Copyright Law 2030

The current situation

Thanks to technical progress, content is constantly being produced, distributed, and consumed in new ways. As a result, a continuous stream of new players is entering the market, who disruptively (co-)shape the production and distribution of content. This has led to widespread digital utilization of content by companies and consumers. As a result, the consequences of digitisation are omnipresent in copyright matters.

The problem

Copyright law is based on analogue models which have long since ceased to reflect the reality of the division of labour in creative work. Moreover, legislators react to new developments only selectively at best. “Copyright wars" between the old and new mediators are being fought over individual subjects of regulation. "The result of such tough wrangling is often problematic regulation which loses sight of the overall picture of copyright as an instrument of communication control in many functional subsystems of society. In this way, copyright law in the medium and long term cannot (any longer) do justice to socio-economic and ‑cultural changes", says Prof. Dr. Michael Grünberger, LL.M. (NYU), Chair of Civil Law, Economic & Technology Law at the University of Bayreuth.

Working on the solution

Together with four other initiators, Grünberger therefore invited a total of ten outstanding figures in research, legislation, and practice in this field to Schloss Burgellern, to reflect creatively on new approaches to copyright law. The insights gained in this "Future Workshop on Copyright Law" became the basis for the memorandum „Urheberrecht 2030 – Memorandum zur Zukunft des kreativen Ökosystems in Europa“. This memorandum outlines new perspectives on copyright regulation and presents a new narrative of copyright for discussion.

The goal

"What is needed is a regulation of copyright that manages to do justice to today's realities", says Grünberger, and adds: "Much of what is currently regulated can be left to the free market and progressive technology. However, leaving it to itself is only sensible and possible if there is appropriate regulation of the drivers of innovative business models". In the opinion of the authors of the Memorandum, uniform models for the various specific sectors and their utilization processes cannot meet the challenges of copyright regulation. Differentiated regulation, appropriate to each specific sector, is what is needed.

The workshop participants were in agreement: Copyright law must remain flexible in order to adapt to constant change. This is only possible by analysing the interactions of the creative industries within their own system and with their neighbouring systems. It should be the task of EU and national research funding to support projects that spell out these ideas in concrete terms, or identify the social framework conditions. Moreover, this could avoid research excessively guided by industry interests.

The Memorandum (open the text of the abstract here) was presented internationally by Prof. Dr. Katharina de la Durantaye (Viadrina European University) and Prof. Dr. Michael Grünberger at the conference „Datenökonomie, KI und geistiges Eigentum“ organised by the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection in September 2020 and subsequently discussed with Prof. Dr. Martin Senftleben (University of Amsterdam). In this way, the Memorandum was made known to the wider European public.

The project was largely financed by the Research Centre for Intellectual Property, Public Domain and Competition at the University of Bayreuth. The project is an important contribution to the University's Third Mission , which is to promote the exchange of knowledge between itself and stakeholders in society, culture, politics, and business to foster economic innovation.

Stichwörter: #Urheberrecht #Recht #Medien #EU