Introduction.

AuthorBarbosa, Roberto Garza
PositionINTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT LAW AND LITIGATION: A MECHANISM FOR IMPROVEMENT

New technology has made copyright enforcement difficult to achieve. (1) Technology has made it possible to transmit, reproduce, and obtain copyrighted materials around the globe without great monetary investment. The Internet and digital technology allow users from different countries to share and obtain music, movies, or other protected works without even knowing where the source of the copyrighted material is located. On the other hand, satellite technology brings another problem: foreign users may obtain satellite signals without authorization. As technology becomes more sophisticated and easy to use, copyright holders may need the aid of more efficient enforcement procedures to be able to stop infringement abroad, including protecting themselves even in countries where the activity is not otherwise considered an infringement of rights.

Existing international copyright litigation practices were crafted in the analog age. A new set of problems are now afoot. Copyright holders face an entirely different sort of scenario when, for example, they must try to quell infringement in a situation in which the copy is of exactly the same quality as the original as opposed to when they just had to focus on impeding the diffusion of low quality copies or subsequent transmissions. In the latter situation, the mere fact that each generation of copies lost quality, as compared to the source, served as an essential and inherent protection mechanism that now largely no longer exists.

At the international level, copyright holders are fighting a battle in which they hold nothing more than antique guns while they are pitted against the most modern and sophisticated artillery. This does not mean that all existing international conventions are useless. (2) On the contrary, the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs Agreement) has achieved impressive accomplishments in harmonizing and setting minimum rights around the world. (3) In other words, in order to enforce copyrights efficiently, only a modest step is needed. There is a need for an international mechanism for the enforcement of existing rights. (4) Just as it has become easier to infringe upon copyrights, it must become easier to enforce copyrights as well. This is the impetus for this Article; what follows is a proposal for a mechanism for international copyright litigation.

The proposed mechanism is the next needed development in international copyright law. History has shown that technological developments are followed by changes in the copyright law in an attempt to solve the new problems technology creates for copyright holders. (5) But the problems created by recent technological developments can not be solved...

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