Morando, Federico --- "Copyright Default Rule: Reconciling Efficiency and Fairness" [2010] ELECD 653; in Flanagan, Anne; Montagnani, Lillà Maria (eds), "Intellectual Property Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Intellectual Property Law

Editor(s): Flanagan, Anne; Montagnani, Lillà Maria

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781848446274

Section: Chapter 2

Section Title: Copyright Default Rule: Reconciling Efficiency and Fairness

Author(s): Morando, Federico

Number of pages: 20

Extract:

2. Copyright default rule: reconciling
efficiency and fairness*
Federico Morando

1. INTRODUCTION

Information and communication technologies ­ and the Internet in par-
ticular ­ make everybody a potential author and self-publisher. Instead of
following the traditional `long route' and passing through several profes-
sional intermediaries, new authors are able to reach the public directly
or through new `lightweight' service providers (offering a technological
infrastructure, but essentially no editing or other gatekeeping functions).
The revolution represented by the so-called Web 2.0 makes the phenom-
enon of authors publishing through new `short routes' even more signifi-
cant.1 Users considered as passive consumers of content in the context of
Web 1.0 generate a growing percentage of the virtual goods circulating
on telecommunication networks. In other words, the distinction between
authors and their audience becomes increasingly blurred and everybody


* A preliminary version of this chapter (titled `Creative Menus: Applying
Some Considerations about Default Rules and Contractual Menus to the Case
of Creative Commons Licenses') was presented at the 3rd Annual Workshop on
the Law and Economics of Intellectual Property and Information Technology,
(5­6 July 2007), Queen Mary, University of London, UK. A more advanced draft
was presented at the Society for Economic Research on Copyright Issues Annual
Congress, (10­12 July 2008), Geneva, CH. I thank all the participants to both
events for their insightful comments and critiques.
1 See M Ricolfi, `Copyright policy for digital libraries in the context of the

i2010 strategy' 1st COMMUNIA Conference on the Digital ...