Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback Edited Legal Collections Data

Grosheide, Willem --- "Moral Rights" [2009] ELECD 169; in Derclaye, Estelle (ed), "Research Handbook on the Future of EU Copyright" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Future of EU Copyright

Editor(s): Derclaye, Estelle

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847203922

Section: Chapter 10

Section Title: Moral Rights

Author(s): Grosheide, Willem

Number of pages: 25

Extract:

9 Economic rights
Ansgar Ohly



1. Introduction
In the public perception copyright has advanced from a rather technical
subject to a topic of great common interest. In particular the relationship
between copyright and the public domain is the subject of considerable debate
on both sides of the Atlantic.1 Right holders, who are afraid of losing control
over their works in the digital environment, have successfully pushed for a
steady stengthening of copyright protection. On the other hand there is a grow-
ing awareness of users' rights and an increasing fear that copyright might
hinder rather than promote creativity. Sadly, this debate seems largely
restricted to some of the other topics discussed in this volume.2 There is
controversy about which subject-matter should be copyrightable, about
adequate copyright duration, about exceptions and limitations, about technical
protection measures and about new types of works such as databases. Other
issues such as moral rights and first ownership mirror the traditional differ-
ences between copyright systems and author's rights systems.3


1 An overview of the current debate is given by the contributions in Guibault,
Lucie and P. Bernt Hugenholtz (eds) (2006), The Future of the Public Domain, Alphen
aan den Rijn: Kluwer; Hilty, Reto M. and C. Geiger (eds), (2007), Impulse für eine
europäische Harmonisierung des Urheberrechts/Perspectives d'harmonisation du
droit d'auteur en Europe, Berlin, etc.: Springer; see also Geiger, C.,
` "Constitutionalising" Intellectual Property Law? The Influence of Fundamental
Rights on Intellectual Property in the European ...