Copyright Law Reform and Asian Development 

Professor Christoph Antons, Newcastle Law School, The University of Newcastle, Australia

Abstract: The “Asia-Pacific region” is such a broad concept that it often becomes difficult to see what countries have in common. In parts of East and Southeast Asia, however, a development model emerged after World War II that responded to foreign pressure for law reform with the selective adaptation of a variety of foreign models and selective implementation using administrative laws with wide discretionary powers. In copyright and other fields of IP, foreign pressure increased from the middle of the 1980s onwards. The presentation traces these developments and provides examples, mainly from Southeast Asia, of how countries reacted in the field of copyright. While some countries have turned from policies tolerating infringement to strong promotion of copyright and other forms of intellectual property, others continue the process of selective adaptation and implementation and attempt to mould concepts introduced from elsewhere into national copyright laws that serve domestic economic and social needs.