Sale versus licence offline and online: can competition law bridge the doctrinal gap?

摘要

Disputes involving copyright owners seeking to privately regulate secondary markets for used software and e-music have come before the courts of both the European Union and the USA with wildly dissonant outcomes partly due to very different legislative frameworks but also to very different judicial attitudes to economic factors and developments in digital technology. This article considers the extent to which contract can successfully be used to bypass traditional restrictions on the reach of copyright owners' exclusive right of distribution and also explores the role competition law could play in balancing the escalating tension between private and public interests in an increasingly digital global economy.