BALANCING THE DIGITAL COPYRIGHT PROTECTION MEASURES AND PUBLIC ACCESS UNDER ETHIOPIAN LAW

Abstract

The digital technology presents challenges to copyright owners and traditional public access to copyrighted works via exception. Accordingly, the copyright owners are responding by using technological protection measures (TPMs) and right information management that are used to control access to or prevent users from digitally copying or sharing works without authorization. This poses uncertainty regarding balance of digital copyrights of authors and public access. Suitability of existing International laws and many national laws for governing ways of the protection of digital works and implication of circumvention for maintaining exceptions that allow public access to copy righted remained controversial. The main objective of this study is to analyze the mechanism of balancing digital copyrighted works and the public exceptional access to digitalized copyright under the Ethiopian law. To achieve this objective, the study employs doctrinal research as well as comparative analysis of Ethiopia’s applicable laws with other legal systems’ modern copyright legislations. The main finding of the study is that in Ethiopia the scope of existing copyright law dealing with the mechanisms of protection of digitalized copyrights and its implication for permissible exceptions are not clearly and soundly regulated. It also finds the computer crime proclamation prohibits intentional illegal access to computer content data without authorization and trafficking in devices that designed exclusively for purpose of circumvention of access protection technologies. Moreover, it reveals the Ethiopian government currently ratified WIPO Marrakesh Treaty by Proclamation No. 1181/2020 on March 13, 2020 that allows circumventions of TPMs by beneficiary persons for enjoying the limitations and exceptions provided in nationallaw. However, except these laws, current conventional copyright law and any other legislation do not provide exceptions that allow certain indispensable circumvention of TPMs for the public users. The thesis noticed that the existing copyright laws in Ethiopia is not adequate and sound enough in regulating the appropriate balance between legal protections of TPMs and public exception to it. Based on this finding, specific recommendations are finally suggested for a balance between the rights of the copyright holders and the public in the digital environment considering the best comparative experiences from certain modern copyright legislations existing in some selected jurisdictions.