A System Out of Balance: A Critical Analysis of Philosophical Justifications for Copyright Law through the Lenz of Users’ Rights

Longan, Mitchell (2023) A System Out of Balance: A Critical Analysis of Philosophical Justifications for Copyright Law through the Lenz of Users’ Rights. Michigan Journal of Law Reform, 56. ISSN 0363-602X

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Abstract

Ultimately, this paper has three goals. The first is to offer an analysis of users’ rights under copyright law from four commonly used theoretical perspectives. These are labor, personality, economic and utilitarian theories. In doing so, it will demonstrate that the philosophies that underpin modern copyright law support a broad and liberal set of rights for derivative creativity. It will argue that current treatment of derivative works is unnecessarily conservative from a theoretical perspective. Second, this paper will demonstrate how, in spite of theory that supports a healthy community of derivative creativity, those who practice it have been further disenfranchised by the law. It will argue term limit extensions, increased protectionist treatment of secondary works online, and the functional lack of access to proper licensing mechanisms have rendered users’ rights impotent. Finally, in conclusion, it will offer a solution to the apparent imbalance of power in the form of replacing property-based derivative rights with liability rules. The conclusion, in many ways, merits its own paper and is meant as merely a suggestion of direction rather than a formulated solution.

Item Type: Article
Identification Number: 10.36646/mjlr.56.3.system
Dates:
Date
Event
22 April 2022
Accepted
31 July 2023
Published Online
Subjects: CAH16 - law > CAH16-01 - law > CAH16-01-01 - law
Divisions: Faculty of Business, Law and Social Sciences > College of Law, Social and Criminal Justice
Depositing User: Mitchell Longan
Date Deposited: 25 Apr 2022 09:16
Last Modified: 09 Aug 2023 15:49
URI: https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/13177

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