Zen and the art of repair manuals : enabling a participatory right to repair through an autonomous concept of EU copyright law

ROSBOROUGH, Anthony Douglas

Zen and the art of repair manuals : enabling a participatory right to repair through an autonomous concept of EU copyright law

dc.contributor.author	ROSBOROUGH, Anthony Douglas
dc.date.accessioned	2022-09-29T12:09:51Z
dc.date.available	2022-09-29T12:09:51Z
dc.date.issued	2022
dc.description.abstract	Repair manuals are an essential resource for repairing today’s modern and computerised devices. Though these manuals may contain purely utilitarian and uncopyrightable facts, they often receive copyright protection in their entirety as literary works. This protection can impede community-based efforts toward fostering a culture of participatory repair throughout the EU, including repair cafés and tool libraries. Participatory repair activities provide numerous environmental, social, and economic benefits. This article explores whether directive 2001/29/EC’s exception for “uses in connection with the repair or demonstration of equipment” at Article 5(3)(l) (the “Repair Exception”) may offer an avenue for enabling such non-profit activities. Following an examination of the shortcomings of recent EU-wide policy measures and industry-led commitments aimed at providing access to repair information, the article looks to the Repair Exception’s origins, member state implementation, and its interpretive scope as an autonomous concept of EU law. Considering the strong public interest in participatory repair and dissemination of technical knowledge, the article calls for a robust autonomous interpretation of the Repair Exception in line with Article 11 TFEU. This interpretation should enable non-profit repair activities throughout the EU while accounting for and balancing the legitimate economic interests of rightsholders.	en
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en
dc.identifier.citation	Journal of intellectual property, information technology and e-commerce law, 2022, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 113-131	en
dc.identifier.endpage	131	en
dc.identifier.issn	2190-3387
dc.identifier.issue	2	en
dc.identifier.startpage	113	en
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1814/74910
dc.identifier.volume	13	en
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.orcid.upload	true	*
dc.publisher	Deutsche Gesellschaft für Recht und Informatik (DGRI)	en
dc.relation.ispartof	Journal of intellectual property, information technology and e-commerce law	en
dc.relation.uri	https://www.jipitec.eu/issues/jipitec-13-2-2022/5539	en
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess	en
dc.title	Zen and the art of repair manuals : enabling a participatory right to repair through an autonomous concept of EU copyright law	en
dc.type	Article	en
dspace.entity.type	Publication
person.identifier.orcid	0000-0002-2542-3638
person.identifier.other	45108
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