Page 364 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

P racy and Intellectual Property |

circulation of ideas, which stifles creativity, thwarts innovation, and creates or
perpetuates social and economic inequalities by establishing a market in priva-
tized information. Is piracy—the infringement on IP rights—a justified response
to this expanding legal framework that criminalizes participation and creative
engagement with the production and circulation of cultural expressions com-
mon to a society?

tiMeline

1709—Britain’s Statute of Anne is the first copyright law enacted.
1790—The Copyright Act of 1790 is the first U.S. federal copyright law, offering
protection for a 14-year term with the option of one 14-year term extension.
1883—The Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property is one of the first
international IP treaties, requiring contracting states to recognize each other’s IP
protection laws.
1887—The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works requires
contracting states to recognize the copyrights of authors from other contracting states
as they would their own.
1893—The United International Bureaux for the Protection of Intellectual Property
(BIRPI), formed from the merger of two smaller bureaus established by the Paris and
Berne Conventions, becomes the administrative body for the international protec-
tion of IP.
1909—The U.S. Copyright Act of 1909 extends the term of copyright to 28 years, with the
option of renewing for another 28-year term.
1967—The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is formed as a replacement
for BIRPI.
1974—WIPO becomes an organization of the United Nations.
1976—The U.S. Copyright Act of 1976 extends the term of copyright to life of the author
plus 50 years, or 75 years for works of corporate authorship.
1994—The Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) shifts
the protection and enforcement of IP onto the international trading system, requiring
members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to adopt standardized IP laws or
face trade and economic sanctions.
1998—The U.S. Copyright Term Extension Act (also known as the Sonny Bono Copyright
Term Extension Act or the Mickey Mouse Protection Act) extends copyright protection
to life of the author plus 70 years, or 95 years for works of corporate authorship.
1998—The U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) criminalizes circumvention
of—and the production or distribution of devices or services for the circumvention
of—systems that control access to copyrighted works, commonly known as Digital
Right Management (DRM) systems.
2001—The European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD) criminalizes DRM circumvention
in the European Union.