Research Of Fair Use System Of Copyright In The Environment Of Network

In the field of Copyright Law, the law allows the free use of works protected bycopyright law under certain conditions, no need to get the consent of related persons,and no need to pay compensation. It is called fair use. It is the universalacknowledgement of the whole world that the fair use system is to limit the copyright.In traditional environment, the fair use system can efficiently coordinate the conflictsbetween copyright owner and the public. In cyberspace, the fast development oftechnology and the system of fair use produce conflicts, leading to the loss of intrinsicbenefits balance. Therefore, our nation should conform to the tendency of the world toadapt to the developing society, innovate and perfect the fair use of copyright. It willmake the fair use system keep on balance the benefits among the copyright owner, theusers and disseminator. Therefore, we should study the current plight that the fair usesystem faces and provide some relevant perfect measures. This has a great theoreticaland practical significance to construction and improvement of our nation’s networkcopyright in the field of the copyright fair use．Firstly, the paper describes the copyright fair use system. It mainly introducesconcept, quality and current situation of the copyright fair use system. As to quality ofthe copyright fair use system, there are different opinions in our country, but it can begeneralized there kinds, they are “right limited viewpoint”,“tort stopped viewpoint”,“user’s right viewpoint”. Most scholars in our nation’s learning group prone to “rightlimited viewpoint” or “user’s right viewpoint”, and some other scholars think that thereis no intrinsic difference between “right limited viewpoint” and “user’s rightviewpoint”, because they analyze quality of the fare use from different angle. But thewriter of the paper considers that the quality of the fare use should include two kinds ofmeanings of “right limited” and “user’s right”. And the paper gives reasons for it fromconstitutional theory, human rights theory and civil law spirit. At the same time, thewriter of the paper analyzes legislative situation of network copyright of America,WIPO and China. America is considered to be pioneer in lawmaking of copyright’sprotecting, and it makes limits for the copyright owner’s rights which embodyAmerican abundant legislative experiences, for example, its DMCA which was passed in1998is regarded to be the first copyright law in Network Era. American abundantlegislative experiences are used for reference by many countries. Facing fast changingof network circumstance, WIPO also takes legislative action. WCT and WPPT whichwere passed in December1996are achievements of the action. WCT and WPPT arealso somewhat mature in lawmaking for the fare use and of its limit. Meanwhile, it alsohas shortage. It only makes recapitulative rules for the fare use and its limit which isnot easy to operate. But in our nation, copyright law makes regulation for the fare useand its limit, which is a little outdated. It stipulates twelve kinds of fare use in twelfthitem. The regulation particularizes the fare use kinds, which has better stability and iseasy to operate. Meanwhile, it also lags the network circumstance’s changing, and itcan not deal with the problems well which are brought by the network circumstance’sfast altering. So, our country should absorb the developed countries’ advancedexperiences during legislative process.Secondly, on the basis of relevant theoretical knowledge of the copyright fair usesystem which is introduced, the paper analyzes the main problems which exist of thecopyright fair use system under network circumstance. The problems include that theexpanse of copyright leads to benefit’s loss、scope of the fair use system is not clear、the borderline between the fair use and the tort use is not clear. Those problems existedmake people question the fair use system of copyright.Thirdly, since the fair use system of copyright is questioned, we have to thinkwhether the fair use system has necessity of existence in the digital age. This part of thepaper provides answers for the question. For the necessity, the paper gives a fullexposition from the perspective of constitution, economics and social development inthis part. It analyzes from the perspective of constitution that legal value are equalityand justice which embody the thinking of balance in copyright law. So, the author ofwork should not monopolize public resources and should let the public share some partof mental fortune, the balance thinking can apply at network circumstance as usual,which does embody connotation of the fare use. At the same time, freedom of speech iseach citizen’s constitutional right. While the fare use for works is freedom of speechwhich is extended in copyright area and is a kind of constitutional right that eachcitizen should have. It analyzes from the perspective of economics, it emphasizesmarket and efficiency by the way of economics analysis method, researches that howto use various resources to realize optimal allocation. And the fare use system plays a big role in the development of knowledge products market and resources’ optimalallocation. It analyzes from the perspective of social development, any knowledge inthe age of prosperity, all can not do without cultural heritage. Only innovation can benew, human culture can smoothly develop.Finally, since the fair use system of network copyright necessarily exists, that thispart of the paper provides three countermeasures for building and perfecting the fairuse of network copyright of our nation. These countermeasures conclude insistinglegislative thinking of benefit balance, perfecting use situation of fair use system,altering permit mode of copyright.