Striking a balance between the interests of copyright holders and users on a human rights basis
(2009)Department of Law
- Abstract
- Copyright law has developed over the last years in such a way that the private interests of right holders are favoured, and users remain in the shadows of the big commercial benefits. There are many advocates for extension of copyright protection as well as for its abolition. This work focuses on the human rights aspect of copyright. It does not claim that copyright protection should be eliminated, but it does argue that this protection should be balanced and based on the grounds of public interests. This research delineates the content of Article 15 of the ICESCR as the principal balancing mechanism for the conflicting interests of copyright owners and users (which exists but is often neglected). It also considers other human rights that... (More)
- Copyright law has developed over the last years in such a way that the private interests of right holders are favoured, and users remain in the shadows of the big commercial benefits. There are many advocates for extension of copyright protection as well as for its abolition. This work focuses on the human rights aspect of copyright. It does not claim that copyright protection should be eliminated, but it does argue that this protection should be balanced and based on the grounds of public interests. This research delineates the content of Article 15 of the ICESCR as the principal balancing mechanism for the conflicting interests of copyright owners and users (which exists but is often neglected). It also considers other human rights that are in some way correlated with copyright. This work further highlights the tendencies in the international as well as national (with examples of the US and EU) legislation which strengthen copyright protection in such a way, that it violates the public interest and human rights of individuals. The research focuses primarily on the legislative trends taking place due to the development of computer and communication technologies, file sharing services and user-generated contents. The work also sketches out some illustrative court cases. Further, some alternatives to the present state of the copyright system are considered, such as limitations and exceptions from copyright, copyleft initiatives, and balancing the interests of public and rights holders on the basis of the human rights complex. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1555436
- author
- Kryukova, Zhanna
- supervisor
- organization
- year
- 2009
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- International Human Rights Law and Intellectual Property Rights
- language
- English
- id
- 1555436
- date added to LUP
- 2010-03-08 15:23:55
- date last changed
- 2010-03-08 15:23:55
@misc{1555436,
abstract = {{Copyright law has developed over the last years in such a way that the private interests of right holders are favoured, and users remain in the shadows of the big commercial benefits. There are many advocates for extension of copyright protection as well as for its abolition. This work focuses on the human rights aspect of copyright. It does not claim that copyright protection should be eliminated, but it does argue that this protection should be balanced and based on the grounds of public interests. This research delineates the content of Article 15 of the ICESCR as the principal balancing mechanism for the conflicting interests of copyright owners and users (which exists but is often neglected). It also considers other human rights that are in some way correlated with copyright. This work further highlights the tendencies in the international as well as national (with examples of the US and EU) legislation which strengthen copyright protection in such a way, that it violates the public interest and human rights of individuals. The research focuses primarily on the legislative trends taking place due to the development of computer and communication technologies, file sharing services and user-generated contents. The work also sketches out some illustrative court cases. Further, some alternatives to the present state of the copyright system are considered, such as limitations and exceptions from copyright, copyleft initiatives, and balancing the interests of public and rights holders on the basis of the human rights complex.}},
author = {{Kryukova, Zhanna}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Striking a balance between the interests of copyright holders and users on a human rights basis}},
year = {{2009}},
}