Copyright as a Service – A Perspective on the Axiological Nature of the Copyright System

Abstract

This chapter proposes a way to rethink the fundamentals of the current copyright regime and perhaps to rebuild them to achieve a system that more adequately matches digital reality. This proposal is developed in five parts. First, we present a historical-theoretical overview in a non-standardised way: starting with the main characteristics of copyright’s regime that do not work currently. Second, a short historical review leads to our main question: why build a new perspective of copyright? In the third part we discuss our proposal about how to rethink the system. We base our analysis on juridical, historical and aesthetical pluralism that pervades copyright law. Such a rich background that has resulted in different legislative models contains many arguments for designing a new path. A non-revolutionary approach in part III is followed by a more radical proposal in part IV. The fifth part concludes with a summary and a question for the future.

Keywords: copyright, new technologies