Copyright Span Toward Governmental Information

Literary and artistic property law (copyright), in addition to the creation of exclusive right for author or owner and to prohibit others from its unauthorized use, with the conviction that this exclusive right limits public domain and in some cases, can hinder the development or cause to be ignoring human rights. It also puts some of works including governmental information -that its access and usage is a part of human rights- into the public domain and excludes from the scope of protection. Berne Convention, by taking public interest in consideration, has made member States free to choose in the extension of the protection resulting copyright to this category of works and information. States following this logic and with the permission mentioned in the Berne Convention, by taking into account their national circumstances and interests have adopted a balanced position in support of this information and have excluded this information wholly or partially from the scope of protection. In this study, the Berne Convention, the provisions of European Union, U.S., France, Great Britain (according to different approaches) and Iran have been studied and while approving the compatibility of Iran’s new approach of legislative with Berne Convention, some suggestions are presented.