저작권법 체제에서의 공유경제에 관한 연구

Copyright owners have exclusive rights for their works in a limited time period as rewards for creativities. Therefore, strong protection of copyright may induce low creative activities due to difficulties in usage of copyrighted works. However, the purpose of the Copyright Act is to promote fair use of works as well as to protect the rights of authors in order to contribute to the improvement and development of culture and related industries. Balance between strong protection of authors’ exclusive rights and easy access of the public to copyrighted works is very important to fulfill the purpose of the Copyright Act. Nowadays, sharing economies are successfully adapted in many areas such as cars and spaces due to the recent development of information technologies. There is a common goal of the Copyright Act and sharing economies in that both pursue to maximize utilities of works or products. Copyrighted works can be shared among communities with licenses specifying authorized usage of works. Licenses are contracts which contain duties and rights of licensees to licensors regarding usage of copyrighted works. The Open Source Software, the Creative Commons, and the Open Access are good examples of sharing economies of copyrighted works. Sharing economies can be well adapted for copyrighted works with various types of licenses. However, a licensor needs to specify authorized usage of copyrighted works in detail to avoid infringements of copyrights and breaches of the contract. In addition, the combination of the Exhaustion Doctrine and the Fair Use clause of the Copyright Act allows a sharing economy for copyrighted works. Google Books is a good example of this kind of sharing economies. In summary, exclusivity and sharing of copyrighted works can be balanced well for both rewards of copyright owners and easy access of the public in sharing economy.