Diploma thesis summary The topic of my diploma thesis is Copyright legal protection of computer programs. The purpose of my thesis is to describe in basic features the current regulation of this item in Czech republic. This thesis is composed of twelve chapters, where the crucial part can be found in chapter ten and eleven. Introductory Chapter emphasizes necessity of copyright legal protection of computer programs. Next chapter summarizes efforts for definition of computer program and also includes reasons, why the exact literal definition is not very convenient. Third chapter defines basic terminology, that we can find crosswise copyright; it also enumerates requirements for the authors work to be under copyright legal protection. Following chapter contains an outline of international treaties and history of computer programs. Sixth chapter concentrates on the role of computer program in the area of copyright and helps to distinguish the difference between computer program and any other author's craft. Seventh and eight chapter provides information about creation and content of the copyright, which is followed by the list of exceptions of exclusive copyright law. The main aim of my thesis is based in the issues of licensing agreements in chapter n. 10 and 11. Penultimate chapter focuses on the...

- Economic rights in copyright The theme of this thesis are economic rights in copyright. They are one of two categories which compose the content of copyright. The second category is called copyrights related to personality. These two categories of copyright can not be separated by exact borderline - economic rights in copyright include economic component, and vice versa. Economic rights in copyright are rights which have economic importance for their right holder. Economic rights in copyright can be divided into two main categories: exploitation right (in wide sense) and other economic rights in copyright. Exploitation right in wide sense include exploitation right and right of granting licence to other person. The aim of my thesis is to analyse and summarize contemporary situation of a legislation regulating economic rights in copyright and institutes relating to them. The thesis is composed of six chapters. The purpose of Chapter One is to explain what is a content of copyright and to briefly describe economic rights in copyright and copyrights related to personality in two parts of this Chapter. Chapter Two of the thesis is called economic rights in copyright. This chapter is subdivided into five parts. First part deals with influence of a definition of concept ,,thing" in New Civil Code upon...

Property rights of copyright (economic copyright) Abstract Intellectual Property Law as a branch of Private Law comprises two categories of rights - industrial property and copyright in a broader sense. In my thesis I focus on that part of Copyright Law which deals with rights to the author's work (i. e. copyright in the strict sense), specifically property rights of copyright (economic copyright). This thesis therefore provides a comprehensive explanation of property rights, which would not be possible without a brief explanation of the subject, development, concept and content of copyright. I also pay attention to legal regulation of the license agreement, which is a separate type of contract under the Copyright Act. Finally there is the collective management of copyright explained in my thesis. With respect to the importance of copyright which increases over time in response to the rapid development of information technologies, there is a need of its consistent protection and acceptance of more detailed and rigorous legislation. A numerous instruments of International Law and EU Law (whose main purpose is to harmonize national provisions of the Member States; the Czech Republic is a member of the European Union since 2004) therefore plays an important role in the harmonization of the national provisions...

Name of the thesis: An audiovisual works In my final thesis, I tried to summarize the current legal regulation of an audiovisual works and the rights and obligation relating thereto. In the thesis, I mainly deal with Czech private law legislation, as regulated particularly in Act No. 121/2000 Coll., Copyright Act, as amended, and with regards to License Agreement in Act No. 89/2012 Coll., Civil Code, as amended, or other legal acts. In the first chapter, I focus on different sources of legal regulation of an audiovisual works and its historical development in public international law, secondary law of the EU and also in national legislation. In the second, third and fourth chapter, I elaborate on the defintion of the term "audiovisual work" and its author, as well as the term and author of a "work audiovisually used" and "performances audiovisually used." These works and performances, together with audio records, constitute basic elements which audiovisual works might be composed of. In chapter five and six, I highlight the specific position of audio and audiovisual records producers and define the term of a "producer of audio record" and "producer of audiovisual record". Moreover, producers of an audiovisual works are given particular rights towards authors of works and performances audiovisually...

The objective of this diploma thesis is to render a comprehensive analysis of licence contracts in two countries - the Czech Republic and England and Wales. The effort to highlight differences between the two scrutinized jurisdictions and related criticism are the most important methods applied in this work and, hopefully, the most recognizable benefits of it. The thesis consists of a short introduction, followed by four descriptive chapters and author's subjective conclusions. The introductory part presents methods of research used throughout the work and implicitly hints what can the reader except when studying this diploma thesis. The first chapter splits into two mutually linked subchapters. The first one defines the very term licence, its etymology and classification. The following subchapter describes general characteristics of intellectual property, a crucial topic to licence contracts and thus indirectly to this thesis. This thesis promises a comparison of two legal systems and the second chapter fulfils this aim. Consisting of two additionally divided subchapters, the author engages in an analysis of the copyright and patent law respectively. Both examined intellectual property rights are looked at via optics of Czech, British and European intellectual property law. After being...

This work aims to describe the basic principles and characteristics of economic rights in copyright with regard to historical development, international and European legal framework. Economic rights in copyright are divided into two groups, namely the right to use the work and other economic rights. The work is dedicated to both groups with an emphasis on the use of work by public, taking into account the current SDEU case law and the effects of international and European law. Attention is also paid to the wider concept of the thing in the legal sense, as the Civil Code adopted in 2012 introduced again explicitly the concept of intangible things. As a result, this work deals also with the issue of their transferability. The theoretical method of research is used in the thesis. Work is based mainly on the commentary literature to the copyright act and the rules governing copyright at national, international and European level. In regard to the fact that copyright law is constantly evolving and new forms of use are emerging the legislation cannot flexibly react to these changes and therefore also the relevant decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union and the Czech courts are used. The work is systematically divided into three main chapters: (i) general characteristics of copyright, (ii)...

<p>The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse the significance of economic thinking and arguments in the treatment of licence agreements in EC competition law. A central question is to what degree the concept of competition in EC law reflects an economically realistic approach to competition. The study also investigates to what degree the economic functioning of intellectual property is considered in competition regulation and how much the economic functioning of the licence agreement is considered. The investigation mainly consists of a comparative analysis of EC competition law and American antitrust law concerning the economic arguments and their importance. The treatment of territorial restrictions, field of use restrictions, quantity clauses, tie-outs, tie-ins, grant back, no-challenge clauses and price restrictions are of special interest here. </p><p>This study shows that an economically realistic view of competition has influenced current EC competition law, especially in the Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (TTBER). Exceptions from this development in the EC law are mainly due to the goal of integration of the common market. Territorial restrictions are strictly regulated in the TTBER even when the parties’ market shares are below the market thresholds defined in the regulation.</p><p>The function of intellectual property rights are not much considered in EC competition law but there are general remarks about the economic functioning of patents in the Guidelines for the TTBER. However, it is difficult to find evidence for economic reasoning about patents in the formation of concrete rules. On the contrary, patents are weakened by the widened concept of exhaustion presented in the Guidelines.</p><p>The economic functioning of the licence agreement is considered in the rules of TTBER and the economic arguments for clauses which create incentives for making investments or give the possibility of control are acknowledged. However, the free riding argument has a weak position when applied to territorial restrictions, which are more formalistically regulated.</p><p>The EC competition law has become more similar to American antitrust law. The decisive difference consists in the judicial treatment of territorial restrictions, where the goal of integration is still of central importance in EC law.</p>

The purpose of this thesis is to describe and analyse the significance of economic thinking and arguments in the treatment of licence agreements in EC competition law. A central question is to what degree the concept of competition in EC law reflects an economically realistic approach to competition. The study also investigates to what degree the economic functioning of intellectual property is considered in competition regulation and how much the economic functioning of the licence agreement is considered. The investigation mainly consists of a comparative analysis of EC competition law and American antitrust law concerning the economic arguments and their importance. The treatment of territorial restrictions, field of use restrictions, quantity clauses, tie-outs, tie-ins, grant back, no-challenge clauses and price restrictions are of special interest here. This study shows that an economically realistic view of competition has influenced current EC competition law, especially in the Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation (TTBER). Exceptions from this development in the EC law are mainly due to the goal of integration of the common market. Territorial restrictions are strictly regulated in the TTBER even when the parties’ market shares are below the market thresholds defined in the regulation. The function of intellectual property rights are not much considered in EC competition law but there are general remarks about the economic functioning of patents in the Guidelines for the TTBER. However, it is difficult to find evidence for economic reasoning about patents in the formation of concrete rules. On the contrary, patents are weakened by the widened concept of exhaustion presented in the Guidelines. The economic functioning of the licence agreement is considered in the rules of TTBER and the economic arguments for clauses which create incentives for making investments or give the possibility of control are acknowledged. However, the free riding argument has a weak position when applied to territorial restrictions, which are more formalistically regulated. The EC competition law has become more similar to American antitrust law. The decisive difference consists in the judicial treatment of territorial restrictions, where the goal of integration is still of central importance in EC law.

This thesis explores how massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs), as an exemplary new media form, disrupt practices associated with more conventional media. These intensely social games exploit the interactivity and networks afforded by new media technologies in ways that generate new challenges for the organisation, control and regulation of media. The involvement of players in constituting these games - through their production of game-play, derivative works and strong social networks that drive the profitability of the games - disrupts some of the key foundations that underlie other publication media. MMOGs represent a new and hybrid form of media - part publication and part service. As such they sit within a number of sometimes contradictory organising and regulatory regimes. This thesis examines the negotiations and struggles for control between players, developers and publishers as issues of ownership, governance and access arise out of the new configurations. Using an ethnographic approach to gather information and insights into the practices of players, developers and publishers, this project identifies the characteristics of the distributed production network in this experiential medium. It explores structural components of successful interactive applications and analyses how the advent of player agency and the shift in authorship has meant a shift in control of the text and the relations that surround it. The integration of social networks into the textual environment, and into the business model of the media publishers has meant commerce has become entwined with affect in a new way in this medium. Publishers have moved into the role of both property managers, of the intellectual property associated with the game content, and community managers. Intellectual property management is usually associated with the reproduction and distribution of finished media products, and this sits uneasily with the performative and mutable form of this medium. Service provision consists of maintaining the game world environment, community management, providing access for players to other players and to the content generated both by the developers and the other players. Content in an MMOG is identified in this project as both the 'tangible' assets of code and artwork, rules and text, and the 'intangible' or immaterial assets of affective networks. Players are no longer just consumers of media, or even just active interpreters of media. They are co-producing the media as it is developed. This thesis frames that productiveness as unpaid labour, in an attempt to denaturalise the dominant discourse which casts players as consumers. The regulation of this medium is contentious. Conventional forms of media regulation - such as copyright, or content regulation regimes are inadequate for regulating the hybrid service/publication medium. This thesis explores how the use of contracts as the mechanism which constitutes the formal relations between players, publishers and developers creates challenges to some of the regimes of juridical and political rights held by citizens more generally. This thesis examines the productive practices of players and how the discourses of intellectual property and the discourses of the consumer are mobilised to erase the significance of those productive contributions. It also shows, using a Foucauldian analysis of the power negotiations, that players employ many counter-strategies to circumvent the more formal legal structures of the publishers. The dialogic relationship between players, developers and publishers is shown to mobilise various discursive constructions of the role of each. The outcome of these ongoing negotiations may well shape future interactive applications and the extent to which their innovative capacities will be available for all stakeholders to develop.

The thesis deals with legislative regulation of franchising in the Czech Republic and which areas of law have influence on franchise agreements and how is this relationship to other areas of law solved. The thesis focuses on content of franchise agreements, on typical provisons of franchise agreements according to antitrust law, on protection of intellectual property rights, on unfair competiton and on personal data protection. Some aspects are discussed according to laws of the USA and Germany and are compared to Czech legislation. Available court decisions which deal with franchising were also used in the thesis. Gained knowledge was used to analyze franchise agreement of NATURHOUSE and to suggest some improvemenst in the agreement.