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56 Geo. L. J. 1050 (1967-1968)
Role of the United States in International Copyright-Past, Present, and Future, The

handle is hein.journals/glj56 and id is 1056 raw text is: THE ROLE OF THE UNITED STATES IN INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT-PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE BARBARA A. RJNGE3R* Criticizing the inadequate early reactions of American foreign policy planners to the development of international copyright, Professor Ringer points out the need to redefine an international copyright law which will be responsive to the interests of the developing -nations but will also preserve the basic purposes of copyright law. Such an effort, she concludes, requires energetic American involvement, If, as the familiar aphorism has it, copyright is the metaphysics of the law, then international copyright must be its cosmology. Though their true influence is dimly understood at best, a nation's copyright laws lie at the roots of its culture and intellectual climate. Copyright provides the inducement for creation and dissemination of the works that shape our society and, in an imperfect and almost accidental way, represents one of the foundations upon which freedom of expression rests.' A country without personal liberty does not need a copyright law; where authorship and the communications media are controlled by the state, copyright becomes superfluous. Copyrighted works represent intangible property that can cross na- tional boundaries as easily and quickly as the communications techniques allow. Perhaps it is no accident that the emergence of the international copyright concept coincided historically with the development of steam- ships, locomotives, and telegraphy. The widespread use of foreign works in the education, entertainment, and communications of a country not only has significant economic and political consequences, but it can also bring about radical change in that country's culture and society. Ideally, international copyright regulation should provide the ful- crum on which exchanges of intellectual materials between countries are carefully balanced.2 The existing multilateral copyright arrange- ments, however, have proved increasingly incapable of coping with the * A.B., 1946, M.A., 1947, George Washington University; LL.B., 1949, Columbia Univer- sity Law School; Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center. The author is presently Assistant Register of Copyrights of the United States Copyright Office. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Copyright Office or of the Library of Congress. I Cf., e.g., W. DOUGLAS, AN ALMANAC OF LIBBRTY 348 (1954); Chafee, Reflections on the Law of Copyright: 1, 45 CoLuM. L. REv. 503, 506 (1945). 2See generally Abel, Copyright from the International Viewpoint, 1 J. WORLD TRADE LAW 399 (1967); Hoffman, The Position of the United States in Relation to International Copyright Protection of Literary Works, 22 U. QN. L. R . 415 (1953). 1050

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