May 18 Thu
2023

User Rights Network Symposium: Protecting Copyright User Rights from Contractual Override

09:00AM - 05:00PM Washington College of Law - Room Y403
It is a well-accepted principle in international and domestic copyright law that the rights of users are a fundamental part of the system. But what if the license under which the user obtains access to content inhibits the use that copyright law otherwise permits? International and domestic copyright are dealing with the problem of restrictions on user rights in a piecemeal fashion. The most recent multilateral copyright treaty, the Marrakesh Treaty, requires that Contracting Parties protects user rights to make accessible copies from override by technological measures, but does not address contract. Recent European Union directives require Member States to prohibit the enforcement of contract terms that restrict exercise of some of the exceptions mandated by those directives. Some individual countries (e.g. Singapore) have adopted protections from contractual override that apply to a broader range of exceptions. Despite having perhaps the most flexible and useful copyright exception in the world, the United States provides very little in the way of protection of fair uses from contractual or technological override.

The symposium will explore three questions:

Why have some jurisdictions adopted protections from contract override and not others?
What impacts have protections from contract override had on both licensors and licensees in the jurisdictions where they have been adopted?
In jurisdictions where protections from contract override have not been adopted, such as the United States, are there alternative legal theories that could have the same effect? 

Organizer

Prog Information Justice & Intellectual Property

Conference & Event Services

Where

Washington College of Law
4300 Nebraska Avenue, NW
Washington DC
20016