Ginsburg, Jane C. --- "The US Experience with Formalities: A Love/Hate Relationship" [2010] ELECD 525; in Bently, Lionel; Suthersanen, Uma; Torremans, Paul (eds), "Global Copyright" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Global Copyright

Editor(s): Bently, Lionel; Suthersanen, Uma; Torremans, Paul

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848447660

Section: Chapter 30

Section Title: The US Experience with Formalities: A Love/Hate Relationship

Author(s): Ginsburg, Jane C.

Number of pages: 35

Extract:

30. The US experience with
formalities: a love/hate relationship
Jane C. Ginsburg*

1 INTRODUCTION

Given calls, such as those expressed in Stef van Gompel's provocative
contribution, Formalities in the digital era: an obstacle or opportunity?,1
a reality check might be in order. The United States has had de jure or
de facto mandatory copyright formalities for over 200 years: Does our
experience serve as an inspiration or as a cautionary tale?
Copyright formalities ­ conditions precedent to the existence or enforce-
ment of copyright, such as provision of information about works of author-
ship that will put the public on notice as to a work's protected status and
its copyright ownership, or deposit of copies of the work for the national
library or other central authority, or local manufacture of copies of works
of foreign origin ­ have performed a variety of functions in US copyright
history. First, formalities that condition the existence or enforcement of
copyright on supplying information about works of authorship should
enable effective title searching, thus furthering the economic interests both
of copyright owners and of potential exploiters. Secondly, copyright-
constitutive formalities, principally notice of copyright, but also at various
times deposit, registration and renewal, erect a barrier to the existence of
protection, concomitantly casting into the public domain published works
that fail to comply. These formalities thus (at least in theory) have divided



* Morton L. Janklow Professor of literary and artistic property law, Columbia
University School of Law. This report is based in ...