[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 52 (Monday, December 28, 1998)]
[Pages 2527-2528]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7161--Extending United States Copyright Protections to the 
Works of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

December 23, 1998

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    Section 104(b)(5) of title 17 of the United States Code provides 
that when the President finds that a particular foreign nation extends, 
to works by authors who are nationals or domiciliaries of the United 
States of America or to works first published in the United States, 
copyright protection on substantially the same basis as that on which 
the foreign nation extends protection to works of its own nationals and 
domiciliaries and works first published in that nation, the President 
may by proclamation extend protection under that title to works of which 
one or more of the authors is, on the date of first publication, a 
national, domiciliary, or sovereign authority of that nation, or which 
are first published in that nation. Section 104A(g) of title 17 of the 
United States Code provides that when the President finds that a 
particular foreign nation extends, to works by authors who are nationals 
or domiciliaries of the United States, restored copyright protection on 
substantially the same basis as provided under that section, the 
President may by proclamation extend the restored protection provided 
under that section to any work of which one or more of the authors is, 
on the date of first publication, a national, domiciliary, or sovereign 
authority of that nation, or which was first published in that nation.
    Satisfactory assurances have been received that as of the date of 
entry into force, December 23, 1998, of the Agreement between the 
Government of the United States of America and the Government of the 
Socialist Republic of Vietnam on the Establishment of Copyright 
Relations (the ``Copyright Agreement''), Vietnam will extend, to works 
of United States nationals and domiciliaries and works first published 
in the United States, copyright protection in the Socialist Republic of 
Vietnam on substantially the same basis as works of Vietnamese nationals 
and domiciliaries and works first published in Vietnam, and that Vietnam 
will extend, to works by authors who are nationals or domiciliaries of 
the United States, restored copyright protection on substantially the 
same basis as provided under section 104A of title 17 of the United 
States Code.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by the authority vested in me by section 104(b)(5) 
and section 104A(g) of title 17 of the United States Code, do declare 
and proclaim that, as of the date of entry into force of the Copyright 
Agreement, the conditions specified in section 104(b)(5) and section 
104A(g) of title 17 of the United States Code have been satisfied in the 
Socialist Republic of Vietnam with respect to works of which one or more 
of the authors is, on the date of first publication, a national or 
domiciliary of the United States of America, or which are first 
published in the United States, and that as of the date of entry into 
force of the

[[Page 2528]]

Copyright Agreement, works of which one or more of the authors is, on 
the date of first publication, a national, domiciliary, or sovereign 
authority of Vietnam, or which are first published in Vietnam, are 
entitled to copyright protection and restored copyright protection under 
title 17 of the United States Code.
    I hereby request the Secretary of State to notify the Government of 
the Socialist Republic of Vietnam that the date on which works of which 
one or more of the authors is, on the date of first publication, a 
national, domiciliary, or sovereign authority of Vietnam, or which are 
first published in Vietnam, are entitled to copyright protection and 
restored copyright protection under title 17 of the United States Code 
is December 23, 1998, the date on which the Copyright Agreement enters 
into force.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-third 
day of December, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-
eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two 
hundred and twenty-third.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 8:45 a.m., December 28, 
1998]

Note: This proclamation will be published in the Federal Register on 
December 29.