Synopses & Reviews
In an age where works are increasingly being used, not only as works in the traditional sense, but also as carriers of data from which information may be automatically extracted for various purposes, Borghi and Karapapa consider whether mass digitisation is consistent with existing copyright principles, and ultimately whether copyright protection needs to be redefined, and if so how?
The work considers the activities involved in the process of mass digitization identifying impediments to the increasing number of such projects such as the inapplicability of copyright exceptions, difficulties in rights clearance, and the issue of 'orphan' and out-of-print works.
It goes on to examine the concept of 'use' of works in light of mass digital technologies and how it impinges on copyright law and principles; for example considering whether scanning and using optical character recognition in mass digital projects qualify as transformative use, or whether text mining on digitial repositories should be a permitted activity. These issues are considered in the context of both European and US law. Consideration is also given to mass digitization in the wider context of 'law and technology', comparing mass digitization issues with those of genetic databases, online privacy and data protection.
Illustrating how mass digitization unveils a number of unsettled theoretical issues within copyright, the book proposes a new regulatory framework for the use of works in the context of emerging technologies, providing a new rights-based approach to dealing with copyright.
Synopsis
Mass digitization of texts, images, and other creative works promises to unprecedentedly enhance access to culture and knowledge. With the electronic 'library of Alexandria' having started to materialize, a number of legal and policy issues have emerged. The book develops an extended conceptual account of the ways in which mass digital projects challenge the established copyright norms through the wholesale copying of works, their storage in cloud environments, and their automated processing for purposes of data analytics and text mining. As individual licensing is not compatible with the mass scale of these activities, alternative approaches have gained momentum as effect of judicial interpretation, legislative initiative and private-ordering solutions. This book queries the normative and policy implications of this newly emerging framework in copyright law. Adopting a cross-jurisdictional perspective, it concludes that lack of clarity as to the scope of authorial consent does not only bear the risk of legal uncertainty, but can also lead to the creation of new and not readily transparent monopolies on information and knowledge. In this respect, a new regulatory framework is outlined drawing from the insights developed in areas of law where the concept of consent in the use of data has been thoroughly elaborated. Illustrating how mass digitization unveils a number of unsettled theoretical issues within copyright, the book builds a sophisticated case that digital repositories in the mass digital age should be and remain fully-fledged public goods to the benefit of future generations.
About the Author
Maurizio Borghi is senior lecturer in intellectual property law at Brunel University Law School and director of the Centre for Intellectual Property, internet and Media. Prior to joining Brunel in 2007, he has been a researcher in cultural legal studies and philosophy at Bocconi University of Milan, and a visiting scholar at the Center for the Study of Law and Society at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of the executive committee of ISHTIP, the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property.
Stavroula Karapapa is senior lecturer in law at the School of Law, University of Reading and an advocate at the Athens Bar, specializing in Intellectual Property and Internet law. Her research interests focus on the intersection of law and technology with particular emphasis on copyright.
Table of Contents
1. Turning Copyright on its Head?
2. Technological Transformative Uses
3. Text and Data Mining
4. Orphan Works
5. Derivative Rights, Derivative Entitlements
6. Integrity, or the Claims of the Work
7. Works and Data: Towards a Unitary Regulatory Framework