Balancing Copyright - A Survey of National Approaches


Book Description

How does copyright law take into account the interests of third parties, especially the general public’s interest in the greatest possible dissemination of knowledge and culture? Twelve basic questions give copyright law experts from more than forty countries the opportunity to provide answers related to their national law on the following matters: categories of works and subject matter, eligibility conditions, duration, “users’ rights,” the three-step test, misuse, differentiations between categories of right holders, TPM, and relations of copyright law to other legal areas such as fundamental rights, competition law, consumer protection law, media law etc. The standardized form of the reports makes it easy to see the impacts of copyright law in the industrialized countries as well as in emerging economies; in common-law and civil-law approaches; in countries of the Andean Community and of the European Union, as well as in countries that are not party to the WIPO Treaties. A detailed preliminary chapter provides an approachable overview of issues and results. This chapter also discusses the voice of academia, represented by the European Copyright Code of the “Wittem Group.”







Copyright in the Age of Online Access


Book Description

" In addition to proving virtually impossible, online enforcement of copyright may be undesirable because it risks encroaching upon fundamental rights and freedoms. However, the problem remains that creators are often not fairly remunerated for the online use of their works. This book addresses the urgent need to study pragmatic legal solutions that enable Internet users to access works in the digital environment, while assuring remuneration to rights holders and promoting the development of the information society. This study examines legalisation schemes that favour remunerated access over exclusivity and enforcement for large-scale online use by individuals. It investigates whether and to what extent these schemes (referred to as alternative compensation systems) are admissible under EU copyright law and consistent with its objectives, responding to such questions as the following in depth: - What existing copyright schemes provide an alternative to the exclusive right in copyright law? - What online rights apply to the activities of Internet users? - What types of models exist for the legalisation of online use of copyright works? - How can the public interest shape the scope of protection of copyright? - Can and should we legalise non-commercial file sharing and online use in EU copyright law? The book carefully examines these questions in light of EU primary law, relevant directives (with a focus on the InfoSoc Directive), case law (especially that of the CJEU), and legal literature in the field of copyright. The analysis culminates with a proposed blueprint for a compensated limitation for non-commercial individual use that is consistent with EU copyright law. As a thoroughly researched and balanced response to the urgent need to rethink EU copyright law in light of its lack of social acceptance and technological adequacy, this book will be of inestimable value to lawyers, policymakers, and scholars in the field, as well as to interest groups involved in discussions for reform and modernisation of EU digital copyright law. "




Propertizing European Copyright


Book Description

With an acceleration in the last decades, the language of property, piracy and theft has become mainstream in copyright matters. Scholars have argued that this latent propertization has progressively led to the undue expansion of copyright and an enclosure of knowledge, causing clashes with users’ fundamental rights and EU social and cultural policies. Challenging the validity of such critiques, Propertizing European Copyright demonstrates that these distortive effects are only the result of mishandled property rhetoric and that a commitment to copyright propertization could enable a more internally consistent and balanced development of EU copyright law.




Copyright Exhaustion


Book Description

In the Second Edition of Copyright Exhaustion, copyright scholar Péter Mezei offers an expanded examination of copyright exhaustion, including its historical development, theoretical framework, practical applications, and policy considerations. He includes updated case law and statutory developments for the first-sale doctrine in the United States and in the European Union, covering both analogue and digital applications with an eye toward scrutinizing the common rejection of exhaustion in the resale of digital subject matter including computer programs, sound recordings, audiovisual works, and e-books. He advocates for a digital first-sale doctrine that would offer legal consistency to copyright law and a technologically feasible framework for content producers and consumers.




The Cambridge Handbook of Copyright Limitations and Exceptions


Book Description

While copyright law is ordinarily thought to consist primarily of exclusive rights, the regime's various exemptions and immunities from liability for copyright infringement form an integral part of its functioning, and serve to balance copyright's grant of a private benefit to authors/creators with the broader public interest. With contributors from all over the world, this handbook offers a systematic, thorough study of copyright limitations and exceptions adopted in major jurisdictions, including the United States, the European Union, and China. In addition to providing justifications for these limitations, the chapters compare differences and similarities that exist in major jurisdictions and offer suggestions about how to improve the enforcement of copyright limitations domestically and globally. This work should appeal to scholars, policymakers, attorneys, teachers, judges, and students with an interest in the theories, policies, and doctrines of copyright law.




Intellectual Property Protection for AI-generated Creations


Book Description

This book explores the intersection between artificial intelligence and two intellectual property rights: copyright and patents. The increasing use of artificial intelligence for generating creative and innovative output has an impact on copyright and patent laws around the world. The book aims to map and analyse that impact. The author considers how artificial intelligence systems may aid, or in some cases substitute for, human creators and inventors in the creative process. It is from this angle that the copyright and patent regimes in four jurisdictions (Europe, the United States, Australia and Japan) are investigated in depth. The author describes how these jurisdictions look at works and inventions generated through a process where artificial intelligence is present or prevalent, and examines how copyright and patent regimes should adapt to the reality of artificially intelligent creators and inventors. As the use of artificial intelligence to generate creative and innovative products becomes more common, this book will be a valuable resource to researchers, academics and policy makers alike.




The Transformation of Enforcement


Book Description

This insightful book considers the phenomenon of the transformation of enforcement in European economic law while adopting a distinct global perspective. The editors identify and respond to the need for reflection on transformation processes in the area of enforcement by bringing together the leading international and European scholars in a variety of disciplines to share and compare experiences and learning in different areas of law. Rooted in a wide and regulatory understanding of enforcement, this book showcases the transformation of enforcement with reference to both European economic law (especially transnational commercial law, competition law, intellectual property law, consumer law) and to the current context of significant global economic challenges. Comparative perspectives facilitate the formation of a holistic perspective on enforcement that reaches beyond distinct theoretical accounts, political agendas, regulatory systems, institutional patterns, particular remedies, industry sectors, and stakeholder perspectives. As the first comprehensive and comparative analysis of the enforcement of European economic law that reaches beyond closely confined areas of law, it constitutes a crucial contribution to the theoretical and policy questions of how to design a coherent European enforcement architecture in accordance with essential principles and objectives of the EU economic order This unique study will have broad appeal. By exploring enforcement transformations from a legal and a cross-disciplinary perspective, it will be essential reading for scholars, practitioners and policymakers from different disciplines.




Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Employment Law


Book Description

This comprehensive Research Handbook explores the rights of employers and employees with regard to intellectual property (IP) created within the framework of the employment relationship. Investigating the development of employee IP from a comparative perspective, it contextualises issues in the light of theoretical approaches in both IP law and labour law.




The Oxford Handbook of Intellectual Property Law


Book Description

We live in an age in which expressive, informational, and technological subject matter are becoming increasingly important. Intellectual property is the primary means by which the law seeks to regulate such subject matter. It aims to promote innovation and creativity, and in doing so to support solutions to global environmental and health problems, as well as freedom of expression and democracy. It also seeks to stimulate economic growth and competition, accounting for its centrality to EU Internal Market and international trade and development policies. Additionally, it is of enormous and increasing importance to business. As a result there is a substantial and ever-growing interest in intellectual property law across all spheres of industry and social policy, including an interest in its legal principles, its social and normative foundations, and its place and operation in the political economy. This handbook written by leading academics and practitioners from the field of intellectual property law, and suitable for both a specialist legal readership and an intelligent but non-specialist legal and non-legal readership, provides a comprehensive account of the following areas: - The foundations of IP law, including its emergence and development in different jurisdictions and regions; - The substantive rules and principles of IP; and - Important issues arising from the existence and operation of IP in the political economy.