are sort of an international intellectual property yourself in that regard. [Laughter.]

We do not have anybody more knowledgeable, Mr. Chairman, to begin these hearings. So this member of little knowledge will shut up and let somebody of great knowledge speak.

[The following statement was submitted for the record:]

PREPARED STATEMENT OF SENATOR PATRICK J. LEAHY

WE ARE ABOUT TO TAKE UP A QUESTION THAT HAS REALLY BEEN BEFORE US FOR NEARLY 100 YEARS, AND YET HAS NEVER BEEN MORE

TIMELY.

THE BERNE CONVENTION WAS FORMULATED IN 1886 AND IS THE WORLD'S OLDEST MULTILATERAL COPYRIGHT CONVENTION. THE UNITED STATES HAS NOT RATIFIED BERNE, PRINCIPALLY BECAUSE DIFFERENCES WITH OUR OWN DOMESTIC COPYRIGHT LAW HAVE ALWAYS SEEMED TOO WIDE TO BRIDGE AND TOO IMPORTANT TO ELIMINATE BY CONFORMING TO THIS INTERNATIONAL MODEL, EVEN AS IT HAS EVOLVED OVER TIME.

BUT IF THE BERNE CONVENTION HAS CHANGED SINCE 1886, THE WORLD AROUND IT HAS CHANGED MUCH MORE. AND ONE OF THE REASONS TODAY'S HEARING IS SO IMPORTANT IS THE RENEWED FOCUS IN THE UNITED STATES AND ELSEWHERE ON PROTECTING CREATIVITY AS THE MOST

IMPORTANT COMMODITY IN OUR GLOBAL COMMUNITY.

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO, THE TARGET OF COPYRIGHT LAW WAS THE PROTECTION OF LITERARY WORKS IN A WORLD WHERE THE FACT OF AUTHORSHIP AND THE ACT OF INFRINGEMENT WERE BOTH WELL-DEFINED.

TODAY TRANSPORTATION AND TECHNOLOGY HAVE RAISED PIRACY TO A HIGH ART AT THE VERY MOMENT IN HISTORY WHEN AMERICA'S ECONOMIC FUTURE WILL SURELY DEPEND MORE AND MORE ON CREATIVE IMAGINATION, AND LESS AND LESS ON THE PRODUCTION OF HEAVY INDUSTRIAL EXPORTS.

THE EXPORT VALUE OF AMERICAN MOTION PICTURES NOW EXCEEDS THE VALUE OF OUR STEEL EXPORTS, AND WHILE LOW-COST CLOTHING AND HIGH-TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS CAN BE PRODUCED MORE CHEAPLY IN THE FAR EAST, WE STILL LEAD THE WORLD IN FASHIONING NEW AND ATTRACTIVE STYLES AND THE VERY LATEST IN STATE-OF-THE-ART TECHNOLOGY.

IF THE WORLD MOVES TOWARD GENERAL INDIFFERENCE ABOUT THE

PROTECTION OF INNOVATION AND CREATIVITY, THE UNITED STATES WILL

STAND TO LOSE A GREAT DEAL.

AND WHILE THE BERNE CONVENTION SPEAKS ONLY OF COPYRIGHT
PROTECTION, IT IS THE OLDEST INSTRUMENT OF ITS KIND IN THE WORLD
AND AN INDICATOR OF THE WILLINGNESS OF THE INTERNATIONAL
COMMUNITY TO TAKE SERIOUSLY THE PROBLEM OF PROTECTING CREATIVITY.

SOME OF THE HISTORIC OBJECTIONS TO ADHERENCE TO THE BERNE
CONVENTION WERE BASED ON A PERCEPTION THAT IT MAY HAVE WEIGHED
THE INTERESTS OF COPYRIGHT OWNERS TOO HEAVILY AND THE INTERESTS
OF USERS AND THE PUBLIC TOO LIGHTLY.

THE NEED TO BALANCE PROPRIETARY INTERESTS ON THE ONE HAND
AND CONSUMER INTERESTS ON THE OTHER IS A FUNDAMENTAL ONE, AND THE
VIRTUAL REVOLUTION IN NEW TECHNOLOGY HAS HEIGHTENED THE NEED FOR
PUBLIC CONFIDENCE IN THE FAIRNESS OF THAT BALANCING.

THIS IS

THE COMPUTER CHIP PROTECTION LEGISLATION WHICH WE ADOPTED
LAST YEAR IS A VERY GOOD EXAMPLE OF THE PROBLEM.
TECHNOLOGY THAT HAS FOREVER CHANGED THE WAY WE STORE AND TRANSMIT
INFORMATION, THE WAY WE DESIGN TOOLS, THE WAY WE ANALYZE DATA
FROM OUTER SPACE, AND THE WAY WE CONDUCT NEARLY ALL OF OUR
TRANSACTIONS IN BUSINESS.

YET BEFORE LAST YEAR NO ONE COULD SAY FOR CERTAIN WHETHER
THIS REVOLUTIONARY DEVICE FELL WITHIN THE AMBIT OF COPYRIGHT OR
PATENT LAW. WAS THE COMPUTER CHIP A LITERARY WORK OR AN
INVENTION?

IN THE END WE HAD TO FASHION A NEW REGIME OF PROTECTION THAT
REWARDED INNOVATION BUT DID NOT NEGLECT THE INTERESTS OF BOTH
THOSE WHO NEEDED ACCESS TO THE MOST MODERN IMPROVEMENTS IN CHIP
TECHNOLOGY AND THOSE WHO WOULD FACE UNDUE RISKS IF THEY BROUGHT
SIMILAR, BUT NON-INFRINGING TECHNOLOGY INTO THE MARKETPLACE.

WE HAVEN'T SEEN THE END OF PROPRIETARY RIGHTS PROBLEMS

GENERATED BY NEW TECHNOLOGY.

WE'VE HARDLY SEEN THE BEGINNING.

AND SO WE WILL BEGIN OUR VIEW OF THE BERNE CONVENTION WITH THE

CONVICTION THAT THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY HAS A DEEP AND REAL

STAKE

--

AS NEVER BEFORE

IN A REGIME OF COPYRIGHT LAW WITH

SIGNIFICANT ELEMENTS OF UNIFORMITY, BUT THAT THE UNITED STATES

THERE ARE SOME SPECIFIC ISSUES GERMANE TO THE TEXT OF THE

BERNE CONVENTION THAT WE OUGHT TO CONSIDER.

OUR PRESENT COPYRIGHT LAW REQUIRES NOTICE THAT THE WORK IS
UNDER COPYRIGHT, AND EVEN AFTER THE 1976 REWRITE OF OUR LAW, THIS
PROVISION STILL IS INCONSISTENT WITH THE BERNE CONVENTION

PROHIBITION AGAINST SUCH FORMALITIES.

THE REQUIREMENT THAT A WORK BE REGISTERED WITH THE COPYRIGHT
OFFICE PRIOR TO BRINGING AN INFRINGEMENT SUIT IS VERY LIKELY
PROHIBITED BY THE CONVENTION.

A THIRD REQUIREMENT IN OUR LAW THAT IS INCONSISTENT WITH
BERNE IS THE SO-CALLED MANUFACTURING CLAUSE THE REQUIREMENT
THAT CERTAIN WORKS PRODUCED BY AMERICANS BE FIRST PRINTED
DOMESTICALLY. WHEN THIS CLAUSE WAS DUE TO EXPIRE IN 1982 WE
LEARNED THAT THERE WERE MANY WHO CONSIDERED THIS PROVISION
ESSENTIAL TO THE HEALTH OF THE AMERICAN BOOK PRINTING INDUSTRY.

FINALLY, OUR LAW CONTAINS A REQUIREMENT THAT COPYRIGHT
OWNERS DEPOSIT TWO COPIES OF THEIR WORK WITH THE LIBRARY OF
CONGRESS.

THIS DEPOSIT REQUIREMENT IS CRITICAL TO THE MAINTENANCE BY
THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS OF A COMPLETE COLLECTION OF ALL
COPYRIGHTED WORKS. ANY CHANGE IN OUR LAW THAT WOULD THREATEN
THIS COMPLETENESS WOULD FRANKLY HAVE TO HAVE VERY STRONG

JUSTIFICATION.

THE UNITED STATES HAS ADHERED TO THE UNIFORM COPYRIGHT

CONVENTION, ANOTHER IMPORTANT MULTILATERAL COPYRIGHT TREATY,
WHICH ALLOWS ALL FOUR OF THESE SPECIAL PROVISIONS IN THE UNITED
STATES COPYRIGHT LAW.

AND WHAT WE MUST NOW CONSIDER IS WHETHER THE INTERESTS OF
AMERICAN PARTICIPATION IN BERNE OUTWEIGH THE ONGOING NEEDS OF
U. S. COPYRIGHT OWNERS AND CONSUMERS UNDER THE CURRENT AMERICAN
LAW, AS PERMITTED BY THE UCC.

THE COMMITTEE IS FORTUNATE TO BEGIN THESE HEARINGS WITH THE TESTIMONY OF DR. ARPAD BOGSCH, THE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF THE WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION. FOR MORE THAN THREE DECADES,

DR. BOGSCH HAS BEEN A CENTRAL FIGURE IN PROMOTING INTERNATIONAL
PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. WE CAN BEGIN THESE HEARINGS
WITH NO ONE MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE THAN DR. BOGSCH ABOUT THE
POTENTIAL BENEFITS WHICH CAN RESULT FROM THE U. S. JOINING THE
BERNE UNION AS WELL AS THE MANY LEGAL OBSTACLES WE WOULD FACE IF
WE CHOSE TO MOVE IN THAT DIRECTION. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO HIS

TESTIMONY.

Senator MATHIAS. Thank you very much, Senator Leahy. You speak with becoming modesty, as befits a Vermonter. [Laughter.] Senator LEAHY. I am not sure-I want to read that in the record a couple of times [laughter] before I find out whether this Yankee has just been pilloried or not on that one.

Senator MATHIAS. No; it was not said in jest at all. I know that Winston Churchill once heard Clement Atley praised as a modest man and said yes, he had a great deal to be modest about. [Laughter.]

But I was thinking instead of those sterling Yankee virtues of frugality and humility and industry.

Dr. Bogsch.

STATEMENT OF DR. ARPAD BOGSCH, DIRECTOR GENERAL, WORLD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ORGANIZATION, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Dr. BOGSCH. Mr. Chairman, Senator Mathias, Senator Leahy, I thank you most sincerely for having invited me to testify before your subcommittee.

No instance in the United States of America is more important to the World Intellectual Property Organization than your subcommittee since it is here, essentially, that the treaty-making efforts of