Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Nope. In any country which is a signatory to the Berne Convention, copyright exists automatically the moment the work is created. No “government ownership record” is needed.
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Actually, that's not completely true. In the US, any treaty requires legislation that implements the treaty. That legislation could require the copyright holder to register with the government. Certainly, that would mean that the US would be in violation of the Berne Convention, but that's a different matter. Countries violation treaties they have signed and approved all the time, frequently with no negative consequences. It really comes down to if some other country is willing to play hardball over the matter and if the US cares enough to worry about it. With regards to books, it's not likely that the US would care enough. What drives copyright in the US is movies and music. The US very much cares enough in those cases.
In theory at least, the US could implement a "orphaned works" solution that technically violates the Berne Convention as long as some major market for US movies or music doesn't try to play hardball. Of course, in reality, there isn't enough influence pushing for orphaned works solutions for the US to take this step. A much more likely solution is that the copyright office or courts decrees that orphaned works has some sort of fair use safe harbor, but I'm not holding my breath over that either.