Comparative Law Research Project

A client of our firm, Ted Alsoran, is planning a new documentary and book on athletes that did not make the Olympic team in a number of countries.

Ted wants to own all rights in the resulting book and documentary video and is planning on publishing them in each of the countries covered as well as the U.S.

For the documentary, he is currently planning on hiring a producer in each country to do the video, and maybe have a local person do the interviews.

For the book, he is planning to provide a summary of the documentary interviews plus he wants to contract with noted sports writers or essayist in each country and have them write a piece reacting to the interview.

Choose a country (other than the US), and write a research memo answering the following questions with respect to one of the two works (book or video) for the law applicable in that country:

Will Ted own the work under applicable law? If not him, who will own it?

What must Ted do to obtain ownership of the work (esp. any applicable formalities)? Are there any limitations on that ownership?

Are there any changes you would recommend that Ted make in how he is having these works developed so he can own or obtain greater rights in the work?

Use the Comparative Copyright Law Assignment forum on TWEN to post your choice of country and work. Selection is on a first come, first serve basis.

A good starting point is Geller &Nimmer, International Copyright Law and Practice, Mathew Bender.

The memo should be no more than 6 pages, should include citations to sources, and have a bibliography page listing the sources you found.