[s-cars] WAS www.audiportal.com NOW copyright law

[Theodore Chen]

--- Eric_R_Kissell at whirlpool.com wrote:

> 
> Are copyright laws in Europe the same as in the USA?  Are there
> international copyright laws?

the laws are very similar, for countries that have signed the 
berne convention.  the united states and european countries are
among the signatories.

berne convention provides that copyright subsists in a work at the time
of its creation, and no official action is required for the author to have
copyright protection.  the author does not even need to place a copyright
notice on the work.

the US signed in 1988.  prior to joining the berne convention, the US
required registration and/or notice at various times in history.

a number of european countries, most notably france, differ from the
US copyright law in providing much stronger protection for "moral rights",
which are the rights of attribution and integrity.  the US provides weak
protection for moral rights, but only in the area of visual works such
as sculptures and painting.

moral rights give an author the ability to protect his or her work 
from being claimed by somebody else or being altered, regardless of the
present owner of the particular work.

although it is not required, a copyright notice and/or registration still
has practical and legal uses.  from a practical standpoint, it may 
discourage people from infringing a work in the mistaken belief that the 
work is unprotected.  legally, it serves as constructive notice of 
copyright ownership, reducing the ability of an infringer to assert an 
innocent infringer defense.  in the US, this allows you to elect to receive
a statutory minimum for each act of infringement, plus attorney's fees.

the pictures and webpages of others are definitely protected by copyright.
whether the owners of those copyrights have consented to the use of their
works is another question.  it does not matter whether this website correctly
attributes ownership to the others - "passing off" is a question of trademark
law and unfair competition, not copyright.  even if you correctly attribute
ownership, you may still be infringing the copyright.

-teddy



		
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