In light of SEAROSS's comments concerning the copyright and the WIPO treaty, the following might be of interest:

David Nimmer, coauthor with his late father of the influential treatise Nimmer on Copyright, some years ago wrote an article entitled "The End of Copyright", 48 Vanderbilt Law Review, October 1995, pages 1385-1420. In his article he states

"If indeed the new master of copyright is the world of international trade, if the events of last December [the enactment of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act] are sustained in a broad construction, then the Constitution must simply follow compliantly behind. Copyright today serves not the needs of authors nor even the popular good, whereby works are relegated to the public domain to become the heritage of all humanity and copyrigh is simply a temporary way station to reward authors on the road to that greater good. Instead of those goals, the balance of payments has become all-decisive. Whatever bows to that god is now worthy of implementation." (page 1416).

"Because copyright now serves as an adjunct of trade, were my father composing his treatise today, instead of in 1963, the most accurate title he could choose would be Nimmer on the Implementation withing the United States of Annex 1C to the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization. Mired in notions of marketing and reader recognition, the publisher has unaccountably refused to budge from the current title, Nimmer on Copyright, notwithstanding that it has become an anachronism." (page 1412).