Law Commons^™

Research Exceptions In Comparative Copyright, Sean Flynn, Luca Schirru, Michael Palmedo, Andrés Izquierdo

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

This Article categorizes the world’s copyright laws according to the degree to which they provide exceptions to copyright exclusivity for research uses. We classify countries based on the degree to which they have a research exception in their law that is sufficiently open to be able to permit reproduction and communications of copyrighted work needed for academic (i.e. non-commercial) text and data mining (TDM) research. We show that nearly every copyright law has at least one exception that promotes uses for research purposes. We find six different approaches to the provision of research exceptions that implicate application to TDM. Notably, …

Research Exceptions In Comparative Copyright Law, Sean Flynn, Michael Palmedo, Andrés Izquierdo

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Recent scholarship has highlighted the positive impact on scholarship of copyright exceptions for text and data mining and of more “open” exceptions for research uses. Until now, however, there has not been a collection and categorization of the world’s copyright laws according to the degree to which they provide exceptions for research. In this report, we release the results of the first such study. We show that every copyright law in the world has at least one exception to promote research uses of copyrighted works, but that such exceptions vary widely between countries. We conclude that the world’s exceptions for …

The User Rights Database: Measuring The Impact Of Opening Copyright Exceptions, Sean Flynn, Michael Palmedo

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

International and domestic copyright law reform around the world is increasingly focused on how copyright exceptions — a.k.a. “user rights” —should be expanded to promote maximum innovation, creativity, and access to knowledge in the digital age. These efforts are guided by a relatively rich theoretical literature. However, few empirical studies explore the social and economic impact of expanding user rights in the digital era. One reason for this gap has been the absence of a tool measuring the key independent variable – changes in copyright user rights over time and between countries. We are developing such a tool, which we …

Comments On Alrc Discussion Paper 79, Copyright And The Digital Economy, June M. Besek, Jane C. Ginsburg, Philippa Loengard

Faculty Scholarship

We provide these comments in connection with the Australian Law Reform Commission’s ongoing study of copyright and the digital economy, and in particular its request for comments on the recommendations put forth in its Discussion Paper 79 (June 2013). We focus on US law, and how the US experience bears on the possibility of an open-ended uncompensated "fair use" type exception in Australia, and other related issues.

The fair use doctrine in the US provides great flexibility, but that flexibility in many instances comes at the cost of certainty and predictability. We are not suggesting that reasonable judgments cannot be …

Why Cherry Picking Never Leads To Harmonisation: The Case Of The Limitations On Copyright Under Directive 2001/29/Ec, Lucie Guibault

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The article examines whether the norms laid down in the Directive in relation to the exceptions and limitations on copyright and related rights can be conducive to a sensible degree of harmonisation across the European Union. Before discussing the degree of harmonisation achieved so far by the Directive, the first part gives a short overview of the main characteristics of the list of exceptions and limitations contained in Article 5 of the Directive. A comprehensive review of the implementation of each limitation by the Member States is beyond the scope of this article. The following section takes a closer look …