Law without frontiers : copyright in Europe

The twelve systems controlling the copyright are coexisting in the European economic Community ; they can be included in three main groups - the British, French and German systems - with a juridical line more or less homogeneous. The international agreements are not elaborated enough in that field ; an attempted harmonization is made by the application of several provisions of the Treaty of Rome to the copyright (free movement of goods, free services and right for competition). In spite of the first steps towards a community law, some areas of the communication field still remain uncertain (such as reprography) ; several States have therefore taken parallel steps about the main problems. Actually the copyright affects communication as a whole and must come within the wider scope of the emerging communication law.
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