Copyright as a Human Right

For some reason, I hadn’t thought of this earlier but a post I just came across at The Patry Copyright Blog made me think of copyrights being accorded the status of human rights. The UDHR and ICESCR treat copyright as a human right to an extent and so, I suppose, if all else fails in some copyright litigation, one could always argue, “My Lord, I further contend that my client has a fundamental, inherent, and inalienable human right as has been recognized by the UDHR and the ICESCR to have his copyright enforced so as not to defeat the ends of justice, equity and good conscience.”

Article 27 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights says:

(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.

(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

And Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights says:

1. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the right of everyone:(a) To take part in cultural life;(b) To enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications;(c) To benefit from the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

2. The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization ofthis right shall include those necessary for the conservation, the development and the diffusion of science and culture.

3. The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to respect the freedom indispensable for scientific research and creative activity.

4. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the benefits to be derived from the encouragement and development of international contacts and co-operation in the scientific and cultural fields.

I suppose that that would be alright if it was used to protect the rights of the individual author but I somehow suspect that one would begrudge corporations seeking to protect their profits the banner of human rights. And I definitely don’t know how it’d work if an individual author had assigned some of his rights. The human rights conventions apply to human beings and not to companies but what would happen if a company argued that the human’s right to the protection of the material interests of the author’s work depended on the application of the convention to the work even if the author had assigned some of his rights?

Link: Appeals to Human Rights: The Next Battlefield?: http://williampatry.blogspot.com/2008/01/appeals-to-human-rights-next.html