Page 111 - Law and the Media

Law and the Media
International conventions
Treaties on copyright
The global nature of the Internet means that international protection of copyright is of
considerable importance. Two international treaties on copyright, the Berne Convention and
the Universal Copyright Convention, provide for possible world-wide protection of
copyright for authors of original material. Many countries, including the United Kingdom
and the United States, are signatories to both conventions. In addition, the WIPO co-
ordinates and administers international treaties relating to intellectual property protection.

Media companies and authors who are concerned about the global protection of material on
their web sites should consider registration under the Berne and Universal Copyright
conventions. However, if there is specific concern over copyright infringement in particular
countries, specialized legal advice should be sought about the particular country’s national
copyright registration requirements.

Council of Europe
The Council of Europe is a political organization founded in 1949, which is distinct from the
European Union and develops agreements to standardize the social and legal practices of
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member countries. It has drawn up a convention on cyber-crime, which will create criminal
offences in respect of the reproduction and distribution on a commercial scale by computer
of copyrighted works. The convention was adopted on 8 November 2001 and will be legally
effective when at least five countries ratify it, a process expected to take up to two years.
Non-member states, including Japan and the United States, have been invited to become
involved with the convention.

In September 2001, the Council of Europe adopted a recommendation concerning protection
against piracy in the digital environment. The recommendation sets out measures to protect
copyright and combat piracy in the digital environment. It also recommends establishing
Europe-wide anti-piracy policies that recognize intellectual property rights and provide
appropriate sanctions. The recommendation is unlikely to be incorporated into domestic law
in the immediate future.

4.4 The Data Protection Act 1998

From 24 October 2001, every business in the United Kingdom must ensure that it complies
with the principles of data protection set out in the Data Protection Act 1998 (the ‘DPA’).
This includes producers or publishers of multimedia products, web-site operators established
in the United Kingdom, and web-site operators established in another country but using
equipment in the United Kingdom for processing data.

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The convention can be found at http://conventions.coe.int/treaty/en/projets/cybercrime.htm.
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