Universal protection to Copyright laws
Copyrights are not limited to the exclusive rights of the author or owner but steps into the realm of content sharing that is global in nature. Owing to the Berne Convention, copyright protection extends its recognition to all Berne Member States even if done in the local jurisdiction of a State. Although their protection isn’t governed by the treaty, as the protection of copyright is territorial in nature and is limited to the national scope of the laws. However, the national laws of the Member States are modeled after the recommended standards of the Berne Convention. The Berne Convention, being recommendatory tries to include a uniform parameter of protection and hence has three proposed principles on which it aims to function, namely:-
- “national treatment”
- “automatic protection”
- “Independence of protection”
These principles were framed in view of granting a universal protection to copyrights irrespective of their filing origin and the jurisdiction for enforcements (It is enunciated under the Articles 2, 5 & 7 of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works).
This gives copyrights a platform for the building of relationships between different players in the content industry and for such relations to flow; furthermore to formulate relationships between the right holders and the consumers of the content that is provided.
The essential objective of copyright law is to balance the interest of the content creators and the interest of the public (consumers and users) and in doing so be able to provide the widest possible access of the content. Which is made possible through the national laws and international instruments dealing with the subject of copyrights. An overview of the Copyright-related international instruments (Treaties) are given as under.