published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

Digital sampling, wherein excerpts from pre-existing recordings are incorporated into a new recording, has been a vibrant and innovative manner of artistic creation since the 1960s. However, this practice has engendered complex infringement litigation, blurring the commonly understood lines that separate the musical "composition" from the "recording." The has been exacerbated by conflicting articulations as to the status of these entities as "works" within musicological discourse and conceptions of copyright law such that they would warrant protection from infringement. Furthermore, sampling has complicated the application of previously utilized principles of copyright law, such as de minimis and substantial similarity, and has not occasioned much, if any, consideration in litigation as to the artistic or creative purposes for which samples were used. This thesis considers Grand Upright Music Limited v. Warner Brothers Records, Inc., the first notable case involving digital sampling. The first two chapters offer an historical overview of the development of American copyright law and its musical purview, and proceeds to the facts and ultimate judicial ruling in this case. Through the interpretive lens of "democratic experimentalism," the remainder of the thesis proposes an alternative method for handling digital sampling cases than that of the Grand Upright court and other courts in subsequent cases. This is offered with a view to taking a more comprehensive account of the materially quantitative and artistically qualitative aspects of particular acts of sampling.

Copyright licences can be implied when the doing of a restricted act is covered neither by the express licence of the copyright owner, nor by one of the statutory limitations and exceptions. The manner in which copyright licences are implied, therefore, holds the key to broadening the scope of permissible acts. In contrast to the rigidity of statutory limitations and exceptions, implied licences are more malleable in being able to respond to a diverse set of circumstances, as the need arises. Thus, implied licences can serve as a flexible and targeted mechanism to balance competing interests, including those of copyright owners and content users, especially in today’s dynamic technological environment. However, implication as a process is contentious, and there are no established rules for implying a licence. Implication of a copyright licence is even more complicated because the conceptualisation of a copyright licence is unsatisfactory. The resulting uncertainty has prevented implied licences from being embraced more readily by the courts. The objective of this thesis is, therefore, firstly, to reconceptualise a copyright licence that is broad enough to accommodate the diverse circumstances in which copyright licences arise, and certain enough to assist in finding their constituents; secondly, to propose frameworks for implying copyright licences in a methodical and transparent manner, based on three sources: the consent of the copyright owner; an established custom; and state intervention to achieve public policy goals. The frameworks are also customised differently for implied bare and implied contractual licences. The thesis demonstrates the robustness of these frameworks by rationalising them with the existing case law. Underscoring the contemporary relevance of implied licences, in conclusion, the thesis tests and validates the frameworks in relation to three essential and ubiquitous functions on the internet – browsing, hyperlinking and indexing.

abbreviation "OSA") and other collective societies in the Czech Republic will be mentioned.

61 11. Abstract in english Protection of computer games and videogames This diploma thesis pursues to asses on legal protection of computer games and videogames, foremost the protection via copyright law due to it being the most significant legal legal branch in protection of computer games and videogames. The thesis aims to explore the options for qualification of videogames in the system of copyright law and the consequences of such classification. The main goal of this thesis is to asses whether the czech legal systems offers alternatives to protection of videogames other than protection as computer programs while highlighting one alternative-protection as audiovisual works. This approach is inspired mainly by foreign literature and it aims to discuss the opinions therein in the context of czech legal system. First three chapters of this thesis serve as introductory chapters and are used to explain the content of this thesis and the motivation of the author for choosing such topic. Furthemore they are used to explain the phenomenon of videogames and provide a brief excursion to the history of protection of videogames. Chapter four and five are the vital part of this thesis and aim to provide explanation of copyright law terms connected to videogames and in the fifth chaper those terms are used to provide...

The primary argument and area of interest within this explorative study lies within the domain of copyright law enforcement of the creative industries and argues the deleterious impact that the infringement of copyright has on national and individual balance sheets and the opportunity to re-engineer the copyright dividend. Globally, creative industries are estimated to account for more than 7% of the world’s gross domestic product and are predicted to grow, on average, 10% per year. Digitization and the internet have seen to it that copyright, through inter alia the unlimted reproduction capacity of copyrights, brought by digitization and the internet, has seen its importance in the intellectual property bouquet soar. This study endevours to establish the beginning of a discourse on copyright in which the very survival of the creative industries, galvanized, for more than a century by technology and changes in technology and the security of its consumers, depends on the adopting of improved, farsighted, equitable, inclusive and stricter measures in order to protect such from both internal and external threats. From a global perspective most copyright owners and nations with few exceptions rich in copyrights, compounded by the presence of unsubstantial collaboration, suffer losses because the protection of their respective intellectual property rights such as copyright, trademarks and patents are not adequately aligned with what may be referred as the technology conversation. It is imperative that the collaborative copyright alliances develop a strategic agenda that is relevant to the technology conversation in order to re-engineer the copyright dividend where new copyright enforcement mechanisms will be deployed. In as much as this study placed greater emphasis on online infringement, physical piracy is still pervasive and it intensely contributed to the explorative conversation. Piracy effectively relieves copyright authors and the State of the royalty flows that arise from legal and transparent use of copyright. It is these royalty flows that give rise to term “copyright dividend” literally meaning the income arising from the underlying copyright assets. Seeing what is stolen by piracy as the “theft”, whether direct or indirect, of copyright dividends, the challenge to address, avert and amend such outcomes is akin to re-engineering the copyright dividend and this meant the examining of the copyright law structures influencing and regulating the trade in copyrights. In this study the focus was initially on understanding the copyright law regimes and the real challenges that influenced their respective implementations that generated a copyright dividend. Understanding exactly how well such were actually working rested on exploring the lived experiences and perceptions of ten copyright experts across the world from two primary copyright law regimes. Such an exploration was necessary as such provided the requisite insight into inter alia the legal framework wherein both the illegal market and the legal market for copyright operated, to the threats faced the copyright dividend. Five research questions were used in this study. Such served as the discussion points used in the interviews with the ten research participants.These five research questions emerged from the problematization within current , literature and supported by the research data. The obtained data were grouped in relation to the five research questions and filtered to identify commonalities amongst the ten participants. The obtained data were grouped in relation to the five research questions and filtered through a lamination process,which emerged to identify commonalities amongst the ten participants.The global copyright law system and stakeholdership presently lack the necessary strategies, capacities, will and common thought to effectively address infringement. This is the major impediment of technological advancement and thus reengineering the copyright dividend was critical. To a demonstratable extend it is independent of the progress of governments and other relevant parties affected by infringement. The data also showed that infringement is an eroding threat to intellectual property and that critical knowledge is an urgent necessity to re-install the copyright value in its global ecosystem, which is essentially achieved by diverting the copyright dividends stolen by the illegal copyright market and re-engineering the copyright dividend. The outcome is that copyright law enforcement promotes the returns of dividends and fair trade to the rightful owners in an accountable and sustainable manner, as was and is intended by the global copyright law regimes. / PhD (Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

The primary argument and area of interest within this explorative study lies within the domain of copyright law enforcement of the creative industries and argues the deleterious impact that the infringement of copyright has on national and individual balance sheets and the opportunity to re-engineer the copyright dividend. Globally, creative industries are estimated to account for more than 7% of the world’s gross domestic product and are predicted to grow, on average, 10% per year. Digitization and the internet have seen to it that copyright, through inter alia the unlimted reproduction capacity of copyrights, brought by digitization and the internet, has seen its importance in the intellectual property bouquet soar. This study endevours to establish the beginning of a discourse on copyright in which the very survival of the creative industries, galvanized, for more than a century by technology and changes in technology and the security of its consumers, depends on the adopting of improved, farsighted, equitable, inclusive and stricter measures in order to protect such from both internal and external threats. From a global perspective most copyright owners and nations with few exceptions rich in copyrights, compounded by the presence of unsubstantial collaboration, suffer losses because the protection of their respective intellectual property rights such as copyright, trademarks and patents are not adequately aligned with what may be referred as the technology conversation. It is imperative that the collaborative copyright alliances develop a strategic agenda that is relevant to the technology conversation in order to re-engineer the copyright dividend where new copyright enforcement mechanisms will be deployed. In as much as this study placed greater emphasis on online infringement, physical piracy is still pervasive and it intensely contributed to the explorative conversation. Piracy effectively relieves copyright authors and the State of the royalty flows that arise from legal and transparent use of copyright. It is these royalty flows that give rise to term “copyright dividend” literally meaning the income arising from the underlying copyright assets. Seeing what is stolen by piracy as the “theft”, whether direct or indirect, of copyright dividends, the challenge to address, avert and amend such outcomes is akin to re-engineering the copyright dividend and this meant the examining of the copyright law structures influencing and regulating the trade in copyrights. In this study the focus was initially on understanding the copyright law regimes and the real challenges that influenced their respective implementations that generated a copyright dividend. Understanding exactly how well such were actually working rested on exploring the lived experiences and perceptions of ten copyright experts across the world from two primary copyright law regimes. Such an exploration was necessary as such provided the requisite insight into inter alia the legal framework wherein both the illegal market and the legal market for copyright operated, to the threats faced the copyright dividend. Five research questions were used in this study. Such served as the discussion points used in the interviews with the ten research participants.These five research questions emerged from the problematization within current , literature and supported by the research data. The obtained data were grouped in relation to the five research questions and filtered to identify commonalities amongst the ten participants. The obtained data were grouped in relation to the five research questions and filtered through a lamination process,which emerged to identify commonalities amongst the ten participants.The global copyright law system and stakeholdership presently lack the necessary strategies, capacities, will and common thought to effectively address infringement. This is the major impediment of technological advancement and thus reengineering the copyright dividend was critical. To a demonstratable extend it is independent of the progress of governments and other relevant parties affected by infringement. The data also showed that infringement is an eroding threat to intellectual property and that critical knowledge is an urgent necessity to re-install the copyright value in its global ecosystem, which is essentially achieved by diverting the copyright dividends stolen by the illegal copyright market and re-engineering the copyright dividend. The outcome is that copyright law enforcement promotes the returns of dividends and fair trade to the rightful owners in an accountable and sustainable manner, as was and is intended by the global copyright law regimes. / PhD (Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

- CONTRACTUAL COPYRIGHT LAW This theses deals with contracts in copyright law. Its main aim is to describe legal regulation concerning most frequent types of contracts in copyright law and to compare the regulation of these contracts as it was before the recodification of Czech private law, which was done by the new civil code, with the state after it and to mark out main terminological and conceptual changes, which have some connection to contractual copyright law. The work consists of eight chapters. The first chapter contains a brief overview of domestic sources of contractual copyright law. The second chapter explains some basic concepts of copyright law which have some relation to the contractual law - the concepts of authors' rights and prohibition of its transfer to other person and terms of license and consent in copyright law. In this chapter reader also finds subchapters on new legal definition of things and ownership in the new civil code and how these new definitions influence copyrighted works and license agreements. Chapters three to eight describe the legal regulation of the most important types of contracts in the contractual copyright law. The third chapter is the core of the work. It describes in detail the license agreement. It points out irregularities of contractual process in...

The goal of this diploma thesis is to provide an overview of the increasingly more important world of copyright protection as it concerns computer programs. The focus of this overview being primarily that of the national law of the Czech Republic, however this diploma thesis takes into account international law where applicable as well. The thesis begins with an introduction into the very concept of copyright law, the definition of a copyrightable work and that of computer programs and terms related therein. What follows is a brief account of the history of computer programs and computer programing in general as a basis for the following legal perspective into the matter. An international overview of the subject matter follows, including a look at key moments from an international perspective at the field of copyright protection of computer programs, including a brief overview of the Berne Convention, the TRIPS Agreement as well as aspects of European Law. Computer programs as subjects of copyright protection, including additional classification, are the basis of the next chapter, while an account of the specifics of authorship, co-authorship, collective works and works created under employment follows thereafter. The subject matter of copyright itself, distinctions therein, the subject matter of...

Copyright and other protection of visual arts The main topic of this thesis is the copyright and other protection of visual arts. Its aim is to present the main principles of Czech copyright law, illustrate these general rules on examples of visual art, and point out the specifics of the Czech copyright towards these works. Apart from the Czech copyright law, this thesis presents the basic rules of American copyright law, as an introduction to this subject matter in a different legal system. This thesis then shows the legal rules of copyright law in the Czech Republic, which emerges from civil law, and the legal rules of copyright in the USA, which extends from common law. The purpose is not to compare these two legal systems in detail, but to explain the Czech rules in context of a foreign legal system, which offers different concepts and other solutions. The first chapter presents the legal sources of Czech and American copyright. Chapter two describes the basic principles of Czech copyright law, which is followed by an introduction to American copyright law in chapter three. These two chapters interpret the origins of Czech and American copyright, define the work of copyright in both systems as well as explain in legal terms of what a "work of visual art" means in these systems. Chapter four is...