What Is International Copyright?
Like most laws, copyright laws are territorial in nature. This means that copyright material (a book, movie, computer program, etc.) protected in the U.S. is not necessarily protected under the copyright law of another country, unless certain conditions are satisfied. This "territorial" nature of copyright laws and protection of copyrightable subject matter is essential to an understanding of the field of international copyright.

International copyright is in effect a study of the nature of copyright "relations" between countries. If a particular copyrighted work (as defined under your own domestic law) is protected in your country by virtue of that law, you must then determine whether the material is eligible for protection in the country you are concerned about (often referred to as the "country where protection is claimed." It is the rule in most countries that if you have created the work and are a national or permanent resident of that country or if you do not qualify under these criteria but you have first published it in that country, or "simultaneously" published it in the country where protection is claimed within 30 days of its first publication in any other country, that work will be protected in that country even if there are no treaty or similar copyright "relations" involved. However, if these conditions are not present then you must look to whether the work is eligible for protection under bilateral treaties, other bilateral "arrangements", regional treaties, or multilateral treaties or "conventions" (the term "point of attachment" is often used to describe the phenomenon by which subject matter "attaches" to another country for protection). Second, you must determine whether there are any "formalities" that must be satisfied in order for the subject matter involved to be protected in that country. Third, it must be determined what the nature or "level of protection" is for that subject matter in that other country ö the level of protection in that other country can be either higher or lower than under your local law. For a thorough analysis of these and related issues, see Jon A. Baumgarten, Primer on the Principles of International Copyright.

In general, however, most countries are members of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works (Berne Convention), which not only establishes the rules for eligibility for protection in other countries and forbids formalities but binds countries to protect another Berne Convention memberâs protected works at a minimum level known as "convention minima." However, there are other agreements, treaties or conventions which also establish eligibility rules and minimum levels of protection for works from another member country in your country as the country where protection is claimed. The most important of these are the TRIPS Agreement in the World Trade Organizationâs panoply of agreements dealing with international trade rules, the Geneva Phonograms Convention (establishing minima and eligibility criteria for sound recordings or phonograms, the Rome Convention (to which the U.S. is not a party and which sets up rules for performances, sound recordings/phonograms and for broadcasts) and the new "digital" treaties, the WIPO Copyright Treaty (WCT) (and agreed statements) and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty (WPPT) (and agreed statements) which clarify and extend protection offered under Berne and TRIPS. These latter treaties are not yet in force but will be when ratified by thirty countries.

Expression which qualifies as the subject matter of copyright law is normally referred to as a "work." However, in the United States and most common law based countries, the term "copyright" covers protection for intellectual expression defined very broadly not only to include "works" as that term is used in the Berne Convention but also what in most of the rest of the world are protected under a regime called "neighboring" or "related" rights, namely sound recordings/ phonograms, performances and broadcasts. In these other countries, the term "authorâs rights" may be used, instead of "copyright," reflecting the long historical tradition in those countries focusing on the individual creator/author. Thus, the Rome Convention and the WPPT establish minimum levels of protection that adhering countries must afford to sound/recordings/phonograms, to performances and, in the case of Rome, to broadcasts.

How Do You Protect Your Copyrighted Material Internationally?
In any analysis of whether your copyrighted material is protected internationally, you must first determine the materialâs Îpoint of attachment.â For example, under the Copyright Law of the United States, Sections 104 and 104A describe the qualifications for copyright ownership in the United States. In addition, in the laws of many countries, nationals or domiciliaries of a country have their copyrighted material protected in that country, as do non-nationals who "first publish" their copyrighted material in that country. Increasingly, many countries also provide protection for nationals, domiciliaries or others of a foreign country that is party to an international treaty that the country where protection is sought is also party. Of course, a country can also belong to a bilateral treaty with another country, by which they agree to protect one anotherâs copyrighted material.

The bottom line, which has been stated by the U.S. Copyright Office in a 1996 Form Letter: "[t]here is no such thing as an Îinternational copyrightâ that will automatically protect an author's writings throughout the world." Whether copyrighted material is protected in any given country depends on:

1. an analysis of the national law of that country;
2. any bilateral arrangements that country may have with either your country and/or the country in which your material is protected; and
3. any international copyright treaties and conventions belonged to by both the country where the foreign copyrighted material comes from and the country in which protection is sought.

Once it is determined that copyrighted material is protected in a particular foreign country, the next question is how you can protect your material against unauthorized use in that foreign country, or how you can enforce your rights against a person who or entity that engages in copyright piracy.

How Do You Enforce Your Copyrighted Material In Other Countries?
Enforcement is becoming an increasingly important topic in the field of international copyright. With increased trade in copyrighted material globally and with the advent of the Internet, this topic has become, for the first time, the subject of an international treaty regime, under the TRIPS agreement (see Articles 41-61) which provides for minimum levels of enforcement that must be available in WTO countries for them to meet their WTO obligations and avoid possible trade sanctions under the WTO's dispute settlement regime.

Because copyright laws and the levels of protection available for copyright material have gone up so significantly in the last 15 years, individual copyright owners as well as associations of copyright owners and collective management organizations have had to worry less about whether their creative works are protected by statutory copyright law in other countries, but rather on whether there are realistic remedies available if they make their work(s) available in that country or where, for example, they find their work available through hard copies, or through internet transmissions without their authorization.

Most individual creators do not have the resources to enforce their rights in other countries and rely on their publishers, producers, or other associations of copyright owners to enforce their rights globally. In both cases, however, where the dispute is essentially a civil one, the copyright owner or his/her/its representative must hire local counsel and bring action in the local judicial system, often at high cost. This is always the case where the acts of infringement occur entirely outside the country in which the copyright owner resides, though courts increasingly search for and find acts of infringement which either occur on the local territory or where there is a sufficient nexus with that country to meet jurisdictional rules.

Most enforcement taking place outside the country of origin of the copyright material takes place in the criminal environment because the work in often being commercially reproduced, sold and/or performed without the permission of the copyright owner. In the case of business applications software, where infringement occurs on a wide scale within corporate or business environments, actions are both criminal and civil, depending on the country involved and the adequacy of the enforcement system in either area. Customs departments are also active, working with organizations of copyright owners, to inhibit trade in illegal product. There are many organizations engaged in such enforcement activity and these organizations often track the efficacy of a countryâs enforcement system. Access to their websites and other materials will often provide an approximate picture of the enforcement mechanisms available in countries where there is either significant trade at stake or where there are high rates of piracy. The U.S.âs International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), for example, working with its member associations representing U.S. business software and entertainment software publishers, music publishers and book publishers, recording companies, movie, TV and videocassette/DVD producers annually reviews the enforcement situation in over 50 countries, the underlying legal regime and provides estimates of the rates of piracy as well as losses due to piracy of U.S. copyrights (see also "Copyright Piracy" on this website).

Whether a copyright owner can obtain an effective remedy in the courts of another country depends on many factors including, the quality of the private bar in any country, if civil remedies are sought; the ability and willingness of the government, through its criminal and customs enforcement arms to bring actions for commercial infringements; the adequacy of the system for awarding compensatory and deterrent damages and injunctions in civil cases; the ability of the police to run secure raids to search for and seize pirate product, implements and business records; the efficiency of the prosecutorial and judicial system and whether copyright cases are processed without undue delays; and finally, whether the system in question provides deterrent fines, jail terms and other remedies appropriate to the nature of the infringement involved. In a world which will be increasingly dominated by the electronic transmissions of protected works over advanced networks, like the Internet, the adequacy of enforcement systems to deter commercial piracy will become even more important and more difficult, requiring increased training and resources. Copyright owners will also be resorting to technical measure, like encryption, to protect their works, though such technical measures will never obviate the need to good enforcement generally.