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DRAFT Industry Guidelines to Respect Copyright and Free Speech: Guidelines for copyright owners and intermediaries for respecting the right to freedom of expression as it relates to copyrighted works

CREATe Working Paper 2016/08

Emily Laidlaw and Daithí Mac Síthigh

2016-08-coverIntroduction

The relationship between copyright law and freedom of expression has always been controversial, but this tension has deepened in recent years with the rapid growth in prominence of digital technologies (e.g. online access to creative works) and the extension of copyright law (e.g. longer terms, control over end user activities). This has muddied already uncertain waters concerning the boundary between copyright and freedom of expression, on which CREATe has published an extensive academic literature review.

These guidelines seek to distil, from that literature and from cases and statutes, principles of good practice for copyright owners and intermediaries to identify when a free expression right is implicated in the design, use, or enforcement of copyright (herein the terms ‘speech’ and ‘expression’ will be used interchangeably). It is hoped that these guidelines can be used to clarify the contours of a copyright owner’s rights, and in particular to internalise and harmonise the impact of decisions regarding the use of works on the exercise of speech rights.

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