Browsing by Subject "Copyright law"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Open Access
    Digital licence agreements and their effects on acquisitions and academic library users
    (2005) Masango, Charles A
    The article examines the origin of print media copyright law and the fair dealing exemptions. It analyses whether the globally accepted assumptions that the print media fair dealing exemption is appropriate in the digital environment notwithstanding that corporate rights holders of online databases have introduced licences to govern the use of digital content. The article discusses the effects on acquisitions and academic library users of incorporating the print media fair dealing exemption in the digital licensing agreements.
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    Open Access
    ‘New hope for Africa? Copyright and Access to Knowledge in the Digital Age’
    (Emerald Insight, 2011) Schonwetter, Tobias; Ncube, Caroline
    Purpose – This paper's main purpose is to deepen the general understanding regarding copyright exceptions and limitations as an important balancing tool of copyright law, particularly for developing countries in Africa. It seeks to address the problematic interplay between copyright exceptions and limitations on the one hand and technological protection measures (TPMs) on the other. It then aims to offer a solution for mitigating the potentially detrimental impact of TPMs on otherwise‐permitted uses of copyright‐protected knowledge materials. Design/methodology/approach – The paper's approach is legal doctrinal research that relies exclusively on written texts. Findings – The paper finds that copyright exceptions and limitations are currently in tension with the legal regulation of TPMs and their circumvention. The two do not seem to be optimally balanced, with some African countries having adopted an unduly restrictive legal approach. The paper therefore suggests a more balanced model that is in keeping with developmental ends and human rights concerns. Originality/value – The paper makes a meaningful contribution by locating the discussion in Africa and providing a suggested equitable legal approach.
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    Open Access
    The European Union and its efforts concerning the harmonisation of copyright law
    (2000) Breuer, Stefan; Devine, Derry
    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.