Translation and the International Copyright Crisis: The Sri Lankan Experience During the Early Years of Independence

摘要

Translation rights protected by international copyright law have been a cornerstone of contentions between developed and developing countries for centuries. The freedom to translate is an essential bridge for the free flow of knowledge between the producers in developed countries and users in developing countries who speak non-dominant languages. However, authors' translation rights guaranteed by the Berne Convention obstruct this freedom to translate in developing countries. Through an examination of the background to and the effect of the reservation concerning translation of educational, scientific and technical books which Sri Lanka purported to make when she acceded to the Berne Convention (in her own right as an independent state) in 1959, this article attempts to expound how this Convention has undermined access to knowledge in Sri Lanka and why the uniform and inflexible copyright protection standards in the Convention are unsuitable for developing countries. Since these standards can exacerbate the deep economic disparities that already exist between developed and developing countries, to prevent this and to make international copyright protection palatable and congenial to developing countries, this article points out that there needs to be a change in the uniform standard setting approach that has been practised in international copyright law for more than a century.