The doctrine of exhaustion of intellectual rights constitutes an important principle of intellectual property law. It limits author’s distribution right and enables a resale of copyrighted work that an author has put into circulation with the first sale. The exhaustion doctrine was developed by American case-law from the 19th century. In comparison, the exhaustion doctrine of European Union has been established through economic cooperation of the member states developing Single market with the Court of European community playing the key role. International and European laws grant the application of exhaustion doctrine under the condition of transferring ownership over a copy of copyrighted work, consequently, exhausting the distribution right. The jurisprudence is responsible for establishing the exhaustion doctrine in relation to reproduction, distribution, rent, communication to the public, making available to the public, repair, derivative work, droit de suite, fair use doctrine and essential step defence, into the complicated system of copyright law. The exhaustion doctrine represents a crucial factor in balancing conflicting interests of copyright holders and users. It allows free disposal of copyrighted works. Digitalisation has changed the traditional relations and influenced the regulation of copyright. The advancement of technology moved copyrighted content from market shelves to cloud servers. The sale of physical copies of copyrighted work was replaced with the sale of access to the server, where the copyrighted work is stored. Copyright holders retain control over the use of copyrighted work by concluding licencing agreements. In this contribution, I am addressing the digitalised relations between right holders and users along with the analysis of possibilities for development of digital exhaustion right.
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