Consequences
The ruling concerning the choice of law (lex originis for determining copyright ownership and lex loci delicti for the infringement) was contrary to the previous presumption that only the law where the infringement occurred (i.e., lex loci delicti) would apply. It has been discussed controversially in several publications. Since the Berne Convention does not offer any guidance on which law shall be applied to determine copyright ownership, this ruling is still the relevant case law in this question and the principle is applied in the U.S. even in other recent cases. The decision is only effective within the U.S.; other countries may follow other rules, such as using the lex loci delicti exclusively.
The copyright in the U.S. on foreign publications that had failed to comply with the (former) formality requirements of the U.S. was generally restored when the copyright restorations of the Uruguay Round Agreement Act (URAA) became effective in the U.S. on January 1, 1996. The URAA was a result of the TRIPS agreement, part of the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations. The URAA automatically restored the copyright on foreign works that were still copyrighted in their country of origin on January 1, 1996, but whose copyright in the U.S. had lapsed through non-compliance with the U.S. formalities, such as non-registration or a lack of international or bilateral copyright treaties between the country of origin of a work and the U.S. Later copyright cases in the U.S. do apply the URAA restorations and thus even may consider unregistered foreign works as copyrighted in the U.S.
Read more about this topic: Itar-Tass Russian News Agency V. Russian Kurier, Inc.
Famous quotes containing the word consequences:
“The medium is the message. This is merely to say that the personal and social consequences of any medium—that is, of any extension of ourselves—result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“The consequences of our actions grab us by the scruff of our necks, quite indifferent to our claim that we have “gotten better” in the meantime.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“There is a delicate balance of putting yourself last and not being a doormat and thinking of yourself first and not coming off as selfish, arrogant, or bossy. We spend the majority of our lives attempting to perfect this balance. When we are successful, we have many close, healthy relationships. When we are unsuccessful, we suffer the natural consequences of damaged and sometimes broken relationships. Children are just beginning their journey on this important life lesson.”
—Cindy L. Teachey. “Building Lifelong Relationships—School Age Programs at Work,” Child Care Exchange (January 1994)