Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Technological Neutrality: Recalibrating Copyright in the Information Age

Craig, Carys J., Technological Neutrality: Recalibrating Copyright in the Information Age (October 14, 2016). Osgoode Legal Studies Research Paper No. 5/2017. Available for download at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2852385

“This Article aims to draw the connection between how we conceptualize legal rights over information resources and our capacity to develop technologically neutral legal norms in the information age. More specifically, it identifies and critically examines three competing approaches to the idea of technological neutrality apparent in copyright jurisprudence. Ultimately, it is argued that true technological neutrality requires not simply the seamless expansion of legal rights into new technological contexts, but the careful, contextual recalibration of rights and interests in light of shifting values and changing circumstances. As a normative principle, technological neutrality in copyright law thus demands a nuanced and relational understanding of the rights at play, and the social values that they seek to foster as technologies evolve.”

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.