A Realist Approach to Copyright Law’s Formalities
Abstract
Rejecting the conventional story that formalities in copyright law were abolished by the Berne Convention, this Article demonstrates that privately administered systems of formalities play a significant role in the administration of copyright law worldwide. Indeed, they must because copyright is designed to support a transaction structure which requires rights holders who seek to attract licensing partners to go through some formal step to identify themselves and the works in which they have a legal or beneficial interest. Canvassing the landscape of mandatory and voluntary public and private systems of formalities, this article argues that: (1) national policymakers retain more policy authority under Berne to impose certain formal requirements on rights holders than those with a formalist understanding of public formalities argue; (2) private systems of formalities are extensive, economically significant, but are not interoperable with each other in many cases and with voluntary registries and other voluntary public formalities systems; and (3) policymakers should use a mix of approaches to improve the functioning of both public and private formalities systems by promoting or requiring transparency, efficiency, and interoperability in their design and administration.Keywords:
Copyright, formalities, Berne Convention, United States.References
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Band, Jonathan (2012). «Cautionary tales about collective rights organizations». Disponible en <http://ssrn.com/abstract=2149036>.
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Carroll, Michael W. (2006). «One for all: The problem of uniformity cost in intellectual property law». American University Law Review, 55: 845-900.
Chopra, Aneesh y Patrick Gallagher (2012). «Public-private standards efforts to make America strong». The White House. Disponible en <http://1.usa.gov/1JnuPlJ>.
Cohen, Felix (1935). «Transcendental nonsense and the functional approach». Columbia Law Review, 35 (6): 809-849.
De la Durantaye, Katharina (2011). «Finding a home for orphans: Google Book Search and orphan works law in the United States and Europe». Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal, 21 (2): 229-291.
Dusollier, Séverine (2011). «(Re)Introducing formalities in copyright as a strategy for the public domain». En Lucie Guibault y Christina Angelopoulos (editores), Open content licensing: From theory to practice. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.
Dusollier, Séverine y Caroline Colin (2011). «Peer-to-peer file sharing and copyright: What could be the role of collective management?». Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, 34 (4): 809-835.
Farrar, Randall (2010). «Metadata: The hidden disaster that’s right in front of you». New York State Bar Association Journal, October: 49-52. Disponible en <http://bit.ly/1HBQ6Ia>.
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Ficsor, Mihály (2010). «Collective management of copyright and related rights from the viewpoint of international norms and the acquis communautaire». En Daniel Gervais (editor), Collective management of copyright and related rights. The Netherland: Kluwer Law International.
Fisk, Catherine (2011). «The role of private intellectual property rights in markets for labor and ideas: Screen credit and the writers guild of America, 1938-2000». Berkeley Journal of Employment and Labor Law, 32 (2): 215-278.
Gervais, Daniel (2010a). «The 1909 Copyright Act in international context». Santa Clara High Technology Law Journal, 26 (2): 185-214.
Gervais, Daniel (2010b). «Collective management of copyright: Theory and practice in the digital age». En Daniel Gervais (editor), Collective management of copyright and related rights. The Netherland: Kluwer Law International.
Gervais, Daniel (2011). «The Google Book Settlement and the TRIPS Agreement». Stanford Technology Law Review, 1: 1-10.
Gibson, James (2005). «Once and future copyright». Notre Dame Law Review, 81 (1): 167-245.
Ginsburg, Jane C. (2010). «The U.S. experience with mandatory copyright formalities: A love/hate relationship». Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, 33 (4): 311-344.
Ginsburg, Jane C. (2013). «With untired spirits and formal constancy: Berne-compatibility of formal declaratory measures to enhance title-searching». Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 28 (3): 1583-1622.
Glushko Samuelson Intellectual Property Law Clinic (2005). Respuesta al aviso de indagación sobre el problema de las «obras huérfanas» realizado por United State Copyright Office, Library of Congress. Disponible en <http://1.usa.gov/1Hzs8zi>.
Guibault, Lucie y Stef van Gompel (2010). «Collective management in the European Union». En Daniel Gervais (editor), Collective management of copyright and related rights. The Netherland: Kluwer Law International.
Hatch, Orrin G. (1989). «Better late than never: Implementation of the 1886 Berne Convention». Cornell International Law Journal, 22 (2): 171-195.
Helfer, Laurence R. (2010). «Collective management of copyrights and human rights: An uneasy alliance revisited». En Daniel Gervais (editor), Collective management of copyright and related rights. The Netherland: Kluwer Law International.
Horwitz, Morton J. (1982). «The history of the public/private distinction». University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 130: 1423-1428.
Karp, Irwin (1995). «A future without formalities». Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, 13: 521-258.
Kennedy, Duncan (1982). «The stages of the decline of the public/private distinction». University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 130: 1349-1357.
Leiter, Brian (2010). «Legal formalism and legal realism: What is the issue?». Legal Theory, 16 (2): 111-133.
Lessig, Lawrence (2004). Free culture. Nueva York: Penguin Press.
Levine, Arthur (1995). «The end of formalities: No more second-class copyright owners». Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, 13: 553-557.
Lorrain, Anne-Catherine (2013). «EU Presidency proposes compromise on draft directive on collective management of copyright», Communia, 22 de mayo de 2013, disponible en <http://bit.ly/1OjYBfH>.
National Information Standards Organization (2004). Understanding metadata. Disponible en <http://bit.ly/1HWdcsf>.
Nutall, Fracois Xavier (2011). Private copyright documentation systems and practices: Collective management organizations’ databases (Preliminary version). Disponible en <http://bit.ly/1KbyNRm>.
Pallante, Maria A. (2013). «The curious case of copyright formalities». Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 28 (3): 1415-1423.
Pallante, Maria A. (2013). The register’s call for updates to U.S. Copyright Law: Hearing before the subcomm. on courts, intellectual prop., and the internet of the H. Comm. on the Judiciary, 113th Cong. Disponible en <http://1.usa.gov/1DlpREa>.
Perlmutter, Shira (1995). «Freeing copyright from formalities». Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal, 13: 565-588.
Quevedo, Steven M. (1985). «Comment, formalist and instrumentalist legal reasoning and legal theory». California Law Review, 73 (1): 119-157.
Ricketson, Sam y Jane C. Ginsburg (2006). International copyright and neighbouring rights: The Berne Convention and beyond. Nueva York: Oxford University Press.
Ricolfi, Marco y otros (2011). Survey of private copyright documentation systems and practices. Disponible en <http://bit.ly/1CMqOdr>.
Riis, Thomas y Jens Schovsbo (2010). «Extended collective licenses and the Nordic experience: It’s a hybrid but is it a Volvo or a lemon?». Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, 33 (4): 471-498.
Samuelson, Pamela y otros (2010). «The copyright principles project: Directions for reform». Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 25 (3): 1175-1245.
Seidman, Louis Michael (1984). «Soldiers, martyrs, and criminals: Utilitarian theory and the problem of crime control». Yale Law Journal, 94 (2): 315-349.
Sorkin, Andrew Ross (2013). «A database of names, and how they connect». New York Times, 12 de febrero, pág. B1.
Sprigman, Christopher (2004). «Reform(aliz)ing copyright». Stanford Law Review, 57: 485-568.
Sprigman, Christopher (2013) «Berne’s vanishing ban on formalities». Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 28 (3): 1563-1582.
Stanton, Susan (1990). «Development of the Berne International Copyright Convention and implications of United States adherence». Houston Journal of International Law, 13 (1): 149-177.
Turkel, Gerald (1988). «The public/private distinction: Approaches to the critique of legal ideology». Law and Society Review, 22 (4): 801-823.
Van Gompel, Stef (2010). «Les formalités sont mortes, vive les formalités! Copyright formalities and the reasons for their decline in Nineteenth Century Europe». En Ronan Deazley y otros (editores), Privilege and property: Essays on the history of copyright. Cambridge: Open Book Publishers.
Van Gompel, Stef (2011). Formalities in copyright law. The Netherlands: Kluwer Law International.
Van Gompel, Stef (2013). «Copyright formalities in the internet age: Filters of protection or facilitators of licensing». Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 28 (3): 1425-1458.
Woods, Tanya M. (2009) «Working toward spontaneous copyright licensing: A simple solution for a complex problem». Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law, 11 (4): 1141-1168.
