
and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.
In general, if a party is seeking
protection of his or her work in a specific country, he or she should first
check to see if the country is part of one of the international copyright
conventions, preferably before the work is published. If this is the case, then the work should be
protected by the convention. It is
important to not that some country’s still may not offer any protection
whatsoever to foreign works.
