Toward a Flexible Copyright System (FleCS)

Abstract

The copyright system began with the modern printing system, and survived the consecutive technological innovations such as cinematograph, television, copying machine and computer. Actually its scope was expanded every time new inventions were introduced and it is still alive over several centuries. In the 1990's, however, the astonishing growth of the Internet is shaking the foundations of the system. There are usually two contrastive methods to cope with the crisis; one is to strengthen its foundations by amending its defects, while another is to change the structure into a flexible system by absorbing the fluctuations as given. This paper takes the latter approach, and tries to hypothesize a brand new system suited for the digital age through a creative destruction process.