近代英美版权纠纷探考

An Examination of Recent Anglo-American Copyright Disputes

美国在18和19世纪对英国文学作品进行长时间和大规模盗版一直是英美知识产权法学和历史学者研究与争论的焦点。许多知名的英国作家如狄更斯,受到盗版的侵害并多次维权。美国的立法机构在英国政府和作者双重的呼吁与游说后,仍长期未对外国作品提供版权保护。基于保护本国逐渐兴起的版权利益相关群体的目的,美国在1891年部分承认对外国作品的版权保护,于1955年加入《世界版权公约》,于1989年加入《保护文学和艺术作品伯尔尼公约》。基于对美国成为经济和科技强国过程中版权保护状况的探考,通过观察近代美国对英国文学作品大量的盗版和对其本国印刷制造业的保护,总结与归纳其在由发展中国家变为发达国家的进程中对版权保护产生应然变化的原因和规律。

The long-term and rampant piracy of English literary works by the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries has been the focus of research and debate among British and American intellectual property circles and historians.A large number of well-known British writers,such as Charles Dickens,suffered from piracy in the United States.Under the appeal and lobby of the British government and authors,the American legislature has been denying copyright protection for foreign works for over a century.For the purpose of protecting domestic growing copyright stakeholders in the United States,it was not until 1891that the United States partially recognized copyright protection for foreign works,not until 1955did it accede to the World Copyright Convention,and not until 1989did it accede to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works.This paper is based on the exploration of copyright protection during the period that United States was becoming an economic and technological super power.By observing and analyzing the large number of piracy of British literary works and the protection of its own printing industry in America,this paper summarizes and reflects the response of a country to copyright protection in the process of changing from a developing country to a developed country.