Copyright Background

See also: Copyright, Copyright Term Reform

This page is for background material about how why copyright is as it is. The goal of

links to this page are to get people up to speed on how copyright works (or doesn’t work)currently so we can start planning how copyright should work.

Contents

• 1 History
• 2 Economics
• 3 Current Law
  • 3.1 Canada
  • 3.2 United States
  • 3.3 European Union
  • 3.4 International
  • 3.5 Australian

History

Economics

• Article explaining whys of copyright Note that some of the comments are very insightful.
• Copyright Economics Local editable version of the kuro5hin article.
• Economists brief for Eldred (PDF) Very good explanation of why long copyrights do not add much more benefit to the owners, and why retroactive extensions are a very bad idea.

Current Law

Canada

• Canadian Copyright Act

United States

• United States Copyright Office
• Title 17 Text 252 pages of copyright law.

European Union

• European Copyright Directive

International

• Berne Convention
• World Trade Organization TRIPS Page
• Universal Copyright Convention as Amended
• Copyright treaties by country

Australian

• Copyright E-News
• Copyright Law Brance

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