"Regulating competition by way of copyright limitations and exceptions" [2007] ELECD 302; in Torremans, Paul (ed), "Copyright Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2007)

Book Title: Copyright Law

Editor(s): Torremans, Paul

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845424879

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: Regulating competition by way of copyright limitations and exceptions

Number of pages: 23

Extract:

10 Regulating competition by way of copyright
limitations and exceptions
Thomas Dreier1



1. Copyright, conflicts of interest and limitations and exceptions
Current copyright debate is dominated by the clash of interests between those
advocating an extension of, or an increase in legal exclusive protection on the one
hand, and those advocating, quite to the contrary, that the exclusivity of copyright
should be reduced on the other hand. In particular, producers of works fight for
an extension of copyright, whereas users, often `spoiled' by recent opportunities
of free access to copyrighted materials, oppose any attempt to limit the scope of
existing copyright limitations and exceptions if not to abolish them altogether. In
the digital and networked environment, copyright constraints are felt by end-
users because, in the analogue world, the end-user was out of the copyright
picture, owing to the fact that the acts he undertook with regard to copyrighted
material ­ reading a book or viewing a performance ­ were copyright free.
The sharpening tone of this clash is generally attributed to the advent of
digital and networking technologies. Copying without loss of quality and at
almost no marginal cost plus almost unlimited possibilities of dissemination
and communication, in particular in person-to-person filesharing networks, all
cause a nightmare to rightholders. In contrast, the reaction of rightholders,
which consisted in convincing the international community and the European
legislature to strengthen existing protection by broadening the reproduction
rights to cover even transient acts, to introduce a new right of making avail-
...