Les droits économiques dans l'environnement numérique : portrait de notions en mutation
General Internet access has shaken Copyright. In the mid-nineties, many announced the death of this institution several centuries old. We have to admit that Copyright is still quite alive though it has changed. The economic rights, which were quickly applied in the digital environment, are a testimony of these changes. The analysis of audio file digital transmission exposes mutations which affect two specifie economic rights: the reproduction right and the right of communication to the public by telecommunication. These changes result from the legislator's intervention or from how the economic rights are applied in this new environment. The traditional reach of these rights is often extended by those changes. As a result, the rationalities that justify these rights are sometimes ignored. Moreover, the new interaction between these changed rights sometimes has debatable effects on the various copyright actors. Copyright retains its raison d'être. Still, the question arises whether the current form of the economic rights remains the best vehicle to achieve the goals implied by these rights. As the legislator now considers a simplification of Copyright, reviewing the form of the economic rights is essential. It is time, at least in the digital environment, to adopt an approach based on the effects of the acts, rather than on their nature. The analysis of the changes, which affect the economic rights in a digital environment, exposes the limits of our positivist way of considering these rights. Keywords Internet, copyright, economic rights, reproduction, communication to the public by telecommunication, mutation, effect.
Internet Reproduction Mutation Copyright Economic rights Communication to the public by telecommunication Effect