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This article seeks to deal with the fundamental conceptual differences between consumer law and copyright law that render the application of consumer law to copyright‐law related conflicts difficult.

Following a normative approach to copyright and consumer law based on an analysis of the relevant literature and case law, the article examines in which situations consumers encounter obstacles when trying to rely on consumer law to invoke “privileges” granted to them under copyright law, such as the private copying exception.

Research shows that most difficulties lie in the fundamental conceptual differences between consumer law and copyright law regarding the objectives and beneficiaries of each regime, as well as diverging conceptions of “property”, “user rights” and “internal market”. Such discrepancies undeniably follow from the fact that each regime traditionally never had to deal with each other's concerns: consumers never played a role in copyright law, whereas copyright protected works were not seen as consumer goods.

By identifying the main conceptual differences between the two legal regimes, the article contributes in an inter‐disciplinary manner to the discussion on the place of the digital consumer under European law.

The purpose of this paper is to make suggestions of how to improve the legal standing of consumers of digital content products.

The analysis in this paper is based on desk research and comparative legal research, among others in the context of research performed in the context of a grant from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) and, in parts, on a study performed for the European Commission by Loos et al.

This paper demonstrates that the legal and technical complexities of digital content products and the resulting lack of a clear notion of which product characteristics are still reasonable and normal can result in uncertainty for consumers and businesses, or even a lower level of protection for digital content consumers, as compared to consumers of more conventional products. In order to improve the protection of digital content consumers, defaults for the main functionalities and characteristics of digital content products may be needed. The article describes possible routes to create such defaults and concludes with suggestions for the way forward.

The article suggests a new approach to improving the legal standing of digital consumers, one that takes into account the situation of digital consumers as well as the need for flexibility and room for innovation for digital content businesses. It is based on extensive legal and comparative research into the present legal framework and develops a new approach of conceptualizing the legal obstacles that digital consumers can be confronted with.

This paper asks the following research question: What are the policy dynamics of copyright regulation for digital audiovisual (AV) archives in Europe and what is their potential impact? The paper aims to discuss the social relevance of archives, European cultural policies targeting operationalisation of these archives and underpinnings and sought implementation of copyright policies.

Drawing upon three European cultural policy approaches, namely, democratisation of culture, cultural democracy and governmentalisation of culture, the discussion aims to situate current legislative attempts within digital content governance and examine policy as to its proclaimed aims of broadening access. The authors deployed macro-level legal analyses of key legislative acts of the European Union (EU) with direct relevance to the availability of and accessibility to digital historical content by European citizens. The authors juxtapose relevant cultural policy interventions with the corresponding legal rules and norms in copyright legislation. The authors evaluate the ways in which normative arguments are reflected in these acts and propose reflections on documented and possible impact.

The authors argue that the EU’s legal direction is characterised by uncertainty of conviction and internal tensions regarding the place of common cultural heritage in EU policy, and they present a restrictive acknowledgement of what culture and heritage policy entail and, by extension, how cultural matters should be governed. Cultural heritage AV archives are examples of digital content whose governance was almost “automatically” linked to copyright.

The paper links copyright and cultural policy and demonstrates that although the EU cultural policy is based on access, availability and usability, copyright is unnecessarily restraining them with the improper design and implementation of exceptions and limitations. This reflects EU’s focus on the single market, which, in this case, is pursued at the expense of building of a European identity with shared memories.

To deal with the new circumstances arising in the digital environment, with its particular conditions for the access, distribution and use of intellectual works, three distinct approaches exist: legal (copyright laws are modified to adapt them to the new context), technological (systems designed to control access and use of works), and contractual (through licenses to regulate the conditions of use of the works). The joint use of technological measures and licenses, together with the laws that protect both, are seriously endangering the effectiveness of the limitations to copyright set forth by law to benefit libraries, their users and citizens in general. This represents a strong privatisation of access to information. Using as a point of reference the laws of countries that are on the front lines of this terrain – the USA, the European Union and Australia – some problems created by the new forms of protection of intellectual works are examined.

This paper aims to explore the copyright laws of Saudi Arabia, illustrating the provisions governing the law. It seeks to outline Saudi Arabia copyright law within the framework of the international copyright protection, which include the Berne Convention and the TRIPS agreement.

The paper is a thorough scrutinizing of the legal provisions of the Saudi Copyright Laws in regard to protected works, author's exclusive rights, lawful use of copyrighted works and the exceptions, mandatory licenses, duration of protection, provisions of infringements and penalties. The highlighted issue is concerning the exceptions in regard to public interest, particularly relating to education purposes.

The paper finds that the Saudi Arabia Copyright Laws have met the requirement of the international copyright laws. The conditions for mandatory license and the 12 exceptions which permit lawful usage of copyrighted work under the copyright law without seeking the permission of the author are also in line with the international copyright laws, as public interest is the paramount consideration in exercising these exceptions.

There is lack of study on copyright law in the Saudi Arabia per se. Therefore, this study on the Saudi Arabia copyright laws seeks to fill in this gap and to provoke further discussion on this issue. It should be useful to the academic community, particularly in the Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

This paper aims to provide an update to the last major review by Burrull and Oppenheim of legal aspects of information management in relation to the web.

The paper reports developments in the primary areas of law in relation to the internet since 2004. Topics covered include: copyright, domain names and trademarks, linking, framing, caching and spamdexing (the use of artificial means to enhance one's position in search engines' outputs), patents, censorship, defamation, liability, conflict of laws and jurisdiction and legal deposit.

The paper shows that legal issues surrounding the internet are likely to become increasingly difficult and that either a new system is needed to resolve disputes, or that a new body of law is needed. It also suggests that information professionals need to contribute more to the ongoing legal debate.

The paper systematically describes legal issues associated with the management of electronic information.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the copyright law in relation to access to information by persons with visual impairments. It assesses the barriers placed by the copyright law on access to information by the visually impaired persons, and then the exceptions and limitations therein with a specific focus on Marrakesh treaty. It further explores the benefits conveyed by the Marrakesh treaty in relation to the challenges. Finally, the paper makes suggestions on methods that can be employed to make the Marrakesh treaty benefit the persons with visual impairments to the fullest.

The paper reviews the copyright law and its requirements in relation to reproduction of copyrighted works, and then narrows down to the provisions of Marrakesh treaty as an exception in the copyright law. It then reviews existing literature on the challenges caused by copyright requirements on access to information by persons with visual impairments. Having looked at these two aspects, the paper then identifies from literature the benefits that come in the Marrakesh treaty in relation to access to copyrighted information by persons with visual impairments. Authors finally give their views on what can be done to make the treaty more beneficial to the visually impaired persons.

The paper finds that a there are many challenges that persons with visual impairments face while they seek to access information that is copyrighted, and these challenges cause both direct and indirect negative effects. However, looking at the provisions of the Marrakesh treaty against these challenges, the paper identifies the benefits that come with the treaty to avert the challenges.

This paper does an in-depth analysis of the copyright-related challenges that persons with visual impairments face while accessing copyrighted information, and derives solutions to these challenges from the Marrakesh treaty. The paper will be helpful to the librarians to make sure that none of their users continue to suffer from those challenges in this era of the Marrakesh treaty. The methods suggested herein for reaping as much as possible from the Marrakesh treaty will be beneficial to information managers toward fashioning ways of ensuring that persons with visual impairments are able to access information freely and easily.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the HADOPI Law adopted in France in 2009. It aims to focus on two aspects of the law: the graduated response and the certification of a “legal” offer. It also aims to describe both, analyze their rationale and discuss their likely impact.

The paper combines legal and economic approaches. The legal debates have been analyzed and transcribed in a casual discourse. Economic analysis is used to understand the rationale of the law. Both approaches are used to point out the limitations of the law.

The paper shows that the graduated response and the certification of a “legal” offer both target consumers. The former aims at deterring file sharing, the latter aims at guiding consumers towards “legal” services. However, the graduated response's efficiency is dubious; the certification raises the issue of defining what is legal. Both mechanisms destabilize the French copyright law by putting more pressure on ISPs and online services. Targeting consumers in the name of copyright may cause a rejection of copyright as a whole.

The HADOPI Law is considered a pioneer in the field of copyright enforcement, especially as a first application of the graduated response. The topic is therefore of premier importance for copyright at global level.

The paper is the first to combine economic and legal approaches to analyze the graduated response. It deals with the certification of “legal” services, which has only rarely been studied. The link between both mechanisms has never been considered before.

This paper aims to investigate the potential impacts that differences between UK and US copyright laws for sound recordings have on musicians. It also highlights the needs for continued standardisation of international copyright laws (particularly those for sound recordings), copyright law education for creators, and a need for musicians to re‐think future artistic and managerial decisions.

In this critical analysis of current academic literature and legislation, significant differences between the domestic copyright laws of the UK and USA have been identified. The impacts of these differences on musicians are discussed and conclusions drawn.

Findings suggest that there are several significant differences between the UK and US copyright laws for sound recordings, which do impact on musicians in both countries. However, determining the degree of impact is dependent on several contributing factors: the nationality of the musician; the level of success of the musician; the creative roles adopted by the musician; and the ambition of the musician.

Research scope was limited to the domestic copyright laws of the UK and USA only; and, specifically, the copyright laws for sound recordings. Findings were generalised for all musicians, regardless of type or genre.

This paper is one of the first to investigate the impact of differences in domestic copyright laws on musicians, and identifies several strategy issues that must be considered by musicians when making future artistic and managerial decisions.