Private Law Theory

ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the challenges that digital technology poses to established frameworks of property and intellectual property law. Starting from the observation that digitization has dissolved the physical anchors of ownership, it traces the conceptual and legal consequences of the shift from possession to access as the dominant mode of engaging with content. The chapter surveys the historical development of copyright law, from Gutenberg through the Berne Convention and the WIPO era, highlighting how intellectual property protection has progressively prioritized private interests over the public domain. It then analyses the regulatory landscape governing digital content, including the roles of Internet intermediaries, graduated response systems, and content-filtering obligations. The chapter concludes that the disruptive impact of the digital revolution requires a fundamentally new perspective on copyright, one that elevates exceptions and limitations to a central rather than peripheral function and embraces regulatory flexibility as the condition for sustaining creative and digital ecosystems.

Lucchi, Nicola, Rights and Challenges in the Technological Domain: Navigating the Transformations of Digital Property (November 19, 2024) in C Bevan (ed), Research Handbook on Property, Law and Theory (Edward Elgar 2024) 394-405.