0.2 The international framework  (Page 11/12)

In addition, the proposed treaty would establish a  First Sale Doctrine  for  Library Use , stating that “a work that has been lawfully acquired by a library may be lent to others without further transaction fees to be paid by the library.” Finally, the A2K treaty proposal introduces provisions in support of distance education, as well as provisions accommodating the rights of persons with disabilities.

Librarians and library patrons aren’t the only parties who could benefit from the A2K treaty. The proposal includes rules protecting Internet Service Providers  from copyright liability, and also mitigates the strict prohibitions on circumvention of encryption contained in several international copyright treaties. Under the proposed treaty,  nonoriginal  and  orphan works  (those works for which a copyright holder cannot be identified upon reasonable search) would be left in the  public domain . The treaty would also guarantee access to publicly funded research works, government works, and archives of public broadcasting. Finally, the A2K treaty proposal also includes provisions on patent protection, anticompetitive practices, and transfer of technology to developing countries.

Back to the case study

To advise Angela, Nadia should review the lists of the member countries of all of the international agreements discussed in this lesson to ascertain whether their country has joined any of those agreements. She should then review the terms of any applicable agreements to determine whether they prevent expansion of the rights of teachers and students to use copyrighted materials without permission. That inquiry will likely require Nadia to consider which of the various interpretations of the three-step test is most sensible, and the extent to which that test limits a country's discretion in recognizing exceptions and limitations for educational purposes. That analysis will be difficult and may require Nadia to consult with fellow librarians.

Additional resources

A thorough discussion of international copyright law may be found in Paul Edward Geller, ed.,  International Copyright Law and Practive  (2 volumes, Matthew Bender), although its coverage of developing and transitional countries is thin. (It is also  prohibitively expensive ). Other useful paper treatises include Paul Goldstein,  International Copyright: Principles, Law, and Practice  (Oxford University Press) and Silke von Lewinski,  International Copyright Law and Policy  (Oxford University Press 2008).

An online course on International Copyright Law, directed at librarians, may be found  here , but it is also expensive.

An excellent compendium of the copyright laws in over 100 countries has been assembled by  UNESCO: Collection of National Copyright Laws .

As indicated above, an especially important component of most international copyright agreements is the three-step test. The most comprehensive and accessible examination of the history and meaning of that test may be found in  P. Bernt Hugenholtz&Ruth L. Okediji, Conceiving an International Instrument on Limitations and Exceptions to Copyright: Final Report, March 06, 2008 . Other good analyses of the three-step test available in print but not online include Martin Senftleben,  Copyright, Limitations and the Three-Step Test (Kluwer Law Int'l 2004); and Jane C. Ginsburg, "Toward Supranational Copyright Law? The WTO Panel Decision and the "Three Step Test" for Copyright Exemptions," 187 Revue internationale Du Droit D'Auteur 3, 49 (2001).