Copyright User Rights Research Articles

Summary of User Rights Network Symposium: Protecting Copyright User Rights from Contractual Override

In this paper, Benson, Blumenthal, and Klosek summarize the proceedings of the public symposium on the “Protection of Copyright User Rights from Contractual Override.” The American Library Association (ALA) and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL)—together, the Library Copyright Alliance (LCA)—sponsored the symposium in partnership with the American University Washington College of Law Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP). The paper includes summaries of each panel, questions that were discussed, and takeaways for the library community to consider. Keywords: copyright, contracts, public policy, limitations and exceptions

The quotation exception under EU copyright law: Paving the way for user rights

A fundamental act of permissible use in copyright law, quotation, has a relatively broad scope under EU copyright as the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has affirmed. Developing a principle-based perspective on the theoretical justification underpinning copyright protection as a dialogue between authors and users, cases C-469/17 Funke Medien, C-476/17 Pelham, and C-516/17 Spiegel Online explain that exceptions and limitations to copyright, including the quotation exception, crystallize the balance between copyright and fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of speech. External application of fundamental freedoms as defensive rules is hence not necessary. A natural unfolding of the implications of the concept of the balance between copyright and fundamental rights is that the CJEU affirmed the integral status of copyright exceptions and limitations as user rights. This is a ground-breaking insight on the legal nature of these defensive rules under EU copyright law, aligning with scholarly consensus toward the recognition of copyright user rights and departing from national precedents denying the existence of rights of the users. The present contribution discusses the scope of permissible quotation under EU copyright, investigates the legal nature of this provision and, going beyond current scholarship, inquires the contextual framework and legal implications emerging from the judicial declaration of the relevant legal provision as a right of the users of copyright protected works.

The User Rights Database: Measuring the Impact of Copyright Balance

International and domestic copyright law reform around the world is increasingly focused on how copyright user rights should be expanded to promote maximum creativity and access to knowledge in the digital age. These efforts are guided by a relatively rich theoretical literature. However, few empirical studies explore the social and economic impact of expanding user rights in the digital era. One reason for this gap has been the absence of a tool measuring the key independent variable – changes in copyright user rights over time and between countries. We developed such a tool, which we call the “User Rights Database.” This paper describes the methodology used to create the Database and the results of empirical tests using it. We find that all of the countries in our study are trending toward more open copyright user rights over time, but the wealthy countries in our sample are about thirty years ahead of developing countries on this measure. We find evidence of benefits that more open copyright user rights generate, including the development of high technology industries and scholarly publication. We do not find evidence that opening user rights causes harm to revenue the of copyright intensive industries like publishing and entertainment. We have released all of the data gathered in this project to the public under an open license to enable its use by other researchers. Our empirical findings are relevant to several major arguments for or against expansions of copyright user rights that one hears frequently in reform debates.

Copyright User Rights and Remedies: An Access to Justice Perspective

In contemporary copyright law, there is an ongoing debate around the nature and scope of the rights users should have to copyright works, exacerbated by ongoing technological developments. Within that debate, this article queries the value of looking at the remedies users may have against copyright holders restricting their legitimate uses of works, as a means to further elucidate the nature and scope of user rights. While there is some value in looking at remedies to situate copyright user rights, an access to justice perspective to rights and remedies suggests that such approach may be too limiting with respect to the position of potential claimants in a legal system. On that basis, this paper identifies structural deficiencies of copyright user rights and proposes an analytical framework towards achieving greater “justice for users” both in the realm of public law and private law.

Copyright User Rights and Access to Justice (Introduction)

Copyright User Rights and Access to Justice (Introduction)