Software Protection in Convergent Multimedia Environment

Abstract

New technologies and its convergence for the creation and storage of cultural works threaten copyright, but add that what is historically remarkable is its resilience. On the contrary, hybrid legal regimes emerged outside classical frameworks, thus violating economic premises and historical balances of rights. Copyright law has by and large been formulated according to principles of “technological neutrality”. It has focused on the nature of the use of the work, rather than the medium, by which the use is accomplished, or the physical facilities or equipment involved. Thus the law has granted to copyright holders the right to reproduce the work, to adapt it, to perform it publicly, and to communicate it to the public. Nevertheless, the increased extension of copyright protection and increased capacity to store, transmit, process information enhances the ubiquity of creativeness, on one hand, multiplying the distribution chains for cultural goods and, on the other hand, making it easier to copy them. The immediate consequence of both is a gradually decreasing on the number of exceptions to the monopoly. This trend touched all fair uses, and led to the question about what will be the implications on economic competition and technological diffusion. The same forces that give rise to convergence have also given rise to problems for copyright model of technological neutrality: the technique and media have changed to such an extent that rights drafted to be neutral and capacious may either no longer fit, or may fit too much .It has therefore become necessary to re-examine the question of what rights should exist in which works, and how they can be enforced and licensed, in order to maintain meaningful incentives and appropriate balances .In other words, the causes of convergence may also lead to a potential convergence of separate right in the copyright “bundle” and a shift in the established boundaries, categories and roles of copyright law .

Keywords: technological neutrality, ubiquitous network, hybrid legal regimes, fair use, technological diffusion, copyright bundle, convergence