In a world where powerful intermediaries like Google and Facebook are de facto regulators of the communication of copyright-protected works, the democratization of access to content has both substantially expanded the availability of new markets and dramatically increased copyright infringements. Does this mean that the long-sought ideal of a "universal" copyright regulation, which would harmoniously combine effective protection of intellectual creations with public interest goals, is a lost cause? Taken together, the contributions to this insightful and thoroughly researched book suggest that despite the prevailing labyrinthine mosaic of divergent national responses to fragmentation at international level, the foundations of a universal approach can be found in the interaction of regional, national and international copyright law instruments when responding to current and emerging technologies. Emphasizing the adaptation of copyright law to the needs of the information society, this volume provides critical approaches by leading copyright scholars on whether pluralism or universalism is the appropriate path to follow for the development of international copyright law. The authors deal with such issues and topics as the following: the application of core copyright law principles worldwide; authorship, rights and exceptions in the international copyright acquis; Internet copyright enforcement; global collective management of copyright; copyright contracts; database and design rights; intermediary liability; the global reach of the U.S. Fair Use doctrine; World Intellectual Property Organization's role and strategy in international copyright lawmaking; and bilateral trade and investment agreements involving copyright. Specific evolutions and emerging trends in national and regional digital copyright laws are analyzed and assessed as they have developed in the European Union, the United States, Canada and Australia, as well as in several Asian and African countries. Throughout, attention is paid to compatibility with the Berne Convention, the perceived core of copyright law in the international copyright acquis, and the key question of the balancing of copyright law with fundamental rights from an international and comparative law perspective. As a comprehensive analysis of how core copyright law concepts and principles function in today's fragmented copyright legal system, this book has no peers. Its detailed treatment of numerous specific instruments and regimes, as well as its insightful approaches to the future of international copyright lawmaking, will prove of immeasurable value to lawyers, judges, policy makers, academics and researchers working in the field of copyright law.

This book examines, from the legal perspective, China's process of WTO accession, its commitments to the accession, the implications of such commitments for its trade and legal systems, and its efforts towards WTO compliance. It also discusses the issue of the capacity of the evolving Chinese legal system for ensuring compliance. In particular, the book probes into the trade and legal systems at the turn of the accession and evaluates selected trade and legal issues, including intellectual property, foreign investment law and settlement of trade disputes.

Global change affects all areas of public policy and crucial aspects of governing institutions. National and international intellectual property (IP) agencies are increasingly at the fulcrum of such change but are among the least well-examined of governing and policy realms. Among the oldest agencies of government, they are moving from a long era of contented obscurity to that of increasing political and economic exposure and controversy.This is the first book to examine IP agencies in the context of this transformation. Taking a basic institutional perspective, the book examines the changes in and relationships among four national and international IP agencies: the patent offices of the US, UK, Canada and Australia; the World Intellectual Property Office, the European Patent Office and the World Trade Organization. Focusing on the 1990s, the book traces institutional changes that centre on the core trade-off in intellectual property policy between protection and dissemination of intellectual property. These are examined in relation to the two broad dusters of interests that operate around the protection versus dissemination functions. The former is dominated by big business and the IP professions and the latter by much more dispersed and emerging interests.

This book critically evaluates the current copyright law system in a digital environment from a comparative perspective. Since many developing countries modelled their copyright laws on more advanced jurisdictions, they have not benefitted from such a law as much as intended due to their inherently embedded social economic conditions. Moreover, the copyright law system has been under constant challenges from rapidly developing digital technology and the Internet. All in all, there is a pressing need for developing countries to reevaluate their copyright law in light of their national needs, the developmental stage of their economy, their culture and tradition, and their legal system. The book poses the question of whether copyright law should be reformed to fulfill its fundamental purpose of serving education and research that are in the public interest in the digital era? It examines whether the legal frameworks adequately address developing countries’ educational and research requirements in view of the opportunities and restrictions posed by electronic communication media. Further, it provides a comprehensive study that addresses the various critical issues relevant to the reform of the copyright law system and offers recommendations for developing countries to revamp their copyright law system to better serve their education and research sector.

This work explores the problems arising from dynamic information technology in its application to intellectual property rights. In a global marketplace of ideas, political boundaries and the sovereignty of the nation state seem to be disappearing because of the increasing difficulty of scrutinizing the infringement of intellectual property. That is particularly true of computer software, the focus of this book. The work analyzes the legal and political economy implications of investment in the software programming industry and the near-futility of monitoring protection of intellectual property in industry. The book begins by exploring the current state of copyright laws for computer software. It analyzes the economic theories of demand elasticities, public choice, clubs, and the concept of public goods as those theories apply to intellectual property, particularly computer software. This analysis is followed by a discussion of prevailing legislation in the United States, Europe, Japan, Asia, and China. The analysis is fortified by a comprehensive coverage of the Uruguay Round. The work concludes in favor of the free flow of information, which yields overwhelming benefits to a globally integrated market.

In Incorporating Indigenous Rights in the International Regime on Biodiversity Protection, Federica Cittadino convincingly interprets the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and its related instruments in light of indigenous rights and the principle of self-determination. Cittadino’s harmonisation of these formally separated regimes serves at least two main purposes. First, it ensures respect for the human rights framework that protects indigenous rights whilst implementing the biodiversity regime. Second, harmonisation allows for the full operationalisation of the indigenous related provisions of the CBD framework that concern traditional knowledge, genetic resources, and protected areas. Federica Cittadino successfully demonstrates that the CBD may allow for the protection of indigenous rights in ways that are more advanced than under current human rights law.