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International Copyright Law
Surprise! There Is No International Copyright Law
Many people are surprised to learn that there is no international copyright law. Yes, that is right. There is not an international copyright law that will protect your work on the other side of the world. However, it is important to note that most countries do offer some form of protection to what is deemed as “foreign” works.
International conventions and treaties have done much to protect owners of copyrights around the world. With the world seemingly becoming smaller every day the United States took a look at its stance on the European copyright treaty known as the Berne Convention. Basically, the Berne Convention of 1886 involved European nations coming together to seek a uniform copyright law to keep their copyright owners from having to register for copyrights in individuals European countries. The United States signed on to the Berne Convention introduced made it into a U.S. law known as the Berne Implementation Act of 1988.
If you are seeking to have your work protected in a particular country you need to find out what kind of protection foreign authors have in that country. Some countries offer little or not protection to foreign authors. It should be noted that the U.S. Copyright Office is not allowed to give authors recommendations or the names of attorneys or agents that could help them understand foreign copyright laws. However, with a little investigation it is not hard to find someone who is an expert on foreign copyright law. These individuals can help you learn more about copyright protection and how your work is deemed in a foreign country.
Someone who works in international copyright law will tell you that it is different than most other sectors of law. It involves knowing the copyright law of two or more countries. Every country has their own way of granting and protecting someone’s copyright. The individual criteria of each country must be taken into consideration when you are dealing with international copyright law. It is important to note that some countries do not have any intellectual property rights and some countries even grant more copyright protections than even the United States. International copyright laws involve understanding international treaties and conventions, like the Berne Treaty and WIPO Copyright Treaty listed above. If you are interested in pursuing a degree in law, you may want to explore the international copyright law sector. With the world becoming one big neighborhood, you will probably not lack for work.
People that have copyrighted works need to be aware that there are differences in the copyright laws in some nations. While it is true that the United States has signed treaties with some nations, your work will not be protected in every country of the world. As stated, the United States is a member of the Berne treaty. In addition, the United States is a member of the WIPO Copyright Treaty. This treaty works in conjunction with the Berne treaty yet it also covers and gives protection to databases and computer programs. If you would like more information on international copyright law you should check with an attorney who specializes in international copyright law.
Web Hosting - FTP and Other File Transfer Tools Anything related to the Internet or computers is bound to introduce technical issues pretty soon. One of the earliest that novice web site owners encounter is FTP, which is an acronym for File Transfer Protocol. Seeing it spelled out, it's easy to see why those in the know quickly move to speaking in short hand. The reason web site owners soon will (or need to) become familiar with FTP is obvious to anyone who has built a site on a remote server. You have to have some way of getting the files to the remote computer and FTP is one of the most common tools. It's also one of the simplest and most efficient. FTP is composed of two parts: the client software and the server software. It's similar, in a way, to talking to someone on the phone who writes down everything you say. You (the client) make a request ('transfer this file to the server') and the listener (the server) takes the request and acts on it. That request to copy a file from a local computer to the remote one is carried out (often 'under the covers') by a PUT command, as in PUT this there. You create the web page (in the form of a file) and then PUT the file on the server. To move a file in the opposite direction, from the remote server to your local computer, your client software issues a GET command. Many FTP clients have graphical interfaces, similar to Windows Explorer, that allow you to drag-and-drop or otherwise copy the file without ever seeing the actual commands that carry it out. But it's helpful sometimes to know what goes on underneath. In tricky cases it can be an advantage to use a command line interface (in Windows, the 'DOS box', with a similar interface familiar to most Linux users). Knowing the commands and being able to use them in the command line form can sometimes help you diagnose what is going on when the graphical tools misbehave. But FTP is not the only way to get a file from here to there. In fact, your browser moves files around from a remote computer to your local one all the time. In most cases, when you type in or click on a URL, what happens under the covers is in essence a file transfer process. The web page is transferred from the web server to your local computer then displayed by the browser. Alternatively, you can sometimes even email a web page/file from your local computer to the remote server, then use an email client on the server itself to get the file and put it in a folder. That requires that you have some form of access to the remote computer. But there are many ways of doing that, such as in-built utilities in the operating system or using commercial remote control programs. Those alternatives can be helpful to know in cases where the FTP file transfer process is misbehaving. Having more than one way to accomplish the task helps you diagnose what might be going wrong. It also helps you get the job done when the usual tools aren't cooperating. The more you learn about these sometimes puzzling acronyms, the easier you can accomplish your own goals. Copyright lawyer trademark Learning about a Copyright Lawyer Trademark You may need a copyright lawyer trademark if you own your own website or are an author of a book. If you haven’t already spoke with one you may want to do it very soon to find out if your articles/site can be trademarked or if it is already taken. One way to make sure you have the copyright to all of your work is by making sure you have the little “c” inside the circle at the end of your article or the bottom of your webpage. For instance a slogan can be considered a trademark, think of the milk commercial, remember that certain phrase? You can bet money that had a copyright lawyer trademark it for the milk company. There are many popular household products that have been trademarked; you probably wouldn’t recognize the product without it. Drive down the road and look at how many trademarks you see on restaurants, each one of those famous places had a copyright lawyer trademark their signature. Many products that may need protecting may include songs, products such as household or commercial, designs, ads, etc. If you think the idea is a good one, it probably needs some form of protection and the best person to help you with that is a copyright lawyer trademark. There are actually three forms of trademark that you probably weren’t aware of which is why a good copyright lawyer trademark will come in handy. There is common trademark which is just like it sounds. A state trademark, which means you, filed your trademark with the state in which you reside. An example for this might be a company using their city in their business name. Third is the federal registration trademark, this is a registration that can be renewed every year or forever. Someone that has a website that is becoming popular may want to make sure they reserve their trademark forever so that someone else doesn’t buy it down the road. Keep in mind that just because you buy a domain name doesn’t mean you actually own the trademark, you might actually see another site with the same name. If you don’t want this to be the case, have a copyright lawyer trademark it. A great example of showing you how a copyright lawyer trademark works would be by looking at the recent celebrities that bought the trademarks to their children’s names so no one can cash in on their names. Believe it or not even a copyright lawyer can have a trademark, that’s right they may have their own site or logo on a business card. In this case they’ve probably done all that fancy paperwork that you are getting started to do, which means they’ll have first hand knowledge when it comes time to help you out. This should actually make you feel a lot more comfortable than dealing with a lawyer that just knows the job; this one actually has experience that will help you. Know what you want to be yours and how long you want it; if it is something that you just can’t live without or you know will be worth something someday you may want to hire a copyright lawyer to trademark it. This way it is always yours and you never have to worry about someone else using it, they will always have to have your permission. Not to mention if they ever try suing you for using it you can always prove that you are the owner. Protect your stuff by getting a copyright lawyer trademark all things that matter. |