Historical Conceptions of the Copyright (Droit D’auteur) Defence End Their Relations in Contemporary Terms

The problem of copyright protection at the beginning of the 21st century gained particular importance, when the intellectual property market reached unprecedented proportions. This, in turn, led to an expansion of the scope of such offenses as ‘piracy’, that is, the deliberate disregard for copyright.
The history of legal copyright protection starts from ancient times. In the 18th cen- tury, the basic concepts of copyright protection began to form. Great Britain took the lead in this process. It laid down the basic ideas of copyright protection in the Anglo-American legal system, which were reflected in later legislation in England and the United States of America. The Statute of Queen Anne (1710) was in force for two centuries, until Parliament passed the Copyright Act (1911).
The first regulatory acts in Continental Europe (the so­called Droit d’auteur concept) were revolutionary initiatives in France. The Author’s Right Protection was also provided for by two decrees: of January 13 and 19, 1791, ‘On the Right to Produce and Perform Dramatic and Musical Works’ and of July 19 and 24, 1793, ‘On the Right of Ownership of Authors to Literary Works, Composers, Painters and Illustrators’.
This is how two concepts of legal protection emerged – Copyright (right to copy), which is characteristic of countries with the Anglo­American legal system, and Droit d’auteur (author’s right), which is characteristic of countries with the Romano­Germanic (continental) legal system.
There is no definition of the concept of copyright in Ukrainian legislation. In general terms, the content of the concept of copyright is outlined in the title of Chapter 36 of the Civil Code of Ukraine ‘Intellectual Property Rights to Literary, Artistic and Other Works (Copyright)’. The Ukrainian legislative framework as a whole is based on Droit d’auteur. This is justified historically and geographically, however, given the special economic and political role in the modern world of USA, as well as close relations with countries such as Great Britain, Canada and Australia, it has included a number of provisions that can be attributed to the Anglo­American tradition.