Copyright and Contract Law: Regulating User Contracts: The State of the Art and a Research Agenda

Journal of Intellectual Property Law Volume 18 | Issue 1 Article 4 October 2010 Copyright and Contract Law: Regulating User Contracts: The State of the Art and a Research Agenda Estelle Derclaye Marcella Favale Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/jipl Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, Contracts Commons, and the Intellectual Property Law Commons Recommended Citation Estelle Derclaye & Marcella Favale, Copyright and Contract Law: Regulating User Contracts: The State of the Art and a Research Agenda, 18 J. Intell. Prop. L. 65 (2010). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/jipl/vol18/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Georgia Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Intellectual Property Law by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ Georgia Law. Please share how you have benefited from this access For more information, please contact . Derclaye and Favale: Copyright and Contract Law: Regulating User Contracts: The State COPYRIGHT AND CONTRACT LAW: REGULATING USER CONTRACTS: THE STATE OF THE ART AND A RESEARCH AGENDA* Estelle Derclaye* & Marcella Favale*" TABLE OF CONTENTS 67 I. INTRO D UCTIO N ........................................................................................ II. THE LIMITS OF COPYRIGHT LAW...........................................................68 A. THE LIMITED EFFECT OF COPYRIGHT LIMITS ON CONTRACTING OUT OF COPYRIGHT.......................................68 B. COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF COPYRIGHT LIMITS IN VARIOUS 71 CO UN TRIES .......................................................................................... III. THE UNITED STATES .............................................................. 72 IV. THE EUROPEAN UNION.......................................................................... A. THE UNITED KINGDOM....................................................................79 B. BELGIUM ............................................................................................... C. IRELA N D ............................................................................................... .................................................. D. PORTUGAL E. CON CLUSION ...................................................................................... 74 V. 83 87 89 91 92 ........................ ................. ACADEMIC COMMENTARY 92 A. CONTRACTS OVERRIDE USERS' FREEDOMS ................................... B. CONTRACTS ARE MORE EFFICIENT THAN COPYRIGHT..............96 C. COPYRIGHT AND CONTRACTS ARE INDEPENDENT.....................98 The authors would like to thank Professor Severine Dusollier (Belgium), Dr. Patricia Akester (Portugal) and Dr. John Cahir (Ireland) for the information they provided on the legal situation in their respective countries. Unless otherwise stated, this Article exclusively summarises the statutory law, the case law, and the literature and does not reflect the views of the authors. - Dr. Estelle Derclaye, Associate Professor and Reader in Intellectual Property Law, Author may be reached at University of Nottingham (http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/law). . - Dr. Marcella Favale, Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy at Bournemouth University (http://www.cippm.org.uk) and consultant at the law firm De Arcangelis, http://www.slida.it. Author may be reached at . 65 Published by Digital Commons @ Georgia Law, 2010 1 Journal of Intellectual Property Law, Vol. 18, Iss. 1 [2010], Art. 4 J. INTELL PROP.L 66 D. [Vol. 18:65 COPYRIGHT WORKS AND THEIR COMMERCIALISATION ............ 99 ........ 100 .............................. 1. Consumers ........ 102 a. The Enforceabiity of Electronic Contracts....... b. The Terms of the Electronic Licences......................................... 105 2. Librariesand EducationalInstitutions..............................................106 110 3. Com mercialUsers............................................................................. E. VI. VII. DOCTRINAL ANALYSIS OF CONTRACT LIMITS ................................ 110 1. Unconscionabilityand Good Faith.................................................... 2. Limits to ContractsSet by Copyright Law: The Doctrine of Preemption........................................................................................ 3. The Doctrines ofMisuse andAbuse of Rights................................... 4. OtherLimits to Contracts:Public Poky ........................................... 5. ConsumerProtection................................ 6. ConstitutionalLimitsto Contracts.................................................... 111 DIGITAL RIGHTS MANAGEMENT (DRM) AND THE ENFORCEMENT OF CONTRACTS.............................................................. A. THE DANGERS OF DIGITAL LOCK-UP .............................................. B. REMEDIES FOR USERS AGAINST "UNFAIR" DRM............................ C. INTERPLAY BETWEEN DRM AND CONTRACT................................. EMPIRICAL AND COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF USER CONTRACTS ................................................. .................. AND DRM DIFFUSED MATERIAL A. PROPORTION OF COPYRIGHT ELECTRON ICALLY ............................................................................... 114 118 120 121 123 126 126 130 132 133 133 .......... 133 ................................ 1. Contracts 136 2 . DR M ............................................................................................... VIII. 138 ................................................................... ......... CONCLUSIONS 138 PA RT II........................................................................... 138 PA RT III.......................................................................................................... 13 8 PA RT IV .......................................................................................................... 139 PART V ........................................................................................................... 139 PART VI.......................................................................................................... ........................................................................140 PART VII https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/jipl/vol18/iss1/4 2 Derclaye and Favale: Copyright and Contract Law: Regulating User Contracts: The State 2010] REGULATING USER CONTRACTS 67 I. INTRODUCTION A number of doctrinal concerns have been expressed regarding user contracts. To what extent do the terms of these licences depart from copyright law? Are the rights they grant to the owner broader or more restrictive? Are the entitlements of users, beneficiaries of copyright limits, hindered in some form? While no comprehensive empirical study has been conducted to analyse the different types of licensing agreements deployed on the market and their impact on copyright limits, (...truncated)