Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T01:30:02.594Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Copyright and the pursuit of justice: a Rawlsian analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Deming Liu
Deming Liu*
Affiliation:
Newcastle Law School, UK
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper seeks to explore copyright from the perspective of John Rawls's egalitarian conception of justice. It first evaluates the classical theories for copyright. Next, it examines Rawls's principles of justice with particular emphasis on the difference principle. Then, it applies Rawls to the design of copyright law and debates on two doctrines of copyright law – namely the idea/expression dichotomy and the relevance of the merit of a work for copyright. The significance of the debate is to show that Rawls's perspective on justice offers a better justification for copyright and its principles and would potentially induce better justice.

Type
Research Article
Information
Legal Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 600 - 622
Copyright
Copyright © Society of Legal Scholars 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Chafee, Z Jr Reflections on the law of copyright’ (1945) 45 Colum L Rev 503 at 503CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2. (1769) 98 ER 201 at 252 and 218.

3. Exxon Corp v Exxon Insurance Consultants International Ltd [1982] Ch 119 at 141.

4. Hollinrake v Truswell [1894] 3 Ch 420 at 427–428.

5. 8 Anne, c. 19 (1709). In fact, the passage of the Statute was largely due to the stationers' change of tactics to maintain their monopoly in the book trade rather than reflecting a genuine desire to incentivise book writing. See Rose, M Authors and Owners: The Invention of Copyright (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993)Google Scholar. See also Patterson, LR Copyright in Historical Perspective (Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 1968)Google Scholar and Barnes, JJ Authors, Publishers and Politicians: The Quest for an Anglo-American Copyright Agreement, 1815–1854 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974)Google Scholar.

6. Feist Publications Inc v Rural Telephone Service Co (1991) 499 US 340.

7. Landes, WM and Posner, RA An economic analysis of copyright law’ (1989) 18 J Legal Stud 325 at 327CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

8. Ibid, at 328.

9. Lemley, MA Ex ante versus ex post justifications for intellectual property’ (2004) 71 U Chi L Rev 129 at 131–132Google Scholar.

10. Ibid, at 142.

11. Wagner, R Information wants to be free: intellectual property and the mythologies of control’ (2003) 103 Colum L Rev 995 at 1001CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12. Heller, MA and Eisenberg, RS Can patents deter innovation? the anti-commons in biomedical research’ (1998) 280 SCI 698 at 698–699CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

13. Cornish, WR and Llewelyn, D Intellectual Property: Patents, Copyright, Trade Marks and Allied Rights (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 6th edn, 2007) p 838 Google Scholar.

14. Hurt, R and Schuchman, R The economic rationale of copyright’ (1966) 56 Am Econ Rev 421 at 425–426Google Scholar.

15. Whale, RF Comment on Copyright (London: British Copyright Council, 1969) p 6 Google Scholar.

16. 17 Parl Hist Eng 953, 1000 (1774).

17. Hurt and Schuchman, above n 14, at 424.

18. Ibid, at 424 and 426.

19. Zimmerman, D Copyrights as incentives: did we just imagine that?’ (2011) 12 Theoretical Inquiries in Law 39, available at http://www.bepress.com/til/default/vol12/iss1/art3 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20. Ibid, at 43.

21. Ibid.

22. Locke, J Two Treatises of Government, The Second Treatise (Laslett, P., ed.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2nd edn, 1967) § 27 pp 287–288 Google Scholar.

23. Apart from the enough and as good proviso, the theory is also subject to another proviso, viz, the no-spoilage, or no-waste proviso: ‘Nothing was made by God for man to spoil or destroy’ (Locke, above n 22, p 308). Prima facie, tangible things could readily be wasted; with intangible things, the subject matter for copyright, that does not appear so. However, since intellectual property is essentially the right of exclusion – ie, the right to exclude others from using the protected subject matter – it can be wasteful if it is used to prevent the multiple use of the subject matter. As Hettinger argues: ‘Since writings…are nonexclusive, this requirement prohibiting waste can never be completely met by intellectual property. When owners of intellectual property charge fees for the use of their expressions…certain beneficial uses of these intellectual products are prevented. This is clearly wasteful, since everyone could use and benefit from intellectual objects concurrently’ ( Hettinger, E Justifying intellectual property’ (1989) 18 Philosophy and Public Affairs 3 at 44Google Scholar).

24. Locke, above n 22, p 329.

25. Drahos, P A Philosophy of Intellectual Property (Aldershot: Dartmouth, 1996) pp 49–50 Google Scholar.

26. Sterk, S Rhetoric and reality in copyright law’ (1996) Mich L Rev 1197 at 1235CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27. Drahos, above n 25, p 51.

28. Hughes, J The philosophy of intellectual property’ (1988) 77 Geo LJ 287 at 297Google Scholar.

29. Ibid, at 297–298.

30. Sterk, above n 26, at 1237.

31. Nozick asks: ‘[W]hy isn't mixing what I own with what I don't own a way of losing what I own rather than a way of gaining what I don't? If I own a can of tomato juice and spill it in the sea so that its molecules (made radioactive, so I can check this) mingle evenly throughout the sea, do I thereby come to own the sea, or have I foolishly dissipated my tomato juice?’ ( Nozick, R Anarchy, State and Utopia (New York: Basic Books, 1974) pp 174–175 Google Scholar).

32. Knowles, D Hegel and the Philosophy of Right (London: Routledge, 2002) p 111 Google Scholar.

33. Baker v Libbie [1912] 97 NE 109 at 111.

34. [1900] AC 539 at 545.

35. Designers Guild Ltd v Russell Williams (Textiles) Ltd [2000] 1 WLR 2416 at 2418.

36. Drahos, above n 25, p 50.

37. Laddie J, Autospin (oil seels) v Beehive Spinning [1995] RPC 683 at 700.

38. Ladbroke (Football) Ltd v William Hill (Football) Ltd [1964] 1 WLR 273 at 291.

39. Ibid.

40. Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, s 16(3) (the CDPA 1988).

41. See, eg, Lord Pearce, Ladbroke (Football) Ltd v William Hill (Football) Ltd [1964] 1 WLR 273 at 294.

42. Bently, L and Sherman, B Intellectual Property Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 3rd edn, 2009) p 195 Google Scholar.

43. Hettinger, above n 23, at 38.

44. Landes and Posner, above n 7, at 352.

45. Ibid, at 353.

46. Darr, F Testing an economic theory of copyright: historical materials and fair use’ (1991) 32 BCL Rev 1027 at 1029Google Scholar.

47. See generally Shiffrin, S The incentives argument for intellectual property protection’ in Gosseries, A, Marciano, A and Strowel, A (eds) Intellectual Property and Theories of Justice (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)Google Scholar.

48. Rawls, J A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999) p 118 Google Scholar.

49. Ibid.

50. Rawls, J Political Liberalism (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993) p 272 Google Scholar.

51. Pinker, S The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (New York: Penguin Putnam, 2002) p 59 Google Scholar.

52. Rawls, J Fairness to goodness’ (1975) 84 Philosophical Review 536 at 546–547CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

53. Rawls, J A Theory of Justice (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971) p 11 Google Scholar.

54. Pinker, above n 51, p 59.

55. Rawls, above n 53, p 23.

56. Ibid, p 92.

57. Ibid, p 11.

58. Ibid, p 302.

59. Ibid.

60. Rawls, above n 50, p 291.

61. Rawls, above n 53, p 126.

62. The second principle in essence means that ‘social and economic inequalities are just only in so far as they work to the advantage of the least advantaged people in society’. See Simmonds, N Central Issues in Jurisprudence Justice, Law and Rights (London: Sweet & Maxwell, 3rd edn, 2008) p 58 Google Scholar.

63. Beauchamp, T Distributive justice and the difference principle’ in Blocker, G and Smith, E (eds) John Rawls' Theory of Social Justice: An Introduction (Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 1980) p 133 Google Scholar.

64. Wolff, R Understanding Rawls: A Reconstruction and Critique of A Theory of Justice (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1977) p 201 Google Scholar.

65. Ibid, p 62.

66. Rawls, above n 50, p 272.

67. Craig, L Traditional Political Philosophy and John Rawls' Theory of Justice (Edmonton: University of Alberta, 1976) p 41 Google Scholar.

68. Ibid.

69. Audard, C John Rawls (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2007) p 104 Google Scholar.

70. Rawls Justice as Fairness p 75, as cited in Audard, above n 69, p 105.

71. Simmonds, above n 62, p 83. But Thomas Pogg construes Rawls to mean that the distribution of natural talents is a common asset: ‘We see then that the difference principle represents, in effect, an agreement to regard the distribution of natural talents as a common asset and to share in the benefits of this distribution whatever it turns out to be’ ( Pogge, T Realizing Rawls (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989) p 74 Google Scholar).

72. Wolff, above n 64, p 62. Further see Mullender, R Human rights, responsibilities and the pursuit of a realistic utopia’ (2010) 61 NILQ 33 at 44Google Scholar (Rawls would be seen as a proponent of ‘enterprise association’).

73. Fisher, W Iii Reconstructing the fair use doctrine’ (1988) 101 Harv L Rev 1659 at 1760Google Scholar.

74. Daniels, N Democratic equality: Rawls' complex egalitarianism’ in Freeman, S (ed) The Cambridge Companion to Rawls (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) p 251 Google Scholar.

75. Fisher, above n 73, at 1760.

76. Ibid.

77. P Parijs ‘Difference principle’ in Freeman, above n 74, p 224.

78. Martin, R Rawls and Right (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1985) p 164 Google Scholar.

79. Rawls, above n 50, p 270.

80. Martin, above n 78, p 164.

81. Ibid, p 165.

82. Rawls, above n 53, p 101.

83. Ibid, pp 78 and 103.

84. Gauthier, D Morals by Agreement (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986) ch VGoogle Scholar.

85. Sterk, above n 26, at 1238.

86. Hayek, FA Law, Legislation and Liberty Volume 2 (Chicago, IL: Chicago University Press, 1978) pp 71–72 CrossRefGoogle Scholar, as cited in Sterk, above n 26, at 1238.

87. Nozick, R Anarchy, State and Utopia (New York: Basic Books, 1974) p 226 Google Scholar.

88. Martin, above n 78, p 166.

89. Ibid.

90. Rawls, J A Kantian conception of equality’ (1974) Cambridge Review 97 Google Scholar. Rawls also says that ‘it is persons themselves who own their endowments: the psychological and physical integrity of persons is already guaranteed by the basic rights and liberties that fall under the first principle of justice’ ( Rawls, J Justice as Fairness: A Restatement (Kelly, E ed) (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001) p 44 Google Scholar.

91. Audard, above n 69, p 107.

92. Rawls, above n 53, p 313.

93. Ibid, p 8.

94. Pogge, above n 71, p 21.

95. Michelman, F Welfare rights in a constitutional democracy’ (1979) Wash ULQ 659, as cited in Beauchamp, above n 63, at 157Google Scholar.

96. Beauchamp, above n 63, at 157.

97. Kordana, K and Tabachnick, D Rawls and contract law’ (2005) 73 Geo Wash L Rev 598 at 606Google Scholar.

98. I acknowledge my thanks to one reviewer for this point.

99. Drahos, above n 25, p 192.

100. Ibid, p 193.

101. Ibid, p 179.

102. Ibid, p 177.

103. Ibid.

104. Palmer, T Are patents and copyrights morally justified? the philosophy of property rights and ideal objects’ (1990) 13 Harv JL & Pub Policy 817 at 830Google Scholar.

105. Ladbroke (Football) Ltd v William Hill (Football) Ltd [1964] 1 WLR 272 at 291.

106. Drahos, above n 25, p 177.

107. Ibid.

108. ‘Under a contractarian, constructivist view of justice, property is not the basis for justice but an instrument of justice. By the time the original parties come to consider property rights, the principles of justice are already out in the open. This commits the original parties to thinking about property rights in an instrumental fashion’ (Drahos, above n 25, p 193).

109. William Blackstone's Commentaries on the Laws of England (1765–1769) book II, ch 1, p 2.

110. The House of Lords in Jeffreys v Boosey (1854) 4 HLC 815 agreed with Pollock's opinion of copyright law, as cited in Cornish and Llewelyn, above n 13, p 377.

111. Sterk, above n 26, p 1237.

112. Martin, above n 78, p 166.

113. Daniels, N (ed) Reading Rawls: Critical Studies of A Theory of Justice (New York: Basic Books, 1975) p 252 Google Scholar.

114. TM Scanlon ‘Rawls's theory of justice’ in Daniels, above n 113, p 201.

115. Ibid, p 202.

116. Pinker, above n 51, p 58.

117. Ibid.

118. Daniels, above n 74, at 251.

119. (1894) 3 CH 420 at 427.

120. Baigent v Random House Group Ltd [2007] EWCA Civ 247 at 255.

121. Ibid.

122. [2001] RPC 23 at 418–419.

123. Bainbridge, D Intellectual Property Law (London: Pearson Longman, 6th edn, 2007) p 47 Google Scholar.

124. Ladbroke (Football) Ltd v William Hill (Football) Ltd [1964] 1 WLR 272 at 291.

125. Hughes, above n 28, at 320.

126. Landes and Posner, above n 7, at 350.

127. Ibid, at 349.

128. Goldstein, P Copyright: Principles, Law and Practice (Boston, MA: Little Brown, 1989) p 95 Google Scholar.

129. Yen, A Restoring the natural law: copyright as labor and possession’ (1990) 51 Ohio St LJ 517 at 524, n 44Google Scholar.

130. (1769) 98 Eng Rep 201 at 233. See also a similar exposition by the US President Thomas Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson letter to Isaac Mcpherson, 13 August 1813, cited in Graham v John Deere Company of Kansas (1966) 383 US 1 at 8–9, n 2.

131. [1964] 1 WLR 272 at 291.

132. Drahos, above n 25, p 50.

133. Hughes, above n 28, at 314.

134. Ibid, at 329.

135. Gordon, W A property right in self-expression: equality and individualism in the natural law of intellectual property’ (1993) 102 Yale LJ 1533 at 1563–1564CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

136. Ibid, at 1581.

137. Ibid, at 1570.

138. Conventions or social rules would require others to acknowledge the source of the ideas. This recognition demonstrates a social value in a democratic society as Rawls said in A Theory of Justice that: ‘Human beings enjoy the exercise of their realized capacities (their innate or trained abilities) and this enjoyment increases the more the capacity is realized or the greater the complexity.…The companion effect to the Aristotelian principle is that the esteem and admiration of others is desired, the activities favoured by the Aristotelian principle are good for other persons as well’ (pp 375–376, as cited in Audard, above n 69, p 108).

139. Rawls, above n 53, p 100.

140. Ibid, pp 101–102.

141. Ibid, p 100.

142. IPC Media Ltd v News Group Newspapers Ltd [2005] EWHC 317 at 444.

143. Baigent v Random House Group Ltd [2007] EWCA Civ 247 at 255.

144. L B (Plastics) Ltd v Swish Products Ltd [1979] RPC 551 at 629.

145. Kelly v Cinema Houses Ltd [1928–1935] MCC 362 at 367.

146. Laddie, H et al The Modern Law of Copyright and Designs (London: Butterworths, 3rd edn, 2000) p 97 Google Scholar.

147. See, eg, Bently and Sherman, above n 42, p 164; also, as Peter Smith J put it: ‘The line to be drawn is to enable a fair balance to be struck between protecting the rights of the author and allowing literary development’ (Baigent v Random House Group Ltd [2007] EWCA Civ 247 at 255).

148. Per Peterson J, University of London Press, Limited v University Tutorial Press [1916] 2 Ch 601 at 608.

149. Hollinrake v Truswell [1894] 3 Ch 420 at 427–428.

150. Per Oliver LJ, Exxon Corporation v Exxon Insurance Consultants International Ltd [1982] Ch 119 at 144.

151. CDPA 1988, s 4(a).

152. Per Laddie J, Metix (UK) Ltd v G H Maughan (Plastics) Ltd [1997] FSR 718 at 722.

153. Laddie et al, above n 146, p 193.

154. CDPA 1988, s 4(c).

155. Torremans, P Holyoak & Torremans Intellectual Property (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 6th edn, 2010) p 200 Google Scholar.

156. CDPA 1988, s 4(1)(c). Note that s 4(1)(a) specifies ‘irrespective of artistic quality’, but as with s 4(1)(c), s 4(1)(b) makes no such specification. However, it is believed that s 4(1)(b), a work of architecture being a building, has no requirement for artistic quality because s 4(2) defines ‘building’ as including ‘any fixed structure’, hence ‘structures devoid of artistic quality’ (Laddie et al, above n 146, p 192). So that only leaves a work of artistic craftsmanship without the qualification ‘irrespective of artistic quality’ in the category of artistic work under the CDPA 1988.

157. George Hensher Ltd v Restawhile Upholstery (Lancs) Ltd [1976] AC 64 at 94.

158. Ibid, at 78.

159. Ibid, at 97.

160. Ibid, at 95.

161. Ibid, at 97.

162. Laddie et al, above n 146, p 198.

163. Ibid, p 78.

164. Torremans, above n 155, p 201.

165. Laddie et al, above n 146, p 196.

166. Ibid, p 197.

167. Daniels, above n 74, at 269.

168. Waldron, J From authors to copiers: individual rights and social values in intellectual property’ (1993) 68 Chi-Kent LR 841 at 846Google Scholar.

169. Rawls, above n 53, p 201.

170. Ibid, p 302.

171. Daniels, above n 74, at 241.

172. Parijs, above n 77, at 215.

173. Ibid, at 215.

174. Sawkins v Hyperion [2005] 1 WLR 3281 at 3288.

175. Bleistein v Donaldson Lithographing Co (1903) 188 US 239 at 251.