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Chapter 2. Towards the Enrichment and Spread of Culture
� 7 A Copyright System for a Changing Society
3. International Trends and Cooperation
(1) International harmonization with regard to copyright systems


Since copyright is a right that concerns incorporeity, and since the material to be protected can be easily transported across national borders, efforts are being made to establish an international framework for the copyright protection. As many economic, social and cultural changes have been brought about by a greater degree of internationalization, and as technological advances have caused society to become increasingly information oriented, it has become necessary to implement international harmonization regarding the issue of copyright protection. This important issue has been a topic of discussion at the various forums, including the following.


1) GATT Uruguay Round

At the Uruguay Round of GATT (The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) which began in September 1986. negotiations on "Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIP)" were begun to resolve trade problems which arose due to an insufficiency or lack of protection of intellectual property. In these negotiations, new rules for reinforcing and supplementing the existing conventions on the protection of intellectual property are being discussed, including copyright as it relates to the rental of phonograms to the public, protection of computer programs. A draft of a comprehensive agreement covering all areas of the negotiations including the TRIP agreement was released, but has not yet been finalized.


2) The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)

The Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is the basis of the international copyright system. 20 years have passed, however, since its last revision. Taking recent social changes into account, the WIPO has been reviewing appropriate copyright protection since November 1991, for the purpose of drawing up an international document related to the Berne Convention, which will serve as a new standard for the international copyright system.As it was also decided that an international document concerning protection of the rights of performers and producers of phonograms should be drawn up, discussion of this matter began in the WIPO in June 1993.Japan is actively striving to cope with these international trends in order to realize an appropriate international copyright protection system.


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