Abstract
Cases like the 20-year legal battle over the unauthorized sampling of two seconds from a song by the German band, Kraftwerk, show that resolution of copyright can be expensive and time-consuming. The picture has become even grimmer with the digital revolution and its trail of social media proliferation, e-commerce and globalized market for digital content, which have increased the means for content distribution, and consequently - infringement. This should necessarily lead to the question: if litigation encounters such significant challenges and if Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanisms are regarded as an appropriate alternative for dispute resolution by courts, why have ADR mechanisms not been better embraced for copyright dispute resolution, even in instances where they are statutorily recommended? The fear of blacklisting of authors and the fear of bias against copyright exploiters are regarded as reasons for the unpopularity of ADR methods in copyright disputes. Both reasons, and indeed the evidence of low usage, signal a design flaw in the system of copyright dispute resolution. This project seeks to integrate two bodies of literature in the field of dispute resolution – those relating to intellectual property (IP) law and those relating to Dispute Systems Design (DSD), to propose a model for copyright disputes resolution by integrating DSD strategies with the peculiarities of copyright-dense industries and disputes. This research shall combine legal doctrinal research methodology with empirical research to ultimately determine how the copyright dispute resolution system can be designed to enhance trust in ADR, boost stakeholders' use of ADR and contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the copyright system. This project shall add to the field of research on IP enforcement and dispute resolution and contribute to preserving the value of IP rights in the face of relentless infringement. It will also inform and guide the discourse on the enforcement of IP rights towards an effective and sustainable digital age dispute resolution system for the enforcement of rights and the realization of the objectives of the copyright system.
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