Written by a team of leading scholars and practitioners in the fields of copyright and free speech, this work analyses the potential for interaction and conflict between the two rights. Free speech is the lifeblood of any democracy. As John Stuart Mill stated, "In government, perfect freedom of discussion in all its modes - speaking, writing, and printing - in law and in fact is the first requisite of good because the first condition of popular intelligence and mental progress." (Letter by John Stuart Mill, 18 March, 1840) Copyright, on the other hand, represent a property regime which protects human creativity as manifested in all types of expressions such as literary works, paintings and music. Both these notions, copyright and free speech, are united in the fact of their recognition as fundamental freedoms of all individuals within the national, regional and international framework of human rights. However, the rights are also antithetical in nature, giving rise to both political and jurisprudential tensions. These tensions have become recently accentuated by the advent of legislative developments. Both in the United States and within the European Union, legal commentators argue that recent copyright legislation has paid insufficient regard to free speech. This concern is underlined by the series of First Amendment challenges that have been brought against the United States Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The recent causes celèbres not only highlight the antagonistic relationship between copyright and free speech but also prominently depict the potential conflict between public and private interests in information - the Dead Sea Scrolls decision (Israel), the Wind Done Gone, Eldred and DeCSS cases (United States) and the Hyde Park v Yelland and Ashdown v Telegraph Group (United Kingdom). A further query which requires attention is the impact of the growing significance of international copyright law for the developing world. The raised profile of these conflicts has resulted in an increasing amount of attention from academe and the legal profession. Some of the authors of this volume have made influential contributions and are directly involved, both legally and politically, in the debate. There has, however, been no sustained study of the conflict across a variety of different jurisdictions. This book addresses the copyright/free speech relationship within a comparative and international legal framework. Moreover, the key questions regarding access to information and the digital challenges are addressed from both theoretical and practical perspectives.

Table of Contents:
Lord Justice Jacob: Preface 1: Jonathan Griffiths and Uma Suthersanen: Introduction Part A: Mapping the Conflict 2: Eric Barendt: Copyright and free speech theory 3: Fiona Macmillan: Commodification and cultural ownership 4: Wendy Gordon: Copyright norms and the problem of private censorship 5: Uma Suthersanen: Towards an international public interest rule? Human rights and international copyright law Part B: National Perspectives 6: Neil Netanel: Copyright and the First Amendment 7: Gerald Dworkin: Copyright, the public interest and freedom of speech 8: Kevin Garnett QC: The impact of the Human Rights Act 1998 on United Kingdom copyright law 9: Jonathan Griffiths: Not such a 'timid thing' - the UK's integrity right and freedom of expression 10: Ysolde Gendreau: Canadian copyright law and its Charters 11: Robert Burrell and James Stellios: Copyright and freedom of political communication in Australia 12: Alain Strowel and François Tulken: Freedom of expression and copyright under the civil law 13: Mira Sundara Rajan: Copyright and free speech in transition: the Russian experience Part C: The Digital World 14: Raymond T. Nimmer: First Amendment speech and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act: a proper marriage 15: Thomas Dreier: Contracting out of copyright in the Information Society - the impact on freedom of expression 16: Jeremy Phillips: Databases, the Human Rights Act and EU law