The increasingly accelerating process of integration in the whole European area causes a tremendous amount of problems in different sections of social, economic and political life. The solutions to all these integration related problems have one thing in common: they all need to be based on a solid ground of EU-laws, which are applied and enforced in every Member State. This so important because otherwise the measures taken by the EU institutions are completely useless. That leads to the observation that in every area of conflicts due to the application of different domestic laws a harmonisation is required. Harmonising EU laws adopted by the competent EU institutions have a crucial key role in the achievement of complete integration of every Member State in every conflict area, whatever that might be. One of these areas is the protection of copyrights. The value of the protection of copyrights must not be underestimated. The EU Commission assessed that the contribution of the copyright-related products and services to the EU-wide gross national product is about 5 %. In contradiction to this great value of copyright-related products and services the EU institutions started very late to scrutinise the different issues which might have to be solved in this context. Especially the issues, which are due to different levels of protection of copyrights in different Member States, started being solved by the adoption of harmonising directives. The first directive was adopted on 14 May 1991. This dissertation intends to scrutinise the commencement and the continuity of the harmonisation process in the area of copyrights in the EU. This scrutiny shall be embedded in the context of the development of the European Union as a such and the functioning of its institutions and the harmonisation of laws in the EU in general. A sound overview about these different areas of the European Union and the process of harmonisation concerning the harmonisation of national copyright laws shall be given.

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In the online culture of the 21st century, people worldwide re-create and disseminate works by using existing works. Facilitated by the Internet and digital technologies, 'online re-creations' have become much more common, more widespread, and more sophisticated than ever before. Online re-creations are new works created based on pre-existing copyright protected materials: they are for instance fan fiction, parody, mash-up, fanvid, machinima and virtual world. Due to the difficulties to obtain authorisation from right owners of the original works, online re-creations are potentially infringing the rights of copyright holders. Infringements are usually assumed to occur despite the uncertain legal status and the various nature of online re-creation. Nevertheless copyright and online re-creations are both essential. Re-creations and their online culture are beneficial to individuals and the society at large due to the three principles i.e. creativity, freedom of speech and the public interest. This thesis finds that copyright law that should encourage creative expressions has restrained and discouraged creative re-creations. Besides, the existing copyright exceptions are insufficient and ineffective to safeguard the rights of the re-creators and the interest of the public in accessing and reworking from copyright protected works. It is therefore vital to reconcile the conflicting interests: the exclusive rights of the copyright owners, the rights of re-creators and the interest of the public. To achieve a fair and reasonable balance between the conflicting rights and interests, this thesis proposes that everyone should have a right to use existing works in making creative re-use of such works without infringing copyright. The 'right to re-create' will be granted to the person whose re-creation meets all specified criteria.

The protection of multimedia presents a significant challenge for the contemporary legislator. Being one of the greatest technological developments and added-value assets in the Information Society, multimedia prevails as a phenomenon. However, law and practitioners treat multimedia as being many different products and services, rather than as a new 'work', since multimedia per se is not expressly protected under a single regime of protection. This perplexed situation necessitates clarification, as it is unclear what multimedia really is, and how it should be protected. It is therefore necessary to establish a clear picture of what multimedia entails, and identify which elements, factors and attributes distinguish it from other subject matters, and justify its treatment as a new 'work' rather than as an existing one. Through this analysis the proposed definition and scope of multimedia is firm, but flexible enough to accommodate future technological developments. The reasons for protecting multimedia are assessed, and different regimes of protection are compared bearing in mind the interests of authors and users, while ensuring that producers can also benefit from its commercial exploitation. Along these lines, copyright law is found to be more suitable amongst other regimes, calling for a comparison between multimedia and those copyright subject matters akin to its nature (compilations, computer programs, databases, films) that could justify its adequacy and applicability across the European Community, and worldwide. In the absence of a coherent and consistent copyright law solution, the sufficiency of other non-copyright law mechanisms of protection including contracts, technical devices, competition law, and a sui generis right is examined in the context of the Information Society. The lack of a consistent and adequate form of protection of multimedia worldwide, necessitates the introduction of a new scheme for protecting hybrid and creative multimedia works, once the supporting market and regulatory conditions are met. In the meantime, a series of preparatory actions should be taken by policy makers and market leaders in the context of a self-regulatory and user-friendly scheme of protection from which the developing multimedia market can benefit.

Boston University. University Professors Program Senior theses. / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-02

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This dissertation is animated by an interest in the investigation required to establish whether a specific work, be it a literary work, artistic work or published edition, created prior to the enactment of the current South African Copyright Act 98 of 1978, is eligible for copyright protection today. The main objective is to outline the historical development of the transitional provisions provided in South African copyright legislation and the approach adopted by our courts when applying them. This study aims to re-interrogate the application of the transitional provisions to pre-1979 works with a specific focus on the re-evaluation of the opinion and approach set forth by O.H. Dean in the year 1988, regarding the application of the transitional provisions and how the courts should go about implementing these provisions. This re-interrogation requires investigating which provisions should be considered in establishing whether pre-1979 works are presently eligible for copyright protection, in what context and manner those provisions are applicable and how our courts have, in reported case law, gone about implementing them. In order to conduct the aforementioned investigation, the provisions should first be placed in their historical context, which requires tracing the historical development and impact of the copyright transitional provisions first provided in the 1916 Act, to those presently provided in the 1978 Act. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2020. / Private Law / LLM / Unrestricted

The thesis focuses on the phenomenon of databases from the normative viewpoint; it examines them with respe to the legal issues, main stress being placed on the prote ion granted to databases by the intelle ual property law and on their incorporation in the legal system of the Czech Republic. The merit of the thesis can be seen in elaborating on decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union regarding the harmonised regulations and in drawing a comparison to the provisions of the dire ive on legal prote ion of databases (or rather the Copyright A ) and analysing the impa of the decisions. The thesis is organised into eleven chapters, Chapter Two providing a brief introdu ion into the topic of databases, Chapter Three looking into the international-law aspe of databases. The core of the thesis lies in Chapters Four to Chapter Eight which give an insight into the European law, its secondary sources followed by a discourse on the dire ive on the legal prote ion of databases, regarding the copyright element and sui generis right as well as a criticism of the dire ive resulting in it being reviewed by the Commission. Chapter Nine pays attention to alternative means of database prote ion. The nal chapters evaluate the current state in the eld of database prote ion and suggest possible suitable...

The topic of this diploma thesis is copyright protection of databases. The aim of the thesis is to describe and introduce databases and their legal protection due to their role as essential tools for the location of required information. The thesis contains analysis of legislation in European Union and the Czech Republic and includes brief analysis of legislation in Finland. The thesis consists of five chapters. The first chapter deals with the term database, classification of databases and illustrates basic foundations for database protection. The second chapter is divided into two subchapters and characterises the legal protection of databases in European Union. The first subchapter is concerned with the legislation process and adoption of the directive on the legal protection of databases starting with the Green Paper in 1988 and ending with adoption of the directive in 1996. The second subchapter analyses this directive in more detail, describes the main terms and institutes and explores the two-tier system of legal protection of databases introduced by this directive. The third chapter presents legislation in Finland with regard to the exchange studies of the author of the thesis and outlines the catalogue rule as a traditional element of Scandinavian law. The fourth chapter is divided into...

En Chine, la protection du droit d’auteur dans l’environnement numérique est un problème au niveau international et national. Pourquoi le droit d’auteur ne peut-il pas être protégé correctement ? Quels sont les droits et les outils mis à la disposition des auteurs ? Sous la pression de la rétorsion commerciale des États-Unis, la Chine a ratifié la Convention de Berne en 1992. Le premier droit d’auteur en Chine et les deux révisions avaient principalement pour but de se conformer à la Convention de Berne. Autrement dit, le droit d’auteur chinois est artificiel. Il ne représente pas la réconciliation de conflits d'intérêts différents. Les actions de la mise en œuvre du droit d’auteur en environnement numérique ont été entreprises par les autorités chinoises. Elles pourraient être très efficaces. Des sites Internet illégaux sont contrôlés et le contenu qui atteint au droit d’auteur est supprimé. Néanmoins, les actions pourraient être excessives. L’environnement numérique a non seulement augmenté la capacité individuelle de la reproduction et la transmission des œuvres, mais a aussi changé la façon dont les œuvres peuvent être créées. Comment protéger les droits d’auteur existants, d’un côté, et stimuler la créativité individuelle des internautes, d’un autre côté ? / Chinese copyright protection in the digital environment has been a problem at both international and national level. Why Chinese copyright could not be properly protected?What rights and enforcement tools the copyright holders have? Under the pressure of the US trade retaliation, China ratified the Berne Convention in 1992. The first Chinese Copyright Law and the later two revisions were mainly for the purpose of complying with the Berne Convention. In other words, the Chinese Copyright Law is artificial. It is not the reconciliation of the conflicts of different interests. Copyright enforcement actions have been undertaken by the Chinese copyright authorities in the digital environment. They could be very efficient. Major pirating websites are seized and enormous infringing contents are taken down. However, the actions could also be excessive. The digital environment not only boosted the individual capacity of the reproduction and transmission of works, but also changed the way of how works could be created. How to protect the existing copyright on the one hand, to simulate the individual user’s creativity, on the other?