BERNE BLOCKBUSTER

Berne, Baby, Berne! It's the new OUP blockbuster

International Copyright and Neighbouring Rights: the Berne Convention and Beyond is the second edition of Sam Ricketson's scholarly work on the world's premier copyright treaty, which coincided with the Convention's centenary celebrations in 1986. Published by Oxford University Press, this work has grown in depth as well as length, having expanded to over 1,600 pages spanning two handsome volumes (right). Responsibility for the erudition has now been shared with internationally renowned US legal scholar Jane Ginsburg.

For the record, Sam Ricketson is Professor of Law at the University of Melbourne. Jane is the Morton L. Janklow Professor of Literary and Artistic Property Law, Columbia University School of Law, was Visiting Goodhart Professor of Law, Cambridge University Faculty of Law (2004-05). IPKat co-blogmeister Jeremy, who has pleasurable memories of Sam, then a keen young Herchel Smith Research Fellow at Queen Mary, burrowing into the recondite byways of Berne lore when working on the first edition, wishes the second edition well.

As the OUP website states:

"This magisterial commentary deals both with the history and with the modern application of the major international agreements affecting copyright and related rights. In particular, it analyses the interpretation and application of the following conventions: the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works 1886-1970, the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Phonogram Producers and Broadcasting Organisations 1961, the WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Treaties 1996 and the TRIPS Agreement (so far as it affects copyright and related rights).

The organization of the text separates historical review from doctrinal analysis of the current application of the Berne Convention's provisions. The latter exposes gaps and ambiguities in the current text and, in a third section to each of the central chapters, considers the extent to which subsequent international instruments have resolved those questions. Issues concerning new technologies and digital networks thus receive in-depth treatment. The authors analyse questions of subject matter coverage, copyright ownership, duration, nature and scope of rights, and exceptions and limitations to copyrights protection.

Extensive analysis of private international law matters also figures prominently in this edition, with two chapters devoted to problems of international jurisdiction and choice of law".

Details: Price £225; current ISBN (ISBN-10) - 0-19-825946-8; future ISBN (ISBN-13) 978-0-19-825946-6. Rupture risk - nearly inevitable if you attempt to lift both volumes simultaneously.