Digital technology: its impact on copyright law and practice in North America

Legal context. The effect of rapid technological change on copyrightlaw in Canada and the United States, and in particular on thebalance between creators' rights and users' rights. Key points. Copyright law involves a balance between the rightsof both creators and users. When initially faced with fast-evolvingdigital technology, the courts struggled with the balancingact and tipped it in favour of users' rights. The Supreme Courtof Canada elevated various exceptions to infringement to userrights, and cautioned against a low standard of originalitywhich would favour creators' rights. The US Court of Appealsremarked that introduction of new technology is disruptive tocopyright owners whose works are sold through traditional mechanisms;and others suggested that a bias in favour of owners rightsmay have well impeded the development of digital culture. Despitethe initial struggles, legislative changes, market forces andrecent deference by the courts to the balancing of various interests,have slowly restored the copyright balance, even when facedwith rapid technological change. Practical significance. Copyright litigants must give carefulconsideration to the balance between creators' and users' rights,and be prepared to justify traditional copyright protectionin fields of new technology.     

Singing from the same sheet: computational melodic similarity measurement and copyright law

Musical plagiarism is an area of law that is not only of interest to lawyers but captures the curiosity of the public, induces apprehension in the composer and now intrigues the computer scientist. Attention increases in the case of celebrated artists when the revenue is likely to be significant, and when the allegation is one of a perceived similarity between the infringing and infringed works. Despite the broad interest and frequently high commercial significance of this issue, there has been little systematic research into what constitutes musical plagiarism from either a technical or perceptual perspective. This article discusses some suggestions made to date for introducing a technical measurement of musical similarity in copyright disputes before presenting our own computational system. The novelty of our proposal arises from an interdisciplinary approach combining computational, musicological, and psychological perspectives to emulate legal principles, mimic the reasonable listener as well as copy the type of evidence often presented in these cases.     

(Let's) playing by the rules: A choice of law rule for communication of copyright material from video games to the public,through Let's Plays

Several proposals have been made regarding a choice of law rule for ‘ubiquitous infringements’ (the unauthorised dissemination of copyright material online) but none have been implemented by national courts, which continue to struggle with the issue of what law determines whether ubiquitous infringements have occurred. This article explores fresh solutions to that issue, focusing on the scenario where copyright material from video games is communicated to the public, through its inclusion in Let's Plays (playthroughs of video games streamed from platforms like YouTube), or where such use of that material, under the terms of a license, is contemplated. In this scenario, the issue of infringement should be governed by the law of the place of the video game developer's incorporation, as a proxy for laws qualifying as the lex loci protectionis (law of the country where protection is sought (Fawcett & Torremans (2011)), abbreviated as the LLP). Where any party can prove specific differences between the law of the place of the developer's incorporation and a law qualifying as the LLP (called State A's law for ease of reference), in aspects essential for deciding whether infringement has occurred, the forum court must issue separate rulings as to whether (i) the claimant's copyrights under State A's laws have been infringed; and (ii) the claimant's copyrights under laws besides those of State A have been infringed. Courts should also adopt, as a mandatory rule of their domestic law, a rule precluding de facto infringements of copyrights in video games and/or their constituent elements from giving rise to liability for infringement.     

试论生物技术对传统法律体系的挑战

科技是开放的，法律是保守的。生物科技的进步必然会对现有的法律体系造成巨大的冲击，导致法律体系的重构和优化。本文系统的分析了生物技术对传统法律体系的影响，就宏观内容而言，从五个层次上探讨了生物技术对传统法律体系的挑战，包括：人的法律主体地位受到挑战、国际关系发生重大变化、国家安全与国家利益受到影响、群体基因资源的保护和利用出现新问题、传统个人权利体系受到巨大冲击；就传统民事权利体系而言，本文详细的分析了具体的生物技术对每一项民事权利的影响和冲击，找到其中的焦点与热点。此外，本文还就科技进步与法律、道德的互动作用提出了自己的看法，认为科技的进步势不可挡；法律的最终调控必将实现；道德的磨合、过渡作用不可忽视。     

试论生物技术对传统法律体系的挑战

科技是开放的,法律是保守的。生物科技的进步必然会对现有的法律体系造成巨大的冲击,导致法律体系的重构和优化。本文系统的分析了生物技术对传统法律体系的影响,就宏观内容而言,从五个层次上探讨了生物技术对传统法律体系的挑战,包括:人的法律主体地位受到挑战、国际关系发生重大变化、国家安全与国家利益受到影响、群体基因资源的保护和利用出现新问题、传统个人权利体系受到巨大冲击;就传统民事权利体系而言,本文详细的分析了具体的生物技术对每一项民事权利的影响和冲击,找到其中的焦点与热点。此外,本文还就科技进步与法律、道德的互动作用提出了自己的看法,认为科技的进步势不可挡;法律的最终调控必将实现;道德的磨合、过渡作用不可忽视。     

Posner versus Kelsen: the challenges for scientific analysis of law

Law & economics scholars claim, among other things, to provide explanations of how law impacts behaviour. The aim of this article is to shed light on the conceptual and methodological difficulties related to analysis of the impact that law has on behaviour. The analysis advanced in the paper takes as its starting point a commentary on Richard Posner’s interpretation of Hans Kelsen’s pure theory of law. The work of Kelsen is treated as a meta-theoretical analysis that reveals some of the presumptions of theoretical approaches to law that claim to be scientific and, in particular, that claim to scientifically analyse the law’s influence on behaviour. The article concludes with a methodological proposal on how to approach the identified methodological challenges and conceptual tensions that law & economics contends with.     

Data protection by design and technology neutral law

This article argues that to achieve a technology neutral law, technology specific law is sometimes required. To explain this we discriminate between three objectives, often implied in the literature on technological neutrality of law. The first we call the compensation objective, which refers to the need to have technology specific law in place whenever specific technological designs threated the substance of human rights. The second we call the innovation objective, referring to the need to prevent legal rules from privileging or discriminating specific technological designs in ways that would stifle innovation. The third we call the sustainability objective, which refers to the need to enact legislation at the right level of abstraction, to prevent the law from becoming out of date all too soon. The argument that technology neutral law requires compensation in the form of technology specific law is built on a relational conception of technology, and we explain that though technology in itself is neither good nor bad, it is never neutral. We illustrate the relevance of the three objectives with a discussion of the EU cookie Directive of 2009. Finally we explain the salience of the legal obligation of Data Protection by Design in the proposed General Data Protection Regulation and test this against the compensation, innovation and sustainability objectives.     

科技法制：依法治国与科教兴国的战略结合

新的历史时期,全面回顾我国科技法制建设的伟大里程,意义重大。在经济全球化和新科技革命交互作用的大背景下,我国改革开放30年的一大成功实践,是把依法治国基本方略和科教兴国发展战略有机结合,运用科学技术基本法及相关法律的强大武器,大力促进、引导、规范和保障科学技术进步与创新,为推进中国特定社会主义现代化事业提供了强大支撑。     

Overcoming barriers to technology transfer between small business assistance agencies and their clients: Third world style

This paper presents the results of an empirical examination of the methods small business assistance agencies in the Dominican Republic use to overcome technology transfer barriers. The availability and the methods agencies use to access the world's business knowledge are examined, as well as how the agencies disseminate the information to clients. The discussion identifies barriers that inhibit the flow of client information between (1) the knowledge pool and the agencies and (2) the agencies and the client. The strategies that agencies use to overcome barriers are characterized as push or pull, and informal or formal. Pull strategies begin with marketplace need and work toward the technology to solve the problem. Push strategies begin with specific business information and work toward its acceptance and use in the marketplace by clients. Personal interviews were conducted in Spanish with heads of the 13 assistance agencies in the country. Survey participants were asked about the processes, procedures, and techniques they used to gain and transfer business skills. The study identifies specific activities in which the agencies engage in order to effectively overcome barriers to the transfer of business knowledge.     

The proposed model surrogate parenthood act: a legislative response to the challenges of reproductive technology

In this Article, Manus proposes a Model Surrogate Parenthood Act. He examines the medical and scientific history of surrogacy and reviews the jurisprudence in the area, specifically the constitutional relationship between procreation rights and surrogacy. The author asserts that surrogate motherhood cannot be, and indeed, should not be, eradicated through legislation criminalizing it. The proposed Model Act, presented here in its entirety, attempts to reduce the problems inherent in the concept of surrogate parenthood by putting the process under strict court supervision and by zealously protecting the rights of the surrogate mother and the child to be conceived.     

Attack of the killer acronyms: the future of information technology law

This paper looks at the field of information technology (IT) law and its reliance on the buzzwords, jargon and acronyms that tend to alienate serious discussion about some of the deeper socio‐legal issues involved. It is often easy to become confused by the terminology and the technology, which has led to some non‐issues receiving too much interest (the year 2000 bug for example) and some valuable and worthy topics being almost ignored. Some writers and researchers may be tempted to neglect the field because of a lack of understanding of the technology, which may eventually lead to the end of IT law as a serious field of research. This paper will attempt to re‐ignite the jurisprudential debate about the future of IT law research, teaching and practice by looking at the possible trends emerging from the literature.