One of the areas in which our firm deals is in the field of intellectual property in general and in the field of copyright in particular, both of corporations and of individuals. The purpose of copyright law is to balance the protection of the copyright of the author with the public interest in the free flow of ideas. However, it should be remembered that the protection of the copyright of the creator in the work in itself stems from the public interest in the existence of an economic interest in the work and thus provide the public with maximum information. In the global village in which we live, copyright law dominates the general public both at the local and global level, but in practice there is no uniform international law, despite the existing trend towards its creation.
The Copyright Law, 2007, entered into force in May 2008 ( the "Law" ) and is intended, among other things, to bring Israeli law into line with international standards. Among other things, some of the arrangements established by the law originate from international conventions on which Israel, including the Convention for the Protection of Works of Art and Literature signed in Bern in 1886, the TRIPS Agreement annexed to the WTO International Trade Agreement signed in Marrakesh in 1994, the Convention on the Rights of Performers, Record Producers and Broadcasting Organizations signed in Rome in 1961 and more. The relevant law in the field of copyright was the Copyright Law, 1911, and the Copyright Ordinance (1924). 1911
Copyright includes both the right to prevent another person from taking for himself the 'fruit of the creator's labor' and the unique right to exploit a work in various ways, or to allow it to be exploited by others. Thus, section 11 of the Act provides that a copyright in a work is the exclusive right to do in the work, or in a substantial part of it, an action, one or more, as specified in the section, depending on the type of work. Copyright exists without formal action, and therefore can exist for two at the same time as long as they have reached it independently. In this sense, as a general rule, a work will be considered a protected work if it has the development of an idea into a sufficiently developed expression and if it has minimal originality. In the requirement of originality, the main intention is to create independently, as opposed to copying ; There is no need for innovation, and qualitatively all that is required is a very low level of personal expression . Subsequently, section 47 of the Act provides that whoever commits an act in the work from the actions specified in section 11 of the Act, or allows another to perform such an action, without the permission of the copyright holder , infringes the copyright, unless the act is permitted under the provisions Chapter IV concerned permitted uses.
It will be noted that in accordance with the provisions of the law that preceded the enactment of the law, the list of permitted uses was a closed list and today, it is an open list. This fact leaves room for the court to determine as fair uses those uses that justice requires to be permitted even if they are not among the permissible uses in law.
Section 78 of the Act provides for the applicability and transitional provisions of the Act. In general, in order to determine the law that will apply to a particular case, it must be examined when the alleged violation was committed in the work, but there are reservations and it is clear that each case must be examined individually and in accordance with the provisions of the section.
It should be noted that so far the provisions of the law have not been widely implemented by the various courts and some argue that despite much progress, there are still a number of issues that have not been resolved through the law. Precisely in these circumstances, where it is a developing and dynamic field, it is important to ensure that there is legal representation by a lawyer who specializes in the field both when filing a lawsuit or defense in it and at an earlier stage where written agreements are usually made.