Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2020

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108750066.009

Abstract

This chapter recapitulates Professor Ricketson’s analysis in his 1992 Manges Lecture at Columbia Law School, presciently titled 'People or Machines: The Berne Convention and the Changing Concept of Authorship'. As Ricketson systematically developed the inquiry, it became clear that ‘People or Machines’ in fact meant ‘People Not Machines’. This chapter considers whether, more than twenty-five years later, subsequent technological developments warrant reconsideration of the human authorship premise underlying the Berne Convention. If that premise holds firm, the next question is whether non-human-generated outputs require some form of intellectual property protection. Any such regime, it should be noted, would fall outside the Berne Convention.

Disciplines

Intellectual Property Law | Law | Science and Technology Law

Comments

This material has been published in "Across Intellectual Property: Essays in Honour of Sam Ricketson", edited by Graeme W. Austin, Andrew F. Christie, Andrew T. Kenyon and Megan Richardson. This version is free to view and download for private research and study only. Not for re-distribution or re-use.

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