Copyright and the E-Commons. Defining copyright Copyrights are a kind of intellectual property, the other two categories being patents and trade- marks [166]. The rationale of patent law is to protect the exclusive rights as to the exploitation or distribution of inventions, i.e. new products, devices and processes, or improvements thereof, with the explicit exclusion of ideas and methods of operation, e.g. the buttons on a radio [166]. Trademark protection aims at the exclusive right to use a certain product names [166]. The scope of copyright is original expressions [166]. More precisely, the purpose of copyright is to grant the author of an original work exclusive rights for a limited time period with respect to the publication, distribution and adaptation of that LiquidPub/2009/D1.1/v2.0 October 5, 2009 89 work. After that period time the work enters the public domain [21]. However, most legislations allow for ”fair” exceptions to the author’s exclusive rights, and giving users certain rights, such as to make copies for private use or to quote from published works, under the condition to give credit to their authors. Copyright is intended as giving authors control over and profit from their works, thereby en- couraging and fostering the creation of new works and the flow of ideas and learning. This seems to be mandatory in an epoch when an increasing number of people earn their living from intellec- tual achievements [282]. Intellectual property is necessary for an author to be able to make money of his work (ibid.). Contrary to a modern misconception, copyright is essentially a right of authors and creative minds, not of publishing companies (ibid.). The problem of piracy and copyright infringements is not merely loss of income, but also distorted reproduction (ibid.). Copyright applies to the expression of any idea or piece of information that is sufficiently original. In other words, copyright does not concern ideas or bits of information, but primarily the manner in which they are expressed [166]. As such, a wide range of creative, intellectual, or artistic forms are covered, including news paper articles, poems, scientific papers, academic theses, plays, novels, personal letters, but also movies, dances, musical compositions, recordings, paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, software, radio and television and broadcasts. Evolution of copyright The history of copyright starts in the 18th century, with a very rich previous history in the XVII century [55]. In fact, co...
