Five essays on copyright in the digital era

Abstract

This dissertation aims to give a detailed view of how well copyright law is working in the digital environment and how its future looks. The work starts by giving the reader a primer on two central topics in the dissertation, i.e., an overview of technological developments that have changed once again the environment of copyright law work and the economic background of copyright and IPRs. Different methodological approaches are also discussed e.g. how behavioral law and economics and public choice theory should be utilized pertaining to copyright regulation.

The main research questions, which are covered in the five original articles, are:

Do technical protection measures (TPMs) help to solve the impending demise of copyright? Is the legal enforcement of copyright possible in current or future digital environments? What is the role of social norms in the future of copyright?

Regarding the first question, the dissertation argues that the once-prevailing vision of copyright that was based on the belief that without legally technological protection measures, right holders would not release their content to digital distribution has not really turned out to be true. In the contrary, the opposition from the users and profound technical problems have marginalized TPMs in music stores in more advanced markets (i.e. USA) and same development is likely to happen in other categories of works.

The answer to second question indicates a more profound problem if the copyright holders cannot prevent unlicensed use of their works, the economic rationale of copyright disappears. The dissertation argues that the foreseeable technical development in digital communication and storage technologies will lead to that result with very high likelihood at least among more consumer-oriented works (music, video), which are typically consumed in the privacy of homes. At the same time the development will make current levy-based systems infeasible general tax for technology.

The final question continues from the point where enforcement stops. Social norms may substitute legal norms, which are based on strong enforcement. The dissertation argues that there are positive examples from open source development that which indicate that this approach may be feasible for copyright.