Analysis of ‘Some Rights Reserved’ Licenses

• Main Authors: Pei-Fang Lu, 呂佩芳
• Other Authors: 謝銘洋
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/93895748078165387834

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 法律學研究所 === 94 === In recent years, the awareness of copyright protection is growing with the development of the internet and digital technologies. Content industry demanded maximum protection of copyrighted work and began to implement technology protection measures and digital right management. ‘All Rights Reserved’ became the standard of copyright protection. Therefore, people have to ask permission before they ‘use’ the copyrighted work in any way. For these reasons, it constrains most of the copyrighted content uses and blocks others to get access to copyrighted work. In the meantime, however, some copyright holders are volunteered to ‘open’ some of their copyright to end-users in order to encourage content uses with freedom. They assert ‘some rights reserved’ through licensing instead of stating ‘all rights reserved’. ‘Open Source Movement’ and ‘Creative Commons’ are the representative examples of this trend. In this thesis, I would like to talk about the origin and concept of ‘some rights reserved’. The enforceability and legal risks of open source licenses and open content licenses are also the core issues of this research. Through economic legal analysis, we will find out that copyright holders do not have to exercise copyright while still have enough incentives to produce work. Moreover, content industry can lower their cost and have more effective inputs (such as human resources, information, and so on) by utilizing ‘some rights reserved’ licenses. This licensing strategy will also assist the formation of peer production, which is beneficial to mass work production. Several successful examples will be addressed at the end of this paper. In conclusion, content industry should try to figure out a different business model instead of making profit by merely exercising copyright. Furthermore, copyright holders can facilitate the freedom of content uses by releasing some of their copyright and, as a result, obtain reputation and benefits in return. ‘Some rights reserved’ licenses can complement the existing copyright system and help rebuild the public domain of which we can all take advantage.