THE LAW

This brings us to an important issue: Legality. Who decides what is legal on the Web, and how do national laws regulate the Internet, that consists of a worldwide community? Is it possible to regulate the Internet when it is not based in any one nation? What happens if two people are involved in copyright infringement in two different countries? Which country handles the case? There is no "international copyright" that protects a work throughout the world. Each country has certain laws to protect intellectual property, however, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) was formed to regulate copyright worldwide. This organization has arranged many intellectual treaties and conventions that help to unite copyright law on an international scale. Two of these conventions are the Berne Union for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Property (Berne Convention) and the Universal Copyright Convention (UCC). The Berne Convention consists of one hundred forty eight states while the UCC consists of one hundred seventy five states. Most countries are involved in these conventions, but there are also others that give little or no copyright protection to foreign works. (2).

The copyright conventions help to regulate copyright worldwide by giving a nation's citizens copyright protection in an international environment. Under the Berne Convention it is not necessary to have the copyright symbol (©) on the work; only the author's name is required. The UCC, however, requires the symbol with the date of first publication and the author's name. (3). In the United States anything created after April 1st 1989 is copyrighted even if it does not have a copyright notice. Although in the United States a copyright notice helps to attain monetary damages, it is not necessary to claim copyright protection (4). Therefore, basically everything on the Internet, whether it has a copyright symbol or not, should be considered copyrighted.

If almost everything on the Internet is copyrighted, does that mean that no one can legally copy anything? NO! Copyright law is meant to protect both the creator of the work and the public's right to use the copyrighted material (5). It is not a law that only benefits those who are the owners of the copyright, but it also increases the amount of public access to works by reassuring the creators of their rights and security. In the United States, the fair use provision of the copyright law allows for the reproduction of copyrighted material in certain situations. Fair Use varies from country to country and sometimes is called "Fair Dealing" (6) . A work may be reproduced for purposes of:

- Criticism;

- News reporting;

- Commentary;

- Educational uses;

- Scholarship;

- Research (7).

Fair Use gives the public access to the copyrighted material and a limited amount of use of that material without the authorization from the owner.

There are a few things on the Internet that are NOT copyrighted. Anything in the Public Domain may be reproduced freely without legal repercussions. Many people make the mistake in thinking that anything on the Internet is in the Public Domain. The Internet is open to public access, but the Public Domain is something entirely different. If a work is in the Public Domain it means that no one is the owner and that anyone can freely and legally copy such work. There are a few ways in which a work enters the Public Domain:

- If the information is created by the federal government

- If the copyright has expired

- If the owner has abandoned the copyright (8)

To be sure, you should not assume that anything is in the Public Domain unless you see it written explicitly. This applies especially to the Internet, due to the fact that it has only been in wide use since the 1980's, therefore containing works recently created. (9)