[Sujan]

How does the copyright system in Luxembourg work?

In Germany for example (this will ignore a lot of nuance!), there is no applying or denying of copyright. If you created something, you own the copyright. It is even in the German name: "Urheberrecht" literally translates to "right of the creator". It can not be sold. And then there is the second concept of "Verwertungsrecht" or "Nutzungsrecht", which defines who has the right to "utilize" something (often for monetary gain). That fundamentally also starts with the person that created something, but can be sold (either before or after the work is done, for example via a contract).

As far as I know the US copyright system is very different from that, where you have to register or apply, and put (c) on things to show you own the right to moetize (this is even more vague, that is just the impression I got in the last 20 years of being on the internet).

In Germany the big discussion then is around "Schöpfungshöhe" - "threshold of originality" in English maybe - that decides if something is even in this system or not.

Is the discussion in the tweet about that really? If the work deserves to be in the system or not? If so, for "right of creator" or "right to utilize"?

[zimpenfish]

> How does the copyright system in Luxembourg work?

They're signatories to the Berne Convention[1] which gives you automatic copyright on "every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, whatever the mode or form of its expression" and also gives you control over rights for "the right to make adaptations and arrangements". Which I would understand to mean they can't say "copyright is void because of XYZ" - it was created, it is copyrighted. I'd imagine WIPO would slap this down.

> As far as I know the US copyright system is very different from that, where you have to register or apply

Since they're signed up to the Berne Convention, copyright is automatic but apparently there is an allowed "requirement that the right holder of a “United States work” have registered the work before initiating a lawsuit" (from [2])

[1] https://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/summary_berne.html

[2] https://www.mediainstitute.org/2009/10/20/borderless-publica...

[Sujan]

Thank you so much for doing the research and explaining this.

Then the "German" way of doing things is actually _the_ way of doing things, and the US just hase some additional stuff on top.

That also clarifies the twitter thread to me: This was about a _court_ ruling, not some copyright office deciding if something is copyrighted or not (which I assumed because I thought about the German way being special, and my misguided understanding of the US system being the international standard).

I also realize now that further down the twitter thread this is made more explicit. I should really have read more then the first 5 tweets. Sorry.

[kweingar]

In the US you do not need to register copyright unless you intend to file a copyright infringement lawsuit.

[Sujan]

Important nuance, thanks for letting me know.. I was under the impression you only "got" the copyright by doing that. Do you "forfeit" anything by not doing it as soon/early as possible?

[nulbyte]

Copyright in the U.S. is immediate upon creation of a work.

GP is partially incorrect; you can bring a suit regarding an unregistered work. In such cases, however, you cannot claim statutory damages, but are limited to claiming actual damages (actual money lost or actual profit from the infringer). If the work is registered within the alotted time, you can claim statutory damages and attorney's fees.

You can register within 1 month of learning of the infringement to protect your ability to claim statutory damages and attorney's fees.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/412