Copyright Information

To thoroughly research the copyright legislation it is necessary to define the territory of interest first. Although there is a worldwide treaty governing the overall copyright issues, each and every country has their own regulations and rules regarding the copyright and the relevant legislation can be found primarily on the internet. Unexpectedly, UNESCO has on their web site a very thorough overview of the world's legislation on copyright issues, the site is very easy to navigate and provides plenty of links and relevant information. The world is split up for easier navigation, the separation is interesting at least and comprises of following sub sites: Europe and North America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Arab States, all together five sub indexes which have all countries which have submitted local law information. For instance twenty two African countries have submitted their local laws and these are available for review and download in pdf format. Many European countries, have submitted their local legislation, views and regulations to the UNESCO, but the overall governing legislation of the European Union is not available. For the regulation of the European Union, you should visit the web page set up by the European Commission regarding the EU Single Market, regulating the Internal Market, sub definitions about Copyright. The complete legal framework of the EU is available here, explained and defined. All issues are listed and browsable, several documents are downloadable, like legislative measures, enforcement in all the EU languages, reports and proposals, as well as speeches of officials regarding the issue. Links lead to community institutions as well as international organizations, whereby the WIPO has to be mentioned, the World Intellectual Property Organization. The WIPO has so much information, it is not easy to navigate, but keep in mind that intellectual property is a step above the copyright, when searching and browsing. The WTO, World Trade Organization, has plenty of info regarding the trade related aspects of the intellectual property and the assigned and designated rights. The best information for individuals from the United States is available directly from the governing office of the Library of Congress, the United States Copyright Office. The site is very nationally oriented with almost no references to worldwide legislation, but all the local US laws and regulations are available and in great detail. Downloadable publications, information, registration of copyright with the Office, with an electronic registration option, copyright law, Federal Register notices, all the current legislation and regulations, as well as thousands of other documents and pages are available directly from the web site. There is also a searchable database of copyright records.