ABSTRACT
To explore the future of international copyright law, this chapter first traces the evolution of international copyright law and analyzes several of the ways in which international copyright law has changed of late. Although recent developments, and in particular the incorporation of international copyright obligations within the dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO, are important and welcome, they pose some risk to long-standing and worthy international copyright values. The chapter suggests the ways in which private law mechanisms might also contribute toward the development and incorporation of international norms in the formation of copyright law. It discusses the panel report in United States—Section 110(5). If WTO panels adopt too activist an approach to Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS) interpretation, the fruits of cultural and economic diversity may be threatened, the copyright norms generated may be insufficiently reflective of the assorted philosophical underpinnings of copyright, and the role of national legal systems as laboratories may prematurely be curtailed.
