Balancing in Light of the Purposes of Copyright: Whether Video Music Lessons Constitute Copyright Infringement

Faced with diminished sources of revenue, school systems in recent years have cut funding for music education. Looking for alternative ways to learn about music, budding musicians have turned to the Internet. On YouTube and other Web sites, visitors can view thousands of instructional videos on how to play popular songs, complex genres, and a seemingly unlimited variety of musical techniques. Despite altruistic motivations, creators of video music lessons routinely use copyrighted content during lessons. This article argues that the defense of fair use should protect the creators of video music lessons from liability in a copyright infringement lawsuit. Specifically, the author argues that it is the purpose of copyright law to promote knowledge and that video music lessons further this objective.     

实现司法公平正义面临的新形势新课题

公平正义是社会主义法治的价值追求,司法公正是司法活动体现出来的公平正义;司法公正是相对的;司法实现公平正义面临新的形势、新的问题、新的要求和新的课题;实践公平正义必须做好社会理论的、法律制度的和司法人才的准备.     

著作权转换性使用的本土路径重塑

著作权转换性使用作为判定新型合理使用行为的一个重要因素,有着重要的理论价值和实践意义。然而,在我国转换性使用的司法实践中,却存在着对转换性使用体系认知不足、释法路径不当,以及运作体系不畅的现实困境。从本质上而言,转换性使用蕴含着促进公共利益的直接价值取向,但其并不具有独立判定合理使用成立与否的规则效力。基于此,为了更好地发挥转换性使用的内在价值和功能,一方面需要确立开放式合理使用的一般规则,进一步规范转换性使用的司法判定,以增强合理使用分析的灵活性和可操作性;另一方面,需要明确转换性合理使用的法定情形,以提升合理使用分析的确定性和周延性。     

Preserving the Copyright Balance: Statutory and Constitutional Preemption of Contract-Based Claims

Some copyright owners in the digital age have turned from copyright to contract law to protect their intellectual property, employing licensing agreements that override fair use and other public interest safeguards. State laws or common law claims that conflict with general copyright policy may be preempted through application of Section 301 of the Copyright Act or through general Supremacy Clause preemption. This article examines the role of preemption in protecting the public interest against attempts to circumvent the copyright law through such means. After examining the relationship between copyright and contract law, the article reviews the case law regarding statutory preemption and Supremacy Clause preemption of contract-based claims. It concludes that application of Section 301 preemption is not sufficient to protect longstanding principles in copyright law that are at risk from the increased use of contracts to displace default copyright rules. The article calls for the courts to return to Supremacy Clause preemption to prevent the degradation of important public interest safeguards in the copyright law.     

The role of standardization and interoperability in copyright protection of computer software

Copyright protection for computer software often presents a contradiction between law and the desired public policy that is the law's inspiration. The law provides incentives to individuals to create intellectual property by protecting authors through monopolistic controls on copying and distributing the authors' work. Conferring too much protection, however, may reduce incentives to create competitive products in the same market, defeating the law's constitutional purpose of encouraging the “Progress of Science and the useful Arts.” Two characteristics of computer software, technical standards and interoperability, compound this contradiction. Using economic literature on standards and the recent line of Lotus v. Borland cases, this article examines the role of standardization and interoperability in copyright protection of computer software, and suggests a part for the fair‐use defense in such cases.     

Lowering the Bar: Privileged Court Filings as Substitutes for Press Releases in the Court of Public Opinion

In the civil lawsuit against Kobe Bryant for sexual assault, the judge admonished lawyers for engaging in “public relations litigation”—the use of pleadings to attract media attention and try cases in the court of public opinion. This article examines the legal ramifications of such practices and the doctrines of law that encourage some lawyers and litigants to use pleadings as a form of press release. These include the law of republication and the fair report and judicial privileges as well as the power of judges to gag trial participants. The article concludes that courts have adequate tools to control such practices, and lawyers and public relations professionals can responsibly use court documents to communicate with the public, so long as they do not abuse the judicial process.     

监所检察权利保障职能的优化与实现-基于对新《刑事诉讼法》的研判

修改后的《刑事诉讼法》基于司法文明的要求,在更高层次和水平上完善了监所检察权利保障的司法职能。然而,监所检察．Y-作的客观现状与新《刑事诉讼法》的现实要求之间的矛盾在一定程度上消弭和制约了监所检察监督职能的发挥。因此,如何深化对新《刑事诉讼法》中涉及监所检察权利保障理念变革与制度更新的思考,是我们全面落实新《刑事诉讼法》、正确履行监所检察权利保障职能着重探讨的课题。我们应当以强化监所检察权利保障的理论基础为逻辑起点,优化监所检察权利保障职能的立法设计,并就如何落实好、发挥好新《刑事诉讼法》赋予监所检察的权利保障职能,解决好监所检察的执法理念转变、加强基础保障和机制创新等问题作出贡献。     

公益保护、行政处罚与行政公益诉讼——杭州市药监局江干分局“撮合私了”案引发的思考

药监局"撮合私了"行为的实质是放弃处罚权的不作为违法。销售假药之违法行为严重损害了社会公众的用药安全,同时破坏了市场主体的公平竞争秩序。违法行为所侵害的公共利益具有潜在危险性和主体不特定性特点,只有通过行政处罚才能修复违法行为所侵害的公共利益,所以,应当原则上禁止"撮合私了"。《治安管理处罚法》第9条的规定只是这个原则的例外,是在违法行为社会危害不大的前提下,综合考虑受害人补偿、调查成本等因素的制度选择。基于行政执法程序天然的利益对抗不足之缺陷,为了纠正随意"撮合私了"之违法行为,保护社会公众的用药安全与公平竞争权,将来修改《行政诉讼法》时应当确立行政公益诉讼制度。     

Considering the consequences of increased reliance on judicial assistants: a study on Dutch courts

Virtually all judicial systems employ judicial staff members to assist judges in their work. However, except for US Supreme Court law clerks the role of these judicial assistants in judicial decision-making is minimally understood. This observation also holds true for the Netherlands, where an increased focus on managerial issues, such as efficiency and effectiveness, seems to have resulted in a growing number of judicial duties being assigned to judicial assistants. This article provides an initial reflection on such reliance on assistants. The context in which this development occurred is clarified, and the manifestation of the role of judicial assistants within the judicial process is described. This article also discusses two factors that require consideration when reliance on assistants increases: (1) the mechanisms for safeguarding the profession of the judge and the judicial assistant; and (2) the position of the judicial assistant in the judicial decision-making process. The consideration demonstrates the advantages of employing judicial assistants and also sheds light on serious risks relating to an increased role of judicial assistants in judicial decision-making.     

论著作权合理使用制度的适用范围

由于合理使用处在权利与限制的交界处,其适用范围的任何变化,都可能重塑著作权法。面对新技术的冲击,在确定合理使用的适用范围时,不能因技术的便利而干涉著作权市场对信息资源的配置,而应恪守合理使用最初的立法理由,将其定位为对市场失灵的弥补,在利用行为有助于公共利益的基础上,考察其是否符合交易不能或正外部性市场失灵,同时把对作品潜在市场的影响视为最关键的判断标准。这不但维护了著作权的私权属性,更是界定合理使用适用范围的最佳路径。     

论我国反商业贿赂立法之缺失与完善

商业贿赂是一种不正当竞争行为,同时也是腐败的一种重要表现形式,它侵害了市场经济的公平竞争秩序,腐蚀了我国的廉政制度,严重影响了我国市场经济的健康发展。然而,我国现行的反商业贿赂立法存在法条分散、概念界定模糊、司法解释缺失等问题,从而给执法部门在司法实践中造成了很大的困难。因此,明确商业贿赂的范围、构成要件和法律责任对于我国现阶段开展反商业贿赂专项治理具有十分重要的意义。     

The Development of the Implied Terms on Quantity in the Law of Sale of Goods

The history of the development of the implied terms on short delivery is a complex story of judicial and academic ignorance of law and facts. Sir Mackenzie Chalmers' statutory formulation of the right to correct delivery was the same as that provided in Judah Benjamin's 1868 work on sales. However, Benjamin's formulation was flawed, which led to a highly unsatisfactory rule of law. This article considers the history of the case law on short delivery, leading up to the 1893 codification. The operation of the statutory rule further illustrates the depth of confusion which remained following codification. A comparison with the history of short delivery in the United States demonstrates that the confusion within the English system could easily have been avoided.     

WTO协议与司法审查

司法审查在世界贸易组织协议 (简称WTO协议 )中被多次提到 ,虽然WTO协议没有规定各国应制定统一的司法审查制度 ,但司法审查制度在各成员方履行WTO协议义务方面是非常重要的。本文首先分析WTO协议对司法审查制度的具体规定 ,然后探讨了司法审查的国内法制度的背景及其原则 ,再次 ,重点分析了我国关于司法审查的国内法制度及我国加入WTO时关于司法审查的具体承诺 ,最后作者结合司法审查与WTO争端解决机制的关系及司法审查的理念对我国的司法审查制度的完善提出了一些建议     

To share is fair: The changing face of China's fair use doctrine in the sharing economy and beyond

Copyrighted works are greatly entwined with the concept of the sharing economy because of their status as informational public goods. Unlike commercial sharing models that address tangible goods such as bikes and houses, the sharing of which is limited by their physical nature, sharing models for intangible copyrighted works such as Google Books and live game webcasting must account for the comparatively unfettered ability for these to be shared. Accordingly, these models are more focused on exploiting such works to their full commercial potential. However, these sharing models are to a large extent based on the unauthorised exploitation of copyrighted works and will be unworkable if the related copyright issues cannot be solved. The interest that copyright owners have in exclusivity must thus be balanced with the public's interest in further exploitation of copyrighted works. Article 22 of the Copyright Law of China outlines an exhaustive list of copyright exceptions; such a restrictive list is incompatible with the sharing economy. The Chinese courts have realised this problem and have gone beyond the law in their judgments, taking a cue from their US counterparts. However, many of these decisions appear to be inconsistent with one another.To address the aforementioned problems, this paper examines the latest proposed amendment to the Copyright Law of China and proposes several legislative and judicial actions that could help promote the sharing economy. At the legislative level, enacting legislation based on a refined open-ended fair use model is necessary to promote the development of the sharing economy. At the judicial level, Chinese courts should employ the concept of transformative use to correctly interpret legislation based on the proposed open-ended model. With transformative use as the cornerstone of copyright policy, the public gains the freedom to share others’ works, participate in the innovation process, and create works with new value. Moreover, authors would retain an incentive to create works under such a legal regime because market substitution will not occur if a work is used for a different expressive purpose than that for which the work was originally created. Thus, a balance can be achieved between promoting the sharing economy and protecting the exclusivity of copyright in China.     

公平竞争权之质疑——对《最高人民法院关于执行〈中华人民共和国行政诉讼法〉若干问题的解释》第13条的重新审视

根据《最高人民法院关于执行〈中华人民共和国行政诉讼法〉若干问题的解释》第13条规定,若具体行政行为涉及相关主体公平竞争权,则应赋予相关主体原告资格。在竞争法学研究中,有从法学理论角度将反不正当竞争法所保护的经营者合法权益概括为公平竞争权,亦有从司法实践中试图发现并提炼出经营者公平竞争权。为审慎对待该新型权利的创设和生成,有必要结合竞争法和行政法相关理论和司法实践,对公平竞争权是否应当成为法定权利进行评析。     

关于我国反垄断立法的再思考

本文认为,反垄断法的目的在于维护"公正且自由"的市场竞争秩序、确保市场能充分地发挥其机制作用、合理和效率性地配置有限的社会资源。因此,在立法上应建立起统一的"违法性"判断标准和专一的执法体制;而在规制模式的选择上,应以"行为规制"为主,"消极防御式"的结构性规制手段为辅;以"年度的销售总额"为基准设定较为适宜的法定"规模要件",作为"事前申报制度"的基础;而以反垄断法来规制"行政垄断"只能说是权宜之计,这一问题的解决有待于行政体制改革的深化;我国的反垄断执法机构应是"行政型"的,其特殊的执法程序应法定。     

Are Judicial Performance Evaluations Fair to Women and Minorities? A Cautionary Tale from Clark County,Nevada

Because voters rely on judicial performance evaluations when casting their ballots, policymakers should work diligently to compile valid, reliable, and unbiased information about our sitting judges. Although some claim that judicial performance evaluations are fair, the systematic research needed to establish such a proposition has not been done. By the use of attorney judicial performance survey data from Clark County, Nevada, this analysis shows that objective measures of judicial performance cannot explain away differences in scores based on race and sex. Minority judges and female judges score consistently and significantly lower than do their white and male counterparts, all other things being equal. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that judicial performance evaluation surveys may carry with them unexamined and unconscious gender/race biases. Future research must compare judicial performance evaluation structure, content, and execution across states in order to identify those evaluation mechanisms least susceptible to unconscious gender and race bias.     

Introducing the Open Clause to improve copyright flexibility in cyberspace? Analysis and commentary on the proposed “two-step test” in the Third Amendment to the Copyright Law of the PRC,in comparison with the EU and the US

The so called “three-step test”, that the limitations and exceptions of copyright shall be allowed in certain special cases, provided that they do not conflict with a normal exploitation of the work and do not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the author, grants copyright flexibilities to balance the interests of all stakeholders, especially within the European system of circumscribed limitations and exceptions. This is essential for the domain of computer law, confronted by rapid and unpredictable global technological developments, and is, thus, enshrined in the most important international intellectual property (IP) treaties. Through the proposed third amendment to the Copyright Law of the PRC, the legislature intends to adopt this test while also introducing an open-ended list of limitations and exceptions that constitutes a China-specific “two-step test.” This contravenes prima facie the thesis endorsed by the WTO Panel in the case concerning Section 110(5) of the US Copyright Act in 2000. In contrast, court decisions in China frequently apply the fair use doctrine of US copyright law, neglecting to consider its peculiar context of the US common law tradition and, thus, unduly expanding the Chinese courts' discretionary power.This paper summarizes the case law in China and takes a comparative approach to address the divergence between the judicial application of cyber copyright law and the existing legislation. It suggests revising the proposed Article 43 of the Copyright Law of the PRC to capture the due interpretation of the three-step test, thereby finessing the delineation between rights protection and free use with the compensation of remuneration under the principle of proportionality. It argues that transplanting the US fair use doctrine into Chinese copyright law is feasible, but with the preconditions of endeavouring to strengthen judicial reform to integrate the IP adjudication systems, enhancing the coherence and efficiency of copyright enforcement, and facilitating consistent dialogues between scholars, practitioners, and lawmakers.     

商标注册所依赖的商标使用研究——从TRIPS第15条第3款谈起

注册和使用是两种取得商标权的方式,TRIPS第15条第3款提供了一种使商标注册依赖商标使用的可能,这种可能的价值在于在坚持使用取得商标权的同时,尽量吸收注册制度的有益元素。英国和德国承认使用和注册都能取得商标权,但商标注册并不依赖商标使用,法国商标权只能通过注册取得,而商标使用却并不是注册的条件。美国联邦商标注册制度是TRIPS第15条第3款所提出的可能性的典型代表,它坚持商标使用产生商标权,发挥商标注册所具有的宣示商标权的作用,而且通过将注册申请视为"建设性使用"而使注册对商标权的归属有所影响。美国联邦商标注册所依赖的商标使用,通过成文法和司法案例来进行解读,成文法在司法审判中得以解释和细化,司法审判中形成的新规则又及时为成文法规所吸收,从而使成文法规得以不断发展,这对于我国如何完善立法是很好的榜样。     

WTO与中国社会主义市场法律制度建设问题

世界贸易组织规则及各种协议、协定是国际经济贸易法的重要组成部分。中国现行的经济法律 ,如市场主体法律制度、物权法律制度、合同法律制度、社会保障制度等 ,与世界贸易组织的规则是相通的。但是 ,对与国际经贸规则接轨、国民待遇、公平竞争、法律透明度及法制统一等理念还要进一步深化到经济立法中去。同时 ,要加紧制定民法典 ,加强电子商务等促进知识经济发展的立法 ,进一步完善商事法律体系 ,改进行政执法和司法。