Digital rights management, concorrência e acesso ao conhecimento no mercado de livros digitais
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Data
2015-04-10
Autores
Orientador(res)
Nasser, Salem Hikmat
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Resumo
Digital books facilitate access to books, through factors such as the reduction of geographical and financial barriers, serving as an important instrument for promoting access to knowledge in the XXI century. To prevent works from being pirated online, e-books are protected by digital rights management (DRM), a technological lock that allows copyright holders to protect their rights by controlling what users can do with their digital files. DRM can determine variables such as under what circumstances, how many times, for how long, and on which devices a file can be accessed. This lock, in turn, is protected by anti-circumvention laws that prohibit users from changing or removing it. As a rule, these laws do not require the architecture of DRM systems to comply with the same limits and exceptions that apply to copyright. As a result, it is possible for DRM systems to establish new rules on the use of artwork beyond the legal protection afforded by intellectual property laws. In the digital book market, such rules have a particular impact on competition. Since booksellers use different proprietary DRM schemes on their digital books, compatible with a limited number of reading platforms, readers face interoperability problems in acquiring e-books from a different store than the one in which the reading device was bought. This low interoperability locks readers into a particular ecosystem and increases network effects, switching costs and barriers to entry in this market, leading to concentration. As a result, bookstores are able to exercise great power over the flow of information in this market, undermining the potential of e-books to spread knowledge and promote reading. Thus, this research examines how DRM systems and anti-circumvention laws affect competition in the digital book market, and how this competitive dynamic, in turn, impacts access to books. The analysis begins with a description of the digital book market and advances to a theoretical discussion, consisting of a review of specialized literature on copyright, competition law, and access to knowledge. Under a development as freedom perspective, this research concludes that a review of anticircumvention laws is essential for promoting competition in this market, guaranteeing individual autonomy, and realizing the potential of e-books to expand access to knowledge.