ABSTRACT
Historically there has always been a very close relationship between technology and law. This is particularly true in the IP and Copyright law areas.1 The emergence and major expansions of copyright laws have often been directly driven by advances in technology. As the Intellectual Property and the National Information Infrastructure Report (‘NII White Paper’) observed, ‘from Gutenberg’s moveable type printing press to digital audio recorders and everything in between – photocopiers, radio, television, videocassette recorders, cable television and satellites, ‘ever-improving technology brings never-ending challenges for copyright law to respond to.2
Therefore, in order to explore and understand major problems in current IPR/copyright legislative regime, and to make suggestions for policy and legislative reforms in the current globalisation and digital environment, it is important to have a sound understanding of technological development and its impacts on international consensus on IPR legislation in recent decades.
