Copyright law of Atlantica

Copyright in Atlantica is noticeably highly more lenient than in nearly all other Esquarian countries; its duration is shorter than any other Esquarian nation, whilst the Atlantican Government has developed a complex system to legally fileshare copyrighted items. The Atlantican Constitution constitutionally bars the Atlantican Althing from making a copyright or patent term longer tan either 10 years or the lifetime of the author (whichever one is shorter); however, the actual copyright term is, in fact, much shorter.

Atlantican copyright law was first created during Vjaarlandic rule in 1821 and has been amended several times since, mostly to shorten copyright terms and develop a complex system to legally fileshare.

History

Copyright (and a system of Patents) was first instated in 1821 as part of Hinrik Jóhannsson's massive reforms aimed towards both increasing democracy and heavily encouraging industrialisation (Copyright instated for the latter reasons) via the Copyright Act of 1821, which established a system of copyrights and patents, with a copyright (and patent) term of either the lifetime of the author or 10 years, whichever one is shorter, additionally requiring copyrights to be enforced not by the Government, but by individual plaintiffs who have registered their copyrights/patents via enforcing a civil wrong. The Copyright Act of 1821 notably did not cover trademarks; trademarks are notably not covered under Atlantican copyright law.

The Copyright Act of 1821 continued unamended until 1925, when the newly-elected socialist administration of Gunnar Ólafursson announced its intention of both major copyright reform, successfully implementing this policy with the Copyright Act of 1925, shortening the term of copyright from 10 years to 1 year or the lifetime of the author (whichever one is shorter), considerably toughening requirements for originality, and major patent reform (also covered under the Copyright Act of 1925), shortening the patent term to 5 years, implementing a first-to-invent patent system (having previously used first-to-file), and considerably toughening requirements for inventions to be registered as patents.

In light of the massive growth of filesharing in the late 1990s and early 2000s, both film industry representatives and copyright reform advocates began to advocate for amendments to toughen restrictions on filesharing or implement a comprehensive filesharing solution that allowed for limited filesharing, respectively. In 2003, the Atlantican government chose to create a comprehensive filsharing solution that allowed for limited filesharing via amending the Copyright Act of 1921 with the Copyright Act of 2003, which established the Atlantican Filesharing Commission, which coordinates with both filesharers and copyright owners to create legal versions of filesharing of copyrighted works, mainly by allowing for filesharing but requiring for considerable reductions in quality when compared to the original works.

Registration

Unlike in most other countries, copyright on a work is not immediately created, but rather works are immediately released into the public domain unless the copyright holder formally registers with the Atlantican Copyright Commission and passes its notably tough stance on originality. However, the Atlantican copyright system is notable in that copyright grants the owner of a copyright relatively few rights, those rights being

• The exclusive right to use a work for commercial use or to sell a work without the copyright owner's permission
• The exclusive right to distribute a work in its original form without the copyright owner's permission (copyrighted works with a considerable reduction in quality may be legally distributed without the copyright owner's permission via a legally-approved distribution with the Atlantican Filesharing Commission)

Ownership

Atlantican copyright law is notable for the fact that copyright works may not be legally owned by a corporation, and may only be owned by specific individuals or a cooperative/association of individuals, if the work was created via multiple individuals; all works created by government employees while on the job or as part of their employment are immediately released in the public domain. Additionally, copyright works may not, in fact, be bought or sold, and must remain the property of the original creator(s) until the copyright expires. This is generally believed to have directly lead to most Atlantican artforms being dominated by artist cooperatives.

Duration

Atlantican copyright is perhaps most famous for its extremely short period of duration; only one year after registration (or if the author dies prior to the one year ending), this due to the belief that the vast majority of most copyrightable works would have the vast majority of revenues accumulated during the first year of distribution, and thus that a longer copyright term would not be necessary. Atlantica technically applies the rule of the shorter term to all foreign works, however Atlantica's extremely short copyright term (which results in it having the shortest copyright term in Esquarium) means that the rule of the shorter term is never actually applied. All foreign works are covered under Atlantican copyright law, which results in Atlantica becoming a data haven, with many major filesharing websites basing their services in Atlantica so as to avoid legal persecution