Studies On Neighboring Rights In Cyberspace

With the development and convergence of information and communication technologies, human's ability to access, store, reproduce, and transmit vast amounts of information has been greatly enhanced. In the meantime, a host of new legal issues on neighboring rights, the rights tightly related to copyright, are also brought to us. However, it is still inadequate for the research on neighboring rights in China. The goal of this thesis is chiefly to study how to protect and limit the neighboring rights in cyberspace, and how to maintain a balance between the rights of the owners of related rights and the larger public interest.The thesis consists of four sections. The first section narrates the origin and the meaning of the term of neighboring rights and points out the shortage of present research in this field in China. The second section discusses the treaties on neighboring rights and the contents of neighboring rights in China. The third section, the most important part of the whole thesis, explores the new problems in protecting and limiting neighboring rights, and discusses the liabilities on the infringement of neighboring rights. It also discusses the rights and obligations of both ICP and ISP. The last section sums up the achievement and the flaw of my work and points out the issues that need further research.There is a basic conflict in cyberspace: the owners of neighboring rights stake out that they should control and monopolize the rights, but the users want to acquire information freely. The law solves the problem by enlarging the legal protection of the rights. As to the limitations and exceptions, the treaties and laws comply with the principle of "three-step-test", which was established by Berne Convention. Due to the immature legislation and technologies, the effect of the new rights is not as perfect as was expected before. In the future, it depends on the progress of legislation, justice, technologies and the law-abiding consciousness of the users to protect the neighboring rights more effectively.