| Should a digital distribution right be introduced in copyright law? This study will attempt to answer the question. The introduction of a specific right to respond to the digital transmission of works has been pondered at the highest level of international institutions. The digital distribution right was considered as a serious option, together with the "making available" right, during the negotiations of the WIPO treaties of 1996. Over and above this consideration, the subject of distribution invites one to examine, from general perspectives, the economic structure of copyright, as well as its history, how it evolved and responded to new technological ways of distributing a work throughout the centuries starting form the beginnings of the printing press. All things considered, the scope of copyright and its impact on the exploitation of a particular good---the intangible good---will be studied. We will observe that copyright law plays a major role in the new economy of the information society. It lays down the foundation of a new normative system for distribution of intangibles, transcending both property and commercial law.; Key words. copyright, history of copyright, colonial law, distribution right, digital distribution right, "destination" right, importation right, lending right, rental right, exhaustion theory, dematerialisation... |
