Copyright law: a comparative study between the Lebanese and the US laws

Abstract

The global world we're witnessing nowadays has reshaped many or most of the concepts we thought of as indispensable. Globalization has turned the whole world into a small village, cutting down boundaries, and opening channels which were inconceivable just a few years back: free movement of knowledge, thought, inventions, creations, and ideas have become commonplace. International trade has not been an exception. It too has been radically changed by this phenomenon called globalization. At the essence of international trade lies intellectual property trade. Therefore its protection has become an increasingly urgent issue on the international level. Given the pressure felt by most governments to comply with International Intellectual Property regulations, the Lebanese government decided to pass a new copyright law that was officially introduced on the 4 of April, 1999. Judicial authorities along with the Lebanese government are trying to implement the provisions of this Law. Five years have passed since its official promulgation, yet little can be said of its effectiveness or even its enforcement. Lebanon is facing lots of problems nowadays in providing effective protection of intellectual property rights. Implementation of this law, though growing at a slow pace, should start by attempting to lay hold of the rapid widespread of pirated optical discs and uncontrolled internet and TV cable piracy. This would promise to be a hopefully good beginning. The purpose of this thesis is to provide fresh insight into this law and its application, by comparing it to the US copyright law since the US law is one of the best, globally. This is because the USA is the number one producer/exporter of intellectual property and has the most robust copyright protection regulations in place. As a result of this comparison and analysis, several problems were brought to light. One of the major problems in this new law is the text of the law itself. The text is unclear and insufficient. It needs major modifications and addition of annexes that explain the application of some of its articles in depth. In addition, criminal sanctions mentioned are not preventive enough - they are too insubstantial to deter infringement. This is the main reason for the obvious lack of jurisprudence to date, also due to lack of enforcement and seriousness of pursuit. Another problem is the unconformity of some articles with the main International Conventions (Bern Convention, TRIPS agreement, and WIPO treaty). Article 25 of the Lebanese Law is out of order, violating the major International Agreements to which Lebanon is a signatory party or intended to be so in the near future. The thesis ends with certain recommendations to make this new law more comprehensive and applicable, in line with international standards.