When intellectual property is sold or electronically distributed across national boundaries, the Berne Convention copyright laws apply to that work. The Berne Convention is an international treaty on intellectual property. Authors should be free to retain any and all electronic distribution rights and should not be coerced into selling them against their will. The practice of using a form on the back of a payment check to enumerate additional rights the author surrenders to the publisher by cashing the check is immoral and invalid, and should be made illegal. While the courts currently do not support the concept that you cannot sell something that does not yet exist, this could be changed by legislation.
Authors are users of information as well as intellectual property owners.
Current law requires that a work have been pre-registered for the creator to collect statutory damages and attorneys fees for copyright infringement. Because the Berne Convention eliminated the requirement of copyright registration to protect a creator's rights, U.S. copyright law should be amended to eliminate the copyright registration requirement as a barrier against collecting these damages. Without such an amendment, individual writers are effectively precluded from using the courts to enforce their rights. Networks and data carriers must provide technology that allows automatic transfer of payment to the copyright holder each time they collect money from a user who accesses the book, article, artwork, or file. They must also provide a mechanism for tracking use information and providing timely, accurate, and understandable reports to copyright holders regarding the electronic use of their material.