Regulation by law and by technology of works and information availability on the networks
Mélanie Dulong de Rosnay · 2007
Technological developments lead to an exponential increase of the spread of works and information on the networks. Regulatory models from the analogical era based on physical medium scarcity and exclusivity are questioned by digital technology paradigms of copying, remixing and sharing. Copyright has been developed and adaptated at the same time than reproduction and dissemination technologies innovation, as an artificial corrective granting a limited monopoly of exploitation. But copyright can also lead to commons. We analyse how law and technology were conceptualised independently. Technical standards production process and the extension of exclusive rights are creating tensions between cultural industries and the public. This conception led to an intrication between regulation by law and technical protection measures, for the benefit of regulation by technology. Following research on lex informatica, we thus introduce a model based on the mutual influence between regulation by law and regulation by technology, toward legal categorisation redesign and an improved technical rights expression. The development of applications, ontologies and legal metadata allow to automate information and works exchanges management. Integrating regulation by law and regulation by technology, this model was built on the systematic analysis of various licensing models emerging on the networks, between access control and the constitution of Commons.