The two main systems for protecting intellectual products - Anglo-American and Continental European school of Intellectual Property - have long been considered as totally different, but since 1989, when U.S also signed the Berne Convention they have formally become quite similar. The big difference lies mainly in the idea behind the development of those laws.
The Berne convention states that a creator owns the rights to his/her works at any stage (a sketch or finished piece) with no formality and in addition to economical rights, gains also certain moral rights to it. These were the main points that U.S did not want to follow.
Another difference lied in the period of protection granted. In Continental-Europe model the minimum has been the lifetime of the author plus seventy years, whereas in Anglo-American system (in Universal Copyright Convention created after WWII) the minimum was set at twenty-five and maximum at fifty-six years since the first publication.
As the need of equalization of the rules was realized due to the export of works between different countries, U.S started making modifications (1950's-1970's) in order to join the Berne Convention. Main changes towards joining were: dispensing the Manufacturing Clause, change the period of copyright protection to author's lifetime plus fifty years. Only as late as 1988 did they agree to drop the copyright formalities and finally "join the club".
The weakness of the Berne system is the suing part, as detecting moral rights and the absence of protected works database make it complicated. For the strongest and clearest protection of ones works, it is benefitial to use the registration under copyright sign. The rights of an author are protected universally also without the sign if one can prove to be the genuine author, but to evaluate and request recovery of moral damages still stays more complicated than this of economical damages.
The Berne convention states that a creator owns the rights to his/her works at any stage (a sketch or finished piece) with no formality and in addition to economical rights, gains also certain moral rights to it. These were the main points that U.S did not want to follow.
Another difference lied in the period of protection granted. In Continental-Europe model the minimum has been the lifetime of the author plus seventy years, whereas in Anglo-American system (in Universal Copyright Convention created after WWII) the minimum was set at twenty-five and maximum at fifty-six years since the first publication.
As the need of equalization of the rules was realized due to the export of works between different countries, U.S started making modifications (1950's-1970's) in order to join the Berne Convention. Main changes towards joining were: dispensing the Manufacturing Clause, change the period of copyright protection to author's lifetime plus fifty years. Only as late as 1988 did they agree to drop the copyright formalities and finally "join the club".
The weakness of the Berne system is the suing part, as detecting moral rights and the absence of protected works database make it complicated. For the strongest and clearest protection of ones works, it is benefitial to use the registration under copyright sign. The rights of an author are protected universally also without the sign if one can prove to be the genuine author, but to evaluate and request recovery of moral damages still stays more complicated than this of economical damages.
