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Copyright policy alternatives for preserving end-user freedom of expression and information

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Abstract

This chapter will consider how the fundamental right of freedom of expression and information embodied in Article 10 of the European Charter of Human Rights (ECHR) may be viewed as an additional legal basis to compel the reconsideration of EU digital copyright law.747 It was emphasised above that copyright law enacted by the 2001 InfoSoc Directive, while failing to consider and effectively ensure the enforcement of exceptions to digital copyright, ends up running contrary to the clauses of the EC Treaty which aim to preserve national cultural policy and consumer protection.748 The first part of this chapter provides a brief overview of the legal framework of Article 10 of the ECHR and its influence on the protection of intellectual property. Then, how EU law may be re-adjusted to eliminate copyright-based restrictions that have the effect of depriving end-users of legitimate opportunities of communication over peer-to-peer networks and expression in respect of DRM-protected works will be discussed.

See the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), signed in Rome on 4 November 1950. Article 10 of the ECHR states: “1. Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers [...] 2. The exercise of these freedoms, since it carries with it duties and responsibilities, may be subject to such formalities, conditions, restrictions or penalties as are prescribed by law and are necessary in a democratic society, in the interests of national security, territorial integrity or public safety, for the prevention of disorder or crime, for the protection of health or morals, for the protection of the reputation or rights of others, for preventing the disclosure of information received in confidence, or for maintaining the authority and impartiality of the judiciary.”

See, respectively, §5.3. and §5.4., see supra.

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References

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  106. This is what Burk and Cohen called “fair use infrastructure”: see Burk and Cohen, (“Fair Use Infrastructure”), op. cit., pp. 54–70. See, also, Geiger, ‘Copyright and Free Access to Information’, op. cit., pp. 370–372; and Burrell and Coleman, Copyright Exceptions, op.cit., p. 279.

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  107. As proposed by a few commentators, the goal of protecting freedom of expression and encouraging intellectual production in the digital world should also compel legislators to positively map the subject-matter of the public domain, which comprises all information not eligible for copyright protection and that no one should be entitled to make excludable (i.e., inaccessible) by technical means: see Geiger, ‘Copyright and Free Access to Information’, op. cit., p. 370; Samuelson, ‘Mapping the Digital Public Domain’, available at: http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/lcp/archive.html.

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  108. See Burrell and Coleman, Copyright Exceptions, op. cit., pp. 308–309.

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  109. See Burk and Cohen, ‘Fair Use Infrastructure’, op. cit., p. 65.

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  110. See Burk and Cohen, ‘Fair Use Infrastructure’, op. cit., p. 65.

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  111. Burk and Cohen, ‘Fair Use Infrastructure’, op. cit., p. 66, argued that a publicly funded institution would be the most suitable choice because the public policies underlying the fair use doctrine require some guarantees of public accountability and institutional longevity.

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  112. Burk and Cohen’s system was designed to apply to anti-circumvention protection of both U.S. and non-U.S. works. Moreover, these authors stressed that, for the selfdefence of fair circumvention to be realistic, the so-called anti-device and antitrafficking provisions would need to be modified: see Burk and Cohen, ‘Fair Use Infrastructure’, op. cit., p. 66.

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  113. See Burrell and Coleman, Copyright Exceptions, op. cit., p. 276.

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  114. See Burk and Cohen, ‘Fair Use Infrastructure’, op. cit., p. 70.

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  115. See Burrell and Coleman, Copyright Exceptions, op. cit., p. 281.

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(2008). Copyright policy alternatives for preserving end-user freedom of expression and information. In: EU Digital Copyright Law and the End-User. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-75985-0_8

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