A South African perspective on user-created content in cloud computing: a copyright conundrum

[摘要] English: The term 'cloud computing, i.e. 'the cloud, is used to describe a virtual platform incyberspace from and to which a user can process store data that is literary, musical,artistic or informative in nature, and which is accessible via an Internet connection.The cloud therefore functions as virtual container that holds, processes anddistributes all forms of copyrighted content, and which operates outside the confinesof recognised territorial boundaries. The cloud is not only distributive butparticipatory. It fosters a 'cut and paste culture by allowing users to access, store,remix and create content. The cloud promotes user-created content, a term thatencompasses and insurmountable range of actions by users with respect to cloudcontent available on the World Wide Web. Prominent scholars have devised ataxonomy for the categorisation and classification of cloud content to some degree,but there is wide spread acknowledgement that the nature of the cloud cannot beconfined to a decisive definition, nor its content exact parameters. The inexact natureof the cloud and its content poses challenges for copyright law, a regime that ispremised on a distinctive subject matter, confined to territorial boundaries and aimedat identifiable parties with respect to its application. In the cloud traditional copyrightlaw seems wholly inadequate to provide regulation on matters of infringement, fairdealing and copyright recognition. Moreover, the inadequacy of the regime for cloudapplication threatens to weaken its validity as a mechanism that aims to promote theinnovation of works for the benefit of the general public. If copyright law is to remaina valid instrument for the regulation of user-created content in cloud computing thereis a definitive need to re-evaluate, revise and expand some of the regulatory devicesthereof to accommodate the expectations and interests of cloud users. Finding ameans to balance the rights of copyright holders against the interests of the generalpublic has never been more critical, and policy makers have become ever aware ofthe need to develop a robust copyright regime for cloud application. Accordingly, thisstudy aims to investigate the insufficiency of South African copyright law toadequately regulate the conduct of users who can acquire, remix, upload, derive andshare vast amounts of copyrighted works via the Internet. The purpose of this studyis to analyse potential developments in copyright law for cloud application in order togain insight on the regulation and adjudication of user-created content within a SouthAfrican context.

[发布机构] University of the Free State