Transmission of Works over the Internet: Rights and Exceptions

The invention of the Internet is a revolution. It challenged traditional copyright concepts, especially that of transmission. First, traditional transmission such as broadcasting or wire diffusion does not include reproduction. However, Internet transmission inevitably distributes copies of a work to other computer systems, therefore reproducing the work. Secondly, traditional transmission is intended for simultaneous reception by the public, whereas the Internet reaches the public asynchronously or simultaneously. Therefore, transmitting a work over the Internet raises questions regarding the legal characterisation of transmission of a work. Is the transmission of the work over the Internet a distribution, a communication, a reproduction, a display or otherwise? This book analyses the relationship between transmission over the Internet and the exclusive rights, and examines all exceptions, such as fair use, sui generis rights, library and archive exceptions and educational use exceptions.