Home / Vol.7, n°1 / Music, Padlocks and the Commons

Synopsis

Since the advent of the digital compression formats and Peer-to-Peer transaction services like Napster, the recording industry is in a state of disarray. Fundamentally, there is reason to reflect on what appears to be a copyright efficacy crisis. While the copyists seemed to have gained an upper hand against some powerful interests, countermeasures are in the wake. The foreseeable implementation of secured formats, so-called Trusted Systems, portends an era of total control by the titleholders. ‘Super efficacy’ will radically change in relation to the work, compromising the balance struck between the private and public dimensions of copyright law.

[*] L.L.M., Maîtrise en droit, axe technologies de l’information, Université de Montréal.