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A Study on Copyright Misuse

Copyright law is to be encouraged and rewarded, but private motivation must ultimately serve the cause of promoting broad public availability of literature, music, and the other arts. The immediate effect on copyright law is to secure a fair return for an author s creative labor. But the ultimate aim is, by this incentive, to stimulate artistic creativity for the general public good. The limited scope of the copyright holder s statutory monopoly, like copyright limitation, the limited copyright duration, and compulsory licences required by the copyright law, reflects the balance of competing claims upon the public interest. Of course, copyright law protects only the expression of an idea, and not the idea itself. However, the grant to the author of the special privilege of a copyright carries out a public policy or social finality adopted by the copyright law. It equally forbids the use of the copyright to secure an exclusive right or limited monopoly not granted by the copyright law and which it is contrary to public policy to grant. Copyright licensing agreement or exercise of copyright amounted to misuse of its copyrights, if copyright licensing agreement goes essentially attempts to suppress any attempt by the licensee to independently implement the idea, copyright limitation, and the limited copyright duration which copyright subject matter, and if the copyright was used as leverage to gain competitive advantages over licensees in areas beyond the scope of the limited privileges conferred by the copyright. The doctrine of copyright misuse, although yet to be firmly entrenched in the jurisprudence of courts, is effective mechanism to balance between authors incentives and society s interests, and introduces a significant measure of uncertainty into the copyright arena.