COPYRIGHT PROTECTION IN THE AGE OF DIGITAL REPRODUCTION AND STREAMING

Povzetek

With the introduction of digital reproduction technology and streaming sites, the entire game of copyright has been completely turned upside down in the 21 st century. In this paper I am digging into the issues and how the existence of the law would be re-read when the instant digital copying and on-demand streaming would rule. My area of interest is the rights of the authors, fair use, and the place of digital platforms, and I conduct a doctrinal analysis of current legal initiatives, landmark cases, and academic opinions. I am pleased to discover that platforms provide individuals with an increased access and can suppress piracy by licensed services, but they are equally more difficult to use to enforce exclusive rights of the creators and create new tensions between creators and users. The current generation of creators find it difficult to make money and keep their work safe amidst rampant online piracy as well as changing revenue principles, and they often receive a fraction of the rising streaming profits. Simultaneously, the users and secondary creators are using doctrines such as fair use to defend transformative or innovative uses, putting the courts and legislators back to the task of re-evaluating the breadth of exceptions in the digital era. The copyright is transforming, as evidenced by the private content-moderation policies with the capability to defeat the fair use, as well as the recent judicial decisions that narrow the concept of transformative. The article extracts such major concerns as platform liability frameworks, the impact of DRM on the rights of its users, and global pressures to ensure that creators receive equitable compensation. Finally, I would propose legal and policy changes to achieve a more balanced approach between authors and the population and retain a strong copyright safeguard without stifling fair use and invention.