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This thesis examines selected legal issues of copyright law in respect of the internet. The thesis focuses on Malaysian and UK Copyright law concerning; accessing web pages; linking; framing and caching. Since the internet is in use globally, law at an international, regional and national level have been examined in order to find solutions to these selective issues. At the regional level, European Union law is analysed. The Information Society Directive covers two of the selected issues (accessing web pages and caching). However there are still gaps in the Information Society Directive regarding the two other issues of framing and linking. In UK Copyright law, since the UK has implemented the Information Society Directive, a new section has been added to the Amendment Act, which covers accessing web pages and caching, but the UK Statutes do not expressly cover framing and linking. However, linking may be allowed under the general rule of implied licence. The Malaysian Copyright (Amendment) Act of 1997 has provided for the internet where a new section has been created that is the right to control the communication of copyright works to the public. However, there is no specific legislative provision on transient copies (accessing web page and caching) under this Act. However, accessing web pages may be covered under another provision which permits copies to be made in any form or version. Caching however is provided for under another provision. In the USA, provision on safe harbour provides the ISP with protection against action of infringement. The US Copyright law covers all the selected issues except framing. The conclusion reached in this thesis is that Malaysian law provides legislative solutions only for some of the selected copyright issues in respect of the internet but, in general, it is still inadequate and needs to be improved.

The question at the heart of this work is: how is it that radical change occurs within a given field? The changes that are of interest here are not the gradual, incremental changes that most often appear in a field. Instead, the focus is on changes that completely transform the field; redefining relationships and terms, disrupting power structures and institutions and bringing in or excluding certain actors from the field. Specifically, this thesis will examine this question within the context of copyright, primarily US copyright law.

This thesis consists of four essays titled "The Historical Law and Economics of the First Copyright Act", "Copyright Doctrines, Abstraction and Court Error", "Copyright Failure and the Protection for Tables and Compilations", and "Orphan Works, Abandonware and the Missing Market for Copyrighted Goods". The analytical methodology is characterised as law and economics, and additionally, two main themes are observable. One is the incorporation of historical record or analysis. This stems from the belief that good legal, as well as law and economic, analysis must not be devoid of its historical context. Therefore, an attempt is made to incorporate a historical perspective in every essay. The second observable theme is the emphasis on curbing the monopoly or market power of copyright owners, both in the descriptive and prescriptive senses. In the first two essays, statutory provisions and copyright doctrines are shown to have the intended effect of controlling the market power of copyright; in the last two essays, liability rule remedies are proposed as a possible solution to further reduce the welfare losses associated with copyright protection. Two general conclusions can be made. Copyright owners generally, and perhaps with the exception of databases, do not have strong market power for the reason that, since the first statutory copyright law and under various copyright doctrines, differentiated copyrighted works may be independently produced by other authors, thus giving rise to monopolistic competitive markets for copyrighted goods. The second conclusion is a normative one, namely that there are scopes for social welfare gain by protecting copyright, under certain situations, by a liability rule instead of the traditional property rule. Two specific situations are examined in this context: when the copyrighted work is a database, and when the copyrighted work is abandoned or orphaned.

This project is organised around the response to a single Thesis Question; If a product bears the place name "X" but does not in fact originate there, when does and when should this contravene principles of intellectual property law? Effectively, when does and when should this branch of the law prohibit the use of 'Californian Champagne'? Responses to this question have emerged over the course of a century of contentious international debates concerning the protection of Geographical Indications (GIs). The project first seeks to locate historical responses to this question within their broader context. The principal set of responses is provided by the law of unfair competition, with its prohibition of conduct which either misleads consumers or results In the misappropriation goodwill.

The aim is to contribute to the studies of post-Soviet Russian law by examining Russia's modern copyright law in action. The key questions are: why Russian libraries digitise textual works in breach of copyright law and how this can be changed. The work is based on the premise that copyright is culturally and economically valuable and that respect for (and adherence to) copyright law is to be encouraged. The examination is based on interpretation of original statutory and case law, and relevant commentaries, including much presently unavailable in English. The methodology adopted is versatile, ranging from a factual exposition of the latest developments in Russia such as her National Library Resource, to doctrinal and comparative legal analysis, drawing parallels between aspects of Russian law and practice with those elsewhere: for example, in the UK, the US and the Netherlands. In order to set out the-background, an overview of Russian copyright law, including its historical roots, is provided. Some qualitative material, deriving from interviews, is used to supplement the information available in documentary form. The following methods of gaining lawful access to copyright textual works are examined: collective management, exceptions to copyright and open access licences. It is argued that none of these methods is yet sufficiently developed in Russia to meet the challenges of the digital era. Moreover, the lack of such development is symptomatic of a more deeply entrenched antipathy towards copyright in Russia. NotWithstanding its current deficiencies in Russia, it is argued that ultimately, collective management is likely to bring the most benefits. Thus, the author argues for developing collective management by inspiring trust in the workings of management bodies such as CopyRus. Open access licences are also advocated as they could have a significant impact on encouraging respect for copyright in Russia.

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It is argued that it is no longer convincing to classify the advanced generations of software agents as passive transmission tools, and that the traditional paradigm of face-to-face communication may not readily fit the intelligent agent technology that is evolving with an ultimate aim of eliminating any effective human involvement in the electronic contracting process. It is also argued that the idea of custody might seem inappropriate where the harm is a function of many factors, or when an electronic agent has a malfunction or operates in a manner unintended, unauthorized or unforeseen. It is argued that the introduction of “one-size” regulation without sufficient consideration of the nature of electronic agents or the environments in which they communicate might lead to a divorce between the legal theory and technological practice. In the third part, it is concluded that it is incorrect to deal with electronic agents as if they were either legal persons or nothing without in any way accounting for the fact that there are various kinds of electronic agents endowed with different levels of autonomy, mobility, intelligence, and sophistication. Throughout this thesis, we insist on the importance of establishing a reciprocal cooperation between law and technology so that law interferes in the earlier stages, rather than waiting the technological outcomes and then struggling to accommodate novel issues in an outdated legal framework. Law is also strongly advised to take into account the role every party plays in producing the action in question, consider the type of problem that caused the damage, and then use different standards of responsibility depending whether the action is done autonomously by an unattended software, or whether it is done automatically by an attended software. On the other hand, this thesis advocates that it has become necessary to re-evaluate the legal status and role of intelligent software agents in electronic commerce.

Commentators' views on the relationship between copyright law and the human right of freedom of expression are currently diverse. The root of the problem lies in the difficulty in balancing authors' rights with human rights in general and the right of freedom of expression in particular. The thesis aims to illustrate that copyright is challenging the effective recognition of the principles of human rights, in particular the individual's right of freedom of expression. This proposition is submitted through an analysis, carried out at the international, regional and national levels, of copyright and author's right laws in relation to the right of freedom of expression. At the three levels, the author's basic moral and economic rights are juxtaposed against another party's right of freedom of expression, indicating conflicts, current and potential, between the two sets of rights. Present limitations and exceptions to copyright law are examined in detail in order to determine whether, and if so to what extent, they effectively safeguard another party's right to freedom of expression vis-à-vis the author's rights. The fair use and fair dealing defences, the public interest aspect, the non-protection of ideas and the term of copyright protection are critically analysed to help unmask legal gaps and inconsistencies in this area under various international, regional and national laws. The thesis proposes that the Berne Convention (1971), generally regarded as the primary international copyright instrument, should be revised in order to alleviate the identified legal inconsistencies and conflicts between the two rights. On the basis that all human beings are entitled to human rights, the proposed revisions introduce firstly, the principle of non-discrimination, so that all authors are protected under the Convention, and secondly, the recognition in the Convention of the human right of freedom of expression, by providing that such right is taken into account in any proceedings concerning the application of the rights granted by the Convention.