Read This To Know The Implications for Copyright

The World Trade Organization's overarching set of rules on intellectual property rights, the TRIPS Agreement, contains language on copyright rules dictating which kinds of original creative works may be accorded copyrights and the kinds of measures that may be used under copyright law to prevent infringement. The copyrights rules and other intellectual property protections put in place by TRIPS were fitted toward the purposes of a newly complex and interconnected global economy, in which the value of information and the transfer of it between different nations are increasingly accelerated. With this in mind, the model for copyright law put into place by TRIPS is one which allows for digitally-enabled methods for storing and accessing information to be subject to the protective and punitive measures of copyright rules.

Copyright law is generally expressed in language which takes the form not of empowerment but of prohibition, so that holding the copyright to something is not couched as a privilege to use it, but as a privilege to prevent others from using it.

Computer programs and databases are considered to fall under the protection of copyright law. The same copyright rules for literary works, as originally established by the Berne Convention, are in force for computer programs. Separate issues are raised by the placement of computer databases under the purview of copyright law, in that the medium by its nature is composed of preexisting information. In order to manifest the degree of originality required for the granting of protection under copyright law, databases must be shown to be unique enough in their formatting to be significantly distinguished from other databases.

Another section of the TRIPS copyright rules apply to the means by which authors may offer their work to the public in exchange for financial compensation. Selling the reproductions or the rights to an original work of authorship had been protected under the systems of copyright law preceding the adoption of the TRIPS rules, but copyright law governing the rental rights to works were found to be more ambiguous.

In the interests of clarifying such copyright rules, the WTO granted the creators of computer programs the ability to legally block rentals of copies of their work. When it could be shown that the rental of copies of films and televisions programs had led to the unauthorized reproduction of such works and consequent financial disadvantage to the owners, the copyright holders would have comparable rights for claiming the ability to block the rental of their work.

Another section of copyright law addressed and rationalized under the TRIPS provisions were the rights of performers in relation to the copies made of their performances which, if unauthorized, are commonly referred to as bootlegs. People who record, reproduce or distribute performances without the consent of the performer will be liable to prosecution under the TRIPS copyright rules for a period lasting up to fifty years. The producers of authorized recordings are protected by TRIPS copyright law for the same period of time.