Magazine Journal – International Trade of Copyright
Culture lies in different works. These works become intangible assets in a country. These assets are legal copyrights under the law of respective countries. What’s the story next? For the past centuries, the story ended here. However, for the past decades, with the expansion of globalization, the story has experienced astonishing growth across the world, especially between the United States and a great deal of Asian countries.
Therefore, now, the story is that intellectual properties in the form of copyright are traded under different countries. These intangible assets construct an intangible bridge that connects and delivers diverse cultures to another country, which leads to a stronger globalization of mind and horizon. With the international trade of intriguing copyrighted works, people’s conversations are no longer limited to ideas raised from their homelands, but also prevailing cultures from thousands of miles away. It is no more surprising to hear K-Pop on the streets of Los Angeles; it is no more surprising to hear a group of American friends talk about the new episode of a Korean drama on Netflix; and it is also not surprising to see an english-version Monkey King lying on the shelf of a county public library.
Nevertheless, when it comes with merits, international copyright trade can simultaneously come with some problems because it is more sophisticated than pure import and export of products. The main difficulty involved in this kind of trade lands on the disunity of copyright law among different countries. Each country has its own unique standard regarding copyright protection, therefore, when a conflict arises internationally, the primary questions would be which standard involving parties should use and who owns the jurisdiction of this copyright. The problem turns even trickier when conflicts are between the United States and Asian countries since their legal systems differ completely, common law system for former and civil law system for latter, besides distinct law doctrines. As a result, the debates are stretched much longer before the actual violations are determined. These hot potatoes are expected to burn future international copyright trades if no proper resolutions are established. Current barriers are accumulating stumbling blocks for cultural exchange that future trades can be a lot more difficult. Recent observations revealed that countries have constantly paid higher attention and enhanced their own copyright laws to avoid potential legal loopholes. Besides protecting the existing copyrighted works themselves, another important purpose is to protect the cherished incentives of various creators. The unborn creative ideas are the hidden support or bottom deal for future international trades.
As will be readily seen, disunity presents a significant inefficiency and consequently magnifies costs during copyright trades. News media has already reported numerous international disputes regarding copyright violations, alleging unlawful actions of copyright piracy. Thus, cooperation among different authoritative states is a compelling theme for future copyright trade. Several cooperative methods can be gone under consideration: negotiating and signing official treaties between states, establishing international copyright laws enforced by an independent third party, and each state imposing harsher sanctions on copyright violations. Exploration and negotiation are key elements for achieving macroscopic victory in the international trade of copyrighted works.

Yaxin Chen