Comparative Copyright

This half-option provides a comparative analysis of copyright law across the laws of the UK, the EU (with a particular focus on France and Germany) and the United States. These jurisdictions have been chosen because they have driven the development of copyright law internationally (initially through colonialism in the case of the UK and France and subsequently through dominance in multilateral fora and in bilateral trade negotiations).

The course is arranged thematically and is structured around the issues and dilemmas that all copyright systems have to confront.  What sorts of creation attract copyright protection? What rights do we give to copyright owners? Who owns copyright and should freedom of contract be given primacy or should authors be protected from entering into disadvantageous agreements? When does some overriding goal of public policy justify the provision of a defence? The course will look at the conceptual frameworks, assumptions and matters of general legal policy that have produced the most noticeable areas of divergence. The course will also emphasise the need to be wary of crude and isolated comparisons and illustrate how countries can use superficially very different policy levers to produce outcomes that may not be all that different in practice.  

Learning outcomes: a critical understanding of areas of convergence and divergence in copyright policymaking, a solid grasp of the international copyright system (including the provisions of the Berne Convention and TRIPS Agreement), an appreciation of the philosophical, ethical and cultural differences that are said to make harmonisation of copyright laws problematic.