Digital Copyright: Law and Practice

The first edition of this book in 2002 was the first UK text to examine digital copyright together with related areas such as performers' rights, moral rights, database rights and competition law as a subject in its own right. Updated editions have included the UK implementation of the 2001 Information Society Directive and commentary on user-generated content and the development of Web 2.0 and beyond. Now in its fourth edition, the book has been updated and revised to take account of legal and policy developments in copyright law and related areas, in particular the increasing role of the Court of Justice of the European Union in shaping EU copyright law. The book helps put digital copyright law and policy into perspective and provides practical guidance for those creating or exploiting digital content or technology, whether in academia, the software, information, publishing and creative industries, and other areas of the economy. The focus is on the specifics of the law in this area together with practical aspects, including precedents and precedent checklists dealing with common digital copyright transactions. The latest edition has been expanded to include a discussion of Open Access, eBooks and app development and licensing. Both academics and practitioners will find the book an invaluable guide to this rapidly developing field of law.

1 WHY DIGITAL COPYRIGHT MATTERS 1.1 Overview of this Book 1.2 Copyright: Its Scope and Rationale 1.3 The International Aspect of Copyright 1.4 The Digital Challenge to Copyright 1.5 Internet Technology and Copyright 1.6 International Legislation 1.7 The Future 2 DIGITAL COPYRIGHT: THE BASICS 2.1 Introduction 2.2 What Digital Copyright Protects 2.3 How Digital Copyright can be Infringed 2.4 Exceptions and Defences to Digital Copyright Infringement 2.5 Who Owns the Digital Copyright? 2.6 The Implementation of the Electronic Commerce and Information Society Directives into UK Law 3 DIGITAL DATABASE LAW AND THE INTERNET 3.1 The Relationship Between Copyright and Database Right 3.2 Digital Copyright Protection for Databases 3.3 Database Right Protection 3.4 Some Practical Suggestions 4 DIGITAL MORAL RIGHTS: THE BASICS 4.1 What are Digital Moral Rights? 4.2 How are Digital Moral Rights Infringed? 4.3 Dealing with Moral Rights in Practice 5 DIGITAL RIGHTS AND COMPETITION LAW 5.1 Overview: Competition Law and Digital Copyright 5.2 UK Competition Law 5.3 EU Law 5.4 Penalties for Breaching Competition Law 5.5 Implications for Digital Copyright Businesses 5.6 Concluding Comments 6 SOFTWARE COPYRIGHT 6.1 Code and Copyright: The Basics 6.2 The Software Directive 6.3 What Does Software Copyright Protect? 6.4 The Challenge of the Open Source Movement to Software Copyright 7 DIGITAL COPYRIGHT AND E-COMMERCE 7.1 Content Reuse 7.2 Licensing and Linking 7.3 Digital Image Protection 7.4 Lawful Use of Search Engines 7.5 Napster, Grokster, MP3 and Beyond: A UK view 7.6 Service Provider Liability 7.7 Standards and Web Content 7.8 Streaming Media and Digital Copyright 7.9 Technical Protection Measures and Fair Use: The End of Copyright? 8 DIGITAL COPYRIGHT, WEB 2.0, E-PUBLISHING AND APPS 8.1 Web 2.0 and Copyright 8.2 Fair Dealing and Web 2.0 8.3 Liability for Hosting and/or Distributing Infringing Content 8.4 E-publishing 8.5 App Development and Licensing 9 PROTECTING AND MANAGING YOUR DIGITAL COPYRIGHT ASSETS 9.1 General 9.2 Issues for Specific Industries 9.3 The Role of Collecting Societies in the Digital Environment 9.4 Orphan Works, Extended Collective Licensing and Digital Copyright Exchanges/Copyright Hubs 9.5 Precedent Checklists and Precedents