Torremans, Paul --- "Choice of law issues in relation to copyright" [2002] ELECD 48; in Towse, Ruth (ed), "Copyright in the Cultural Industries" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2002)

Book Title: Copyright in the Cultural Industries

Editor(s): Towse, Ruth

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781840646610

Section: Chapter 3

Section Title: Choice of law issues in relation to copyright

Author(s): Torremans, Paul

Number of pages: 19

Extract:

3. Choice of law issues in relation to
copyright
Paul Torremans

3.1 INTRODUCTION
Copyright and private international law never got on very well. Several
difficult issues arise both in relation to international jurisdiction1 and to choice
of law. This chapter is only concerned with the latter one and whilst most of
the analysis can be applied to any country in Europe and is comparative in
nature, the English legal system has been taken as the basis for this analysis.
The complexity of the choice of law issues involved was alluded to by the
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit when it began its
discussion of them in the Itar-Tass case by stating that the `[c]hoice of law
issues in international copyright cases have been largely ignored in the
reported decisions and dealt with rather cursorily by most commentators'.2
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act of 1988 does not contain a true
choice of law rule. Section 1 immediately sets off to define the various types
of work that will attract copyright protection. These are substantive rules, but
a peculiar rule that is of interest to the choice of law analysis has been added
to it. Copyright will, according to this rule, only be granted if the work also
meets the qualification requirement,3 either through the author or through the
country of first publication. This means, in broad terms, that the work will be
granted copyright protection if the author is a British ...