Intellectual Copyright Treaty

[Andreas the Wise]

Harvey proposed this for Nelaga.

Nelagan Intellectual Property Protection Act

1) Trademark
a. Definition – a name, slogan, motto, or piece of art that a company associates with a product, line of products, business plan, or the company at large.
b. Any individual citizen or non-citizen, or a group of individuals, or a corporate entity may apply for a trademark, which, if registered, will be protected under Nelagan copyright law.
c. In order to register a trademark, its owner(s) must prove single, solitary, and undisputed control of its creation.
d. Trademarks, once registered, cannot be modified and still retain their protection under Nelagan copyright law. This includes changing the spelling of a name, the words in a motto or slogan, or the image or colors of an image. If such a change is desired, the new trademark must be submitted for copyright protection individually.
e. The owner(s) of a trademark may, at any time, choose to abandon the trademark.

2) Intellectual Property
a. Definition – any creative effort that can be claimed by a single individual or a group with known, discrete members. Creative efforts include songs, poems, works of art, stories, essays, editorials, or any other media that can reasonably be inferred as to being appropriate for this protection.
b. Intellectual property is protected under law by default for all Nelagan citizens. It is not necessary to apply for or register intellectual property – only be able to prove ownership if the need arises.
c. Non-citizens creating or distributing works of creative effort in Nelaga do not automatically gain intellectual property protection. They may apply for such protection in the following ways:
i. Apply for copyright protection.
ii. Register a business within the jurisdiction of the Nelaga Territories that has control over the creative effort.
iii. Be covered under an international treaty or agreement that ensures protection.
d. The owner(s) of the intellectual property, being by default its creator(s), has the right to sell or give their property to any individual or organization they choose. However, once they have relinquished control, they are no longer the owner in any legal sense.

3) Copyright
a. Copyright refers to Nelagan law’s protection over trademarks and intellectual property.
b. The copyright protection includes:
i. No other individual or group may take credit for the content’s creation.
ii. No other individual or group may use the content without permission.
iii. No other individual or group may reproduce or alter the content.
iv. No other individual or group may make profit, including any reasonably inferred form of indirect profit, from use of the content.
c. At any point, the owner(s) of the creative effort may voluntarily waive copyright protection for whatever purposes they desire, either to a certain individual or group, or to the general public at large. They may also cease waiving copyright protection at any time.

4) Violations
a. Any citizen, non-citizen, group of individuals, or corporate entity may file a claim of copyright infringement to the Nelagan judiciary. This will start an investigation hearing to determine if the claim holds merit.
b. The investigation will differ depending on if the offending party is composed of entirely Nelagan citizens.
i. Domestic claims – claims filed against a Nelagan citizen or citizens shall be be handled by the Nelagan Judiciary, regardless if the person or entity filing the claim is composed of citizens or non-citizens.
ii. International claims – claims against non-citizens or entities composed of non-citizens shall be handled by whatever applicable international treaties or agreements apply, or by any resolution accepted by all international governments. If no such treaties, agreements, or resolutions exist or can be negotiated, the Nelaga Territories will be unable to enforce the copyright law abroad and the infringement claim will be dropped.
c. Copyright infringement claims must be filed for any action to occur. Claims not filed with result in no legal action even if the copyright law is clearly being violated.
d. Violation of copyright is considered a crime, for which punishments are decided by the judiciary. They shall not exceed a temporary ban from the forums of more than 10 days.

5) Retroactive Claims
a. Any intellectual property created by Nelagan citizens before the passage of this act shall automatically be considered intellectual property in the eyes of the Nelagan law.
i. Non-citizens must still apply for intellectual property protection.
ii. Trademarks created before the passage of this act must still be registered.
b. However, no citizen, non-citizen, group of individuals, or corporate entity shall be held legally accountable for any possible breach of this act that occurred before its passage, in accordance with Article VII.17 “Principles of legality and proportionality of criminal offenses and penalties” in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution of the Nelaga Territories.

Summary: citizens creating anything intellectual or creative in the country automatically have legal protection for their works being stolen or used by unauthorized individuals. Non-citizens must apply for such protection, with an application basically being just proving they created or own it. Trademarks can be applied for as well by citizens, non-citizens, or corporations and also be protected.

The maximum penalty for breaking the copyright law is a temporary forum ban of ten days. That's the maximum. I'd see normal penalties being a fine or possibly losing a business license within the country. But the courts can decide what they want to do if the time comes.

Also, a lot of the protections of this act hinge on our ability to protect our works abroad, so we should probably talk to our allied countries and negotiate them agreeing to the terms of this act. This would give Nelaga legal power to pursue copyright claims abroad.

Is there interest in setting it up as an international treaty? Obviously it would need some fine tuning, and we'd have to work out which courts handled which cases (I'd assume each individual nation prosecutes infringements of it/its citizens copyright, and the treaty just says the system applies to all signatories). If there is interest, I'll work out the modifications needed to do it internationally.

[Harvey Steffke]

I'd be happy to make a generalized version of the bill that only covers international claims. It would be like NIPPA, but without any of the domestic stuff.

[Leo Fenrir]

I, personally, am all for the passing of this bill. With the introduction of ISI, JASO, Red Herring, and the beginning of international commissions, such a law may prove to be useful in the future.

[Erik Mortis]

I would support such a treaty.

[Maximilian]

Some Batavians are working on copyright laws. A treaty concerning copyrights comes just at the right moment.

[Harvey Steffke]

Proposed draft of the Small Commonwealth Intellectual Property Protection Act (SCIPPA)

1. Any nation who has signed the Convention on the Establishment of a Commonwealth Court may sign this treaty.

2. Trademarks
a. Definition – a name, slogan, motto, or piece of art that a company associates with a product, line of products, business plan, or the company at large.
b. Trademarks cannot be modified and still retain their protection under SCIPPA. This includes changing the spelling of a name, the words in a motto or slogan, or the graphic or colors of an image. If a change is made a new trademark is created and proof of ownership of the new trademark is required independently of the original.
i. Extremely minor changes may be exempt to this rule. The Small Commonwealth Court will determine if a change counts as extremely minor.
c. The owner(s) of a trademark, being by default its creator(s), may, at any time, choose to abandon the trademark, or to transfer full ownership of it to another entity.

3. Intellectual Property
a. Definition – any creative effort that can be claimed by a single individual or a group with known, discrete members. Creative efforts include songs, poems, works of art, stories, essays, editorials, or any other media that can reasonably be inferred as to being appropriate for this protection.
b. Intellectual property is protected under the SCIPPA and the Commonwealth Court for all citizens of all nations in the Small Commonwealth. It is not necessary to apply for or register intellectual property – only be able to prove ownership if the need arises.
c. The owner(s) of the intellectual property, being by default its creator(s), has the right to sell or give their property to any individual or organization they choose. However, once they have relinquished control, they are no longer the owner in any legal sense.

4. Copyright
a. Copyright refers to the Small Commonwealth Court's protection over trademarks and intellectual property.
b. The copyright protection includes:
i. No other individual or group may take credit for the content’s creation.
ii. No other individual or group may use the content without permission.
iii. No other individual or group may reproduce or alter the content without permission.
iv. No other individual or group may make profit, including any reasonably inferred form of indirect profit, from use of the content.
c. At any point, the owner(s) of the creative effort may voluntarily waive copyright protection for whatever purposes they desire, either to a certain individual or group, or to the general public at large. They may also cease waiving copyright protection at any time.

5. Violations
a. Any citizen, group of individuals, or corporate entity may file a claim of copyright infringement to the Commonwealth Court. This will start an investigation hearing to determine if the claim holds merit.
b. Claims will be judged by the Small Commonwealth Court on the following criteria:
i. Original creation of material (date and evidence)
ii. Proof of a transfer of ownership, if the owner(s) is not the original creator(s).
c. Copyright infringement claims must be filed for any action to occur. Claims not filed with result in no legal action even if the copyright law is clearly being violated.
d. The penalties for violating a copyright claim shall be determined by the Commonwealth Court and the Small Commonwealth nations.

6. Any trademarks intellectual property created before the passage of this act shall automatically be considered under Small Commonwealth Court copyright protection.

7. This Convention may be amended by a qualified majority of the State Parties exceeding three fourths of the votes cast.

I got rid of the whole business of applying for things so we wouldn't need a patent office. As long as you can reasonably prove that you created something and that you didn't give it to someone else, the court should be able to enforce your claim.

[Erik Mortis]

Works for me.

[Arviður]

I need to consult the people of Hurmu on this... Stay tuned!

[Erik Mortis]

If no one brings forth any revisions in the next few days I'll put this into the repository of signable treaties and put it before the Landsraad of Shireroth.

[Maximilian]

I've asked the Lagerhuis of Batavia what it thinks of the Copyright Treaty. The most people are positive, but there seems to be a problem with article 6. What if two people or organizations use the same trade mark, slogan, work of art etc? Batavia would like to see this matter involved.

Some members of the Lagerhuis have found some kind of solution. The idea of this solution is that whoever uses the trade mark or anything other copyrightish for the largest amount of time may keep the copyright and the others don't.

[Harvey Steffke]

If two or more groups of people want to use the same intellectual property, all they have to do is agree not to sue each other over it. Please note this line:

c. Copyright infringement claims must be filed for any action to occur. Claims not filed with result in no legal action even if the copyright law is clearly being violated.

Plus keep in mind that you can declare joint ownership of intellectual property for "a single individual or a group with known, discrete members." So it doesn't matter how many people own any given work, provided the names of the people are decided upon and agreed upon by all members.

If people DON'T agree, and one person or group thinks they should have ownership, well, that's sort of the point of this law. A hearing would take place to see which group has the strongest claim and the small commonwealth would say that they can use it and the other group cannot.

[Maximilian]

Okay, I solved that one with the Lagerhuis.

Article 5 section d speaks of some kind of penalty. A member of the Lagerhuis has pointed out that this description is a little vague. He would like to have a more detailed article, which states what the penalties should be and what the maximum heights of the penalties are. Personally I think of some kind of payment to the winning party for the harm done. Of course the losing party should stop using the work of art they are using, which is the whole point of the treaty.

[Harvey Steffke]

You are quite correct in pointing out the vagueness of that section of the draft. I put it intentionally because I am not sure what the extent of the court's powers shall be. Also, some penalties are meaningless if levied against members that haven't signed certain treaties. For example, having to pay a fine wouldn't hurt a country that is not involved in the SC joint economy.

I agree that the point is to just force the at fault party to simply stop using the wrongful material, but I admit that I am at a loss as to the proper way to go about doing that. I don't think threatening to kick them out of the SC is a proper response, but that's one of the few things we know that the SC can control. I'd appreciate any insight that you, or any other person, has on the matter.

[Erik Mortis]

Leave punishment to the individual nations, according to their law?

[Harvey Steffke]

But where's the incentive for them to punish their own citizens at all?

[Malliki Tosha]

What is the point of punishment in a civil matter? There is a conflict over who can legally use something. When the dispute is solved, one party may use it and the other may not. Since we don't have an SC authority, it would be up to the individual national authorities to enforce the ruling. They would be bound to do so by signing the treaty.

[Harvey Steffke]

That is an extremely good point! Accepting the treaty alone is an obligation to upholding the decisions of the court. I propose the following line of the draft:

d. The penalties for violating a copyright claim shall be determined by the Commonwealth Court and the Small Commonwealth nations.

be changed to:

d. Signees of this treaty are obligated to accepting the court's ruling in a copyright violation claim by making sure any at fault parties in their citizen bases comply with the court's rulings and cease use of copyrighted materials. There is no mandatory criminal or economic penalty for violating copyright claim, though nations can handle any domestic penalties they wish under their own law systems.

[Andreas the Wise]

Looks good.

[Maximilian]

I think the Lagerhuis will agree with this. At least I will

[Erik Mortis]

I like that change.

[Harvey Steffke]

If nobody has any objections by tomorrow, I shall submit the draft as a final treaty.

[Arviður]

Honourable Delegates to the Small Commonwealth,

After having spoken with members of the Hurmu government, I regret to say that Hurmu cannot partake in this Act in its current format. Hurmu feels that all non-profit use of cultural works should be free to use in most cases. In fact, the free sharing of knowledge, culture and important works should not be restricted, but encouraged.

With these remarks, I have to respectfully report that Hurmu declines signing the Act.

A. A.

[Harvey Steffke]

While I disagree with Hurmu's stance on the basis of this treaty (most people in micronations will willingly let you use their works if you simply ask for permission), I do not see a notification that they will not sign as an something that can be fixed within the treaty itself. Therefore I'm moving to have this treaty finalized and be added to the repository.

[Malliki Tosha]

There is no requirement for Hurmu to sign the treaty, of course.

[Erik Mortis]

Go ahead and declare it finalized and post it to the repository thread.

[Harvey Steffke]

Done and done.

As a note, Nelaga accepted the original NIPPA domestic version of this treaty as well.

[Erik Mortis]

Does that mean I should put you on the list as having signed this treaty?

[Harvey Steffke]

No, we only signed the NIPPA, which was the basis for the SC version of the treaty.