Available Resources from Copyright Organizations
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is the global forum for intellectual property services, policy, information and cooperation. Find information about upcoming committees, assemblies and other valuable legal and technical resources here WIPO.
IFRRO, the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organizations, is the main international network of collective management organizations in the text field. Its purpose is to facilitate, on an international basis, the collective management of reproduction and other rights relevant to text-based copyrighted works through the co-operation of national Reproduction Rights Organizations (RROs). Read about CCC’s International Advancement Program, designed to complement the development activities of IFRRO.
The Office of Policy and International Affairs (OPIA) at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office assists in advising the Administration and other federal agencies on domestic and international copyright legal and policy issues.
The U.S. Copyright Office administers the national copyright registration and recordation system and provides advice on copyright law to Congress, federal agencies, the courts and the public.
International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) is an alliance of trade associations in the “copyright-based industries” of the United States.
Treaties
Several international treaties encourage reasonably coherent protection of copyright from country to country. They set minimum standards of protection which each signatory country then implements within the bounds of its own copyright law.
- Berne Convention
- Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations
- WIPO Copyright Treaty
- WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty
- Universal Copyright Convention
- World Trade Organization (WTO) – Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement)
- Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired or Otherwise Print Disabled
Copyright Regulations in Europe
Efforts in the European Union to harmonize copyright law have resulted in a number of regulations, including the 2001 Directive on Copyright in the Information Society.
The Directive on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (2001/29/EC) had two main objectives: reflect technological developments in copyright law in Europe and transpose into European law the provisions contained in the two WIPO treaties of 1996.
The Directive harmonized across European Union Member States the rights of reproduction, distribution and communication to the public, as well as the legal protection of technical protection measures and rights management systems. It also included an exhaustive list of limitations and exceptions to copyright, most of which are optional for the Member States to implement in their national laws. A later study by the Institute for Information Law (Univ. of Amsterdam) concluded that those options provided to the Member States had substantially interfered with harmonization.
Another important piece of European legislation is the 2004 Directive on Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, which was followed by the creation in 2009, of the European Observatory on Counterfeiting and Piracy.
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