Chair: Bernt Hugenholtz (IViR, University of Amsterdam)
Panel:
Alain Strowel (KU Leuven/Louvain)
Stefan Bechtold (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich)
Séverine Dusollier (Sciences Po Paris)
Ole-Andreas Rognstad (University of Oslo)
Panel Abstract
Recent case law of the European Court of Justice on copyright’s three core economic rights – of reproduction, communication to the public and distribution – suggests a growing disconnect between the legal definitions of the economic rights that are historically patterned on 19th and 20th century modes of exploitation of copyright works, and the economic and technological realities of the 21st Century. This disconnect leads to overprotection or underprotection of copyright works, and is therefore likely to act as a disincentive for investment in innovative content and information services.
This panel, which is part of a Microsoft-sponsored collaborative interdisciplinary research project led by IViR and CREATe, sought to reconstruct the core economic rights protected under EU copyright law, with the aim of bringing these rights better in line with economic and technological realities.