In the traditional copyright system, the property rights of copyright are centered on the right of reproduction, and widely involve the rights of distribution, filming, broadcasting, adaptation, etc. Although the above rights are closely related to communication technology, in the Internet era, the connection between them has been further strengthened, and the exercise of copyright and the use of technical measures are inseparable.
In this era, a large amount of information is transmitted through the information superhighway. The so-called “information superhighway” is equipped with the latest digital transmission, intelligent equipment or computer processing and multimedia terminal service technology to form a multi-user, large-capacity and high-speed interactive integrated information network system on a regional, national or international scale. The high-throughput of information transmission, the popularization of the network, the integration of services, and the intelligence of the system are its significant features. The construction of the information superhighway has greatly promoted the transmission of information.
The consequences of this method include not only the “reproduction” of information, but also the “increase” of carriers, while the computer “temporary storage” method of reproduction only increases the “reproduction” opportunity of information, but does not increase the “carrier” of the work. Therefore, the meaning of this reproduction is much broader than before. In bookstores, readers can freely browse and browse works for sale or rental. If the temporary storage of works in memory is regarded as copying, readers will not even have room to browse the works. This cannot but be said to be excessively biased towards the interests of copyright owners. Therefore, the key issue is what feasible way to fairly and reasonably balance the interests of copyright owners and users.
Another issue is that the meaning of the right of distribution has also changed. In the report “Intellectual Property and National Information Infrastructure” submitted by the US “Intellectual Property Working Group”, the working group suggested that the act of transmitting information from a computer terminal to another terminal in the form of digital signals through the network should also be regarded as distribution, which is exclusive to the copyright owner. Although the report claims that this modification does not create new rights, this restriction actually changes the concept of distribution. Because distribution in the traditional sense is the act of providing copies of works to the public, and the transfer of the carrier of the work occurs; while in information transmission, only the information of the work is transmitted, and there is no actual transfer of the carrier. The information still exists in the memory of the output computer or the associated storage facilities, “so it is difficult to classify transmission as the concept of distribution.” Therefore, the report’s interpretation of distribution is too harsh for the users of the work.
But from another perspective, if there are no certain restrictions on this transmission behavior, it will inevitably result in the author’s work being used by the transmitter and the receiver for free. Therefore, the key issue is to find an appropriate way to impose fair restrictions. The newly revised German “Copyright Law” in 1993 handled this flexibly. Article 690 stipulates that only when the user transmits the work for the purpose of copying it, the copyright owner’s authorization is required. This limits the transmission to a certain range, and to some extent balances the interests of the copyright owner and the user. The current French copyright law has also been revised in a similar way.