Theoretical Foundations for Copyright

*January 2019

Get ready to have a Hegel of a time!

Admit it: you Kant resist!

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This instructional module is not intended as legal advice. All Opening Up Copyright modules are made available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0) International license. 

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THREE APPROACHES

Jeremy Bentham

John Locke

Immanuel Kant

Georg WF Hegel

UTILITARIAN VIEW

• Encourage creative and inventive behaviour
• Advance the arts and sciences
• Improve society

“Of all the methods of exciting and rewarding industry, this [patenting] is the least burdensome, and the most exactly proportioned to the merit of invention.”

Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 2, John Bowring (ed.), (Edinburgh: Simpkin, Marshall and Co., 1843), 533.

THE US CONSTITUTION ON IP

promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts,

“To

by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries”

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Article 1, Section 8, Clause 8

THE BALANCING ACT

Creative

Behaviour

Inventive

Behaviour

Incentives

for

Creators

Access

and

Intellectual

Good

NATURAL RIGHTS APPROACH

Haha!

MINE!

NATURAL RIGHTS APPROACH

Increased value of common property

justifies taking ownership

Two conditions must be met:

1. Don’t take so much that you create spoilage
2. Leave “enough and as good” for others

Lockean Provisos

NATURAL RIGHTS APPROACH

Limitations:

• Intangible forms of property were not addressed
• Copyright of ancient works condemned

THÉBERGE DECISION

Théberge v. Galerie d’Art du Petit Champlain Inc., 2002 SCC 34, at para. 30

“The Copyright Act is usually presented as a balance between promoting the public interest in the encouragement and dissemination of works of the arts and intellect and obtaining a just reward for the creator (or, more accurately, to prevent someone other than the creator from appropriating whatever benefits may be generated).”

PERSONALITY-BASED APPROACH

Artistic creations are

a manifestation of

an individual’s personhood

PERSONALITY-BASED APPROACH

Kant:

• Condemned illegal �book copying
• Did not think copyright should extend to translations and derivative works

PERSONALITY-BASED APPROACH

Hegel:

• Property is essential
• Authors should retain control of their intellectual property

“the author of the work or inventor of the apparatus remains the owner of the general method of multiplying such products”

Hegel, The Philosophy of Right, § 69.

PERSONALITY-BASED APPROACH

WHO OWNS THIS THING?

Director?

Leading actor?

Studio CEO?

Milton Bradley?

Special effects designer?

PERSONALITY-BASED APPROACH

• Kant and Hegel approach creates the strongest justification for copyright and moral rights
• Resonates more strongly in continental Europe

• French copyright: moral rights are perpetual, inalienable, and imprescriptible

• Britain and Canada have moral rights for authors but there is almost no grounds for this in U.S. copyright law

WESTERN IDEOLOGY

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

You should now be able to:

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• Summarize the three main theories that serve as the foundation of copyright
• Describe how these theories have influenced modern copyright concepts

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION

QUESTIONS

1. The natural rights approach to copyright posits that:
1. When labour is added to common property, the output should belong to the individual
2. John Locke invented lightbulbs
3. Copyright should do the most good for the most people
4. Creators should have control of their invented works forever

2. Under Kant and Hegel’s personality-based approach:
1. Creations exist for the benefit of everyone and don’t need protection
2. Creations are a manifestation of an individual’s personhood
3. Protection for creations should only last for 14 years
4. The concept of property is totally unimportant

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QUESTIONS

3. The idea of moral rights is most strongly connected to:
1. Bentham’s utilitarian approach
2. Locke’s natural rights approach
3. Kant and Hegel’s personality-based approach
4. Rousseau’s social contract approach

4. Which philosopher would argue that copyright ownership should be perpetual?
1. Locke
2. Bentham
3. Kant
4. Hegel

Bentham, J. (2000). The works of Jeremy Bentham. Colonies, commerce, and constitutional law: Rid yourselves of Ultramaria and other writings on Spain and Spanish America. (P. Schofield, Ed.). InteLex Corporation.

Fischer, W. (2001). Theories of intellectual property. In S. R. Munzer (Ed.), New essays in the legal and political theory of property (pp. 169-194). Cambridge University Press.

Hegel, G. W. F. (1952). Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts [The philosophy of right]. Encyclopedia Britannica.

Kant, I. (1883). Die Unrechtmässigkeit des Büchenachdrucks. In R. Macfie (Ed.), Copyright and patents for inventions (Vol. 2, pp. 581-586). T. & T. Clark.

Locke, J. (2016). Two treatises of government. (L. Ward, Ed.). Focus.

REFERENCES AND RESOURCES

Théberge v. Galerie d’Art du Petit Champlain Inc., 2002 SCC 34

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U.S. Const. art. I, § 8.

CASES AND LEGISLATION

Images (in order of appearance):

Vectors Market. (n.d.). Devil Monster. The Noun Project. CC BY. https://thenounproject.com/term/devil-monster/1885152

Wikimedia Commons. (n.d.). Bentham: National Portrait Gallery. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain. http://commons.wikimedia.org/

Godfrey Kneller. (n.d.). Locke. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain. http://commons.wikimedia.org/

Wikimedia Commons. (n.d.). Kant. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain. http://commons.wikimedia.org/

Jakob Schlesinger. (n.d.). Hegel. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain. http://commons.wikimedia.org/

Clker-Free-Vector-Images. (n.d.). [Gold medal]. Pixabay. CC0. https://pixabay.com/vectors/medal-gold-award-olympics-winner-295094/

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IMAGE AND SOUND REFERENCES

Clker-Free-Vector-Images. (n.d.). [Yellow balance scale]. Pixabay. CC0. https://pixabay.com/en/scales-yellow-weigh-justice-tool-30251/

Library of Congress. (n.d.). Two Treatises of Government. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain. http://commons.wikimedia.org/

Martial Red. (n.d.). Lightning. The Noun Project. CC BY. https://thenounproject.com/term/lightning/1057044

evondue. (n.d.). [Toscana Cypress farmhouse]. Pixabay. CC0. https://pixabay.com/en/toscana-cypresses-farmhouse-scenic-2286630/

National Portrait Gallery. (n.d.). Philosophy of Right by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel [Digital scan of original work]. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain. http://commons.wikimedia.org/

Closing Slides Music: Rybak, Nazar. (n.d.). Corporate Inspired. HookSounds. CC BY. http://www.hooksounds.com

Unattributed materials are contributions from the Opening Up Copyright Project Team and placed in the Public Domain.

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IMAGE AND SOUND REFERENCES

University of Alberta. (2019). Theoretical Foundations for Copyright. Opening Up Copyright Instructional Module. https://sites.library.ualberta.ca/copyright/

LICENSING AND ATTRIBUTION

Suggested Citation:

For the project overview and complete list of modules please visit the project website at: https://sites.library.ualberta.ca/copyright/

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Questions, comments, and suggestions should be directed to: ouc@ualberta.ca

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This module is made available and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

CONTRIBUTORS

Copyright Office

Technologies in Education

Centre for Teaching and Learning

University of Alberta Library

School of Library and Information Studies

Adrian Sheppard

Amanda Wakaruk

Mireille Smith

Anwen Burk

Jamie Stewart

Matt Cheung

Cosette Lemelin

Graeme Pate

Krysta McNutt

Michelle Brailey

Jesse Carson

Toby Grant

Kris Joseph

Michael B. McNally

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The Opening Up Copyright (OUC) module series is made available by the University of Alberta Copyright Office.

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OUC modules have been produced with the assistance of funding at the University of Alberta through its Centre for Teaching and Learning's Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund (TLEF) (2017-21) and OER Grant Program (2020), and through a Support for the Advancement of Scholarship (SAS) grant (2021).