Research On Copyright Voluntary Licensing Mode In Cyber-Environment

The development of digital technology has changed the carrier of the work propagating in cyber-environment.And cyberspace has broken through the limit of distance. All these undermines the ability of copyright owners to control their work.Due to the lack of efficient licensing mode and supervisery mechanism,there are more and more copyright disputes following with high transaction costs. These torts not only violate the interests of the copyright owners,but also hamper the development of the internet industry.The copyright licensing mode is the first problem if we want to get off the dilemma. The paper researches in the following aspects:Part one:Although the cyber-environment is parallel to the physical environment,the traditional voluntary licensing model of copyright(i.e.the mode of one-on-one) can’t apply in the cyber-environment.The reasons are as follows:First,the traditional "gatekeeper" mechanism fails,and the new environment requires a new "gatekeeper" to authorize and block infringement.Second,the copyright law can’t regulate new objects in cyber-environment.Also,the cyber-environment increase the costs of copyright trading,leading to failure of the cultural market.In short,the dilemma of the copyright development in the network environment is the contradiction between the "massive" demand and the lack of "massive" authorization mechanisms.Part two:We need a multidimensional theoretical analysis to explore the way to solve the frequent infringement under the network environment.On one hand,economic analysis holds the view that the media are sufficient at this stage,so we should encourage authors to get paid from the transaction of works,instead of controlling the number of works.On the other hand,the "locked" licensing mode will get copyright owners into a dilemma which is hostile to people.And the "open-style"licensing mode dedicated to "clear channel" is the solution to the infringement in the new environment.Part three:The internet made the voluntary licensing mode unavailable.So a lot of internet content provider has explored more efficient voluntary licensing mode.The letter of attorney and offer has not played its role although satisfying the "massive license" requirement because of lacking a unified industry standard.The mode of ChaoXing digital library is a beneficial exploration for the Internet content provider,which has achieved some commercial success, but the essence of the pattern is still a "one to one" mode, lacking of driving force for development.The mode of iTunes store operation has made remarkable results in volume licenses. However, the successful operation is achieved on the basis of previous commercial accumulation. Thus there is little experience for us to draw upon. But what we can learn from iTunes store is the digital management of the works.Copyright collective management mode has faced many new challenges in the network environment.Knowledge sharing mode can achieve mutual benefits in both respecting copyrighter’s autonomy of will and guaranteeing public knowledge, but the practice effect in our country is far from satisfactory.Part four works out the basic thinking of voluntary licensing in cyber-env ironment through theoretical inquiry and exploration to the actual condition an d based on the current state situation:first, dynamic balance of benefits among different groups shall be maintained; second, we should fully mobilize the power of different subjects.In the market we should encourage different subjects to explore different modes,and we allow the existence of diverse voluntary licensing modes of copyright.For the network seivice providers,the biggest problem they should to solve is reducing costs.including the cost of obtaining authorization,the cost of supervising of performance and the cost of distribution of royalties.Their strategy is to make full use of the advantages of technology to authorize online and control the use of the works through digital rights management system.Government should play a better protection by establishing and perfecting copyright information system to lay the foundations for the exploration of the diversity of voluntary licensing modes.The last part presents conclusion for the paper:static voluntary licensing mode is not advisable in this fast-changing cyber-environment, which goes ag ainst the creativity of internet. Instead, diversified voluntary licensing modes a re preferred to meet market’s demand on the basis of collective management s ystem.