The Private Copy Issue

Abstract

Digital copyrights involve a combination of technology and law that seek to provide full control of the work by the rightholder. Managing rights over digital copyrighted contents through the use of consumers’ technological protection measures may however jeopardize some freedoms that copyright law has traditionally recognized, such as the private copy. In the present chapter, the author describes the conflict between the exclusive right to the exploitation of the work and the private copy issue; how modern copyright obstructs private copying and recent proposals regarding the conciliation between rightholders’ and consumers’ interests.