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Benabou, Valerie Laure --- "European Competition Law and Copyright: Where do we Stand? Where do we go?" [2009] ELECD 180; 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 21

Section Title: European Competition Law and Copyright: Where do we Stand? Where do we go?

Author(s): Benabou, Valerie Laure

Number of pages: 24

Extract:

20 Relationship between copyright and contract
law
Lucie Guibault



1. Introduction
Contracts play a fundamental role in copyright law, for without them the
production and dissemination of works to the public would be most problem-
atic. Indeed, contracts enable authors to transact with the party who is best
suited to commercially exploit their works, as well as to set the conditions
under which they want to disseminate these to the public. An age-old practice
has developed among authors to conclude agreements with publishers and
other categories of producers with a view to authorizing the latter to exploit
their works. Such agreements usually take the form of either an assignment of
rights in favour of the producer or an exclusive licence to exploit the work. In
recent years, rights owners have also taken up the practice of marketing their
works to end-users subject to the terms of a standard form contract. Standard
form contracts play an increasing role in the mass-market distribution of copy-
righted works, particularly in the digital networked environment.
In application of the principle of freedom of contract, parties are free to
negotiate the content of their agreement, so as to best suit their needs and to
ensure the most efficient exploitation and dissemination of their works.
Circumstances may occur, however, where the strict application of the princi-
ple of freedom of contract can lead to unfair results for at least one of the
parties. It is indeed not uncommon to see that authors are ...