Scope of Copyright. An Alternative Approach

Abstract

The paper features the current and hypothetical alternative approaches to showing the essence of exclusive copyright. The author shows that the former (including the essence of the exclusive right to authority to dispose of the copies of a work but excluding the authority to use the work as intended) bears traces of noticeable theoretical drawbacks which lead to ambiguity in practice. A natural development in this situation is to include the authority to use the work as intended in the exclusive right and to exclude the authorities belonging to the copyright in the copies of work. The paper proves that this approach has fewer chinks for criticism and is able to solve any practical aims of copyright. The author stresses that the presented speculations do not represent a complete theory. However, though the genre of an academic article does not allow studying some particular aspects, e.g. principle of exhaustion, distributing copies of a work by agents or special features of copyright to some products, e.g. software, the material is likely to suffice to understand the key concepts of the proposed approach. The criticism presented against the current approach cannot be ignored. Still, the author did not aim to oppose the speculations to the current reform of part four of the Russian Federation Civil Code, which would bе irrelevant. The aim of the paper is not to prescribe the changes in the exclusive right in the making but a platform to discuss the trends for the coming decades. No doubt that the paramount aim of the theory of intellectual property and the theory of exclusive copyright in particular are the development of a full-fledged consistent pattern of currently existing common norms.