Introduction

This chapter examines the length of the copyright term of protection under the copyright laws of the six members of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf Cooperation Council (hereafter, the GCC). The chapter illustrates that the length of the copyright term varies depending on the kind of work in question across the different copyright laws of the members of the GCC. We argue that having a varied term of protection across different members of the GCC has a negative impact on the common Gulf market. We come to the conclusion that these terms should be harmonised, and even though extending the copyright term to match the longest term is not in the interest of society, this appears to be an inevitability. However, members of the GCC can take measures to mitigate some of the problems of having extremely long copyright terms in their respective domestic copyright laws.

The first section of this chapter explores the reasoning behind having a limited copyright term, the second section undertakes a black letter analysis of the duration of the copyright term for different categories of copyright subject matter, the third section analyses the implications of the variation of the copyright term across the members of the GCC.

Due to space limitations, this chapter only examines the length of the term of the economic rights of traditional copyright protection and does not examine the term of protection of neighbouring rights such as performances, broadcasts, and sound recordings.

Copyright is a Limited Right

Copyright law does not grant authors an absolute right over their work, instead copyright law is meant to provide a balance between the rights of authors to control how their works are used and the rights of members of society to benefit and utilise these works. The balance between these two competing interests is in a continuous flux reflecting the conflict between the two primary groups of theories for justifying copyright protection in the first place.

The first group of theories for the justification of copyright is based on Lockean ‘natural rights’ arguments that see copyright as a right to which authors are entitled to in themselves. Under such theories creative works are in essence an extension of the mind of the author and a result of his personal labour. The second group of theories for the justification of copyright are based on ‘utilitarian’ arguments that see copyright merely as a look ‘tool’ created to achieve a specific policy objective. According to this line of argument the monopoly granted by copyright provides an incentive for authors to create more works and is therefore beneficial to society.