Copyright User Rights

Abstract

This book explores the scope of copyright user rights through the lens of property, copyright, and contract law. It proposes a taxonomy and hierarchy of copyright user rights that makes a distinction between user property, user rights, and user privileges. The book looks at user rights from an international law and multijurisdictional perspective (including the European Union, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, and Australia) with a particular focus on Canada, given the significant amount of jurisprudence of the Supreme Court of Canada on copyright user rights. Unlike other works that look at copyright user rights through concepts of public law and policy, this book explores user rights through concepts of private law (personal property, goods, services, sales, licences) and copyright law (exceptions to copyright infringement such as fair dealing and fair use, the first sale or exhaustion doctrine, and the impact of technological protection measures on how users experience copyright works). The book develops a pluralistic theory of copyright user rights that recognizes their diversity and myriad ways users experience copyright works, while emphasizing the importance and role of copyright users within copyright law. The book calls for the re-evaluation of the dichotomy between tangibility and intangibility and for greater cohesion between copyright law and traditional concepts of private law.