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Defence date: 18 October 2011 ; Examining Board: Professor Giovanni Sartor, EUI, Supervisor Professor Hans-W. Micklitz, EUI Dr. Maurizio Borghi, Brunel University Professor Molly S. van Houweling, UC Berkeley School of Law ; First made available online: 24 August 2021 ; The advent of Internet and digital technologies has radically transformed the way information is being produced and consumed. The consequences for copyright law are twofold. While digital media provide new opportunities for authors to produce and disseminate their works to the public, they simultaneously encourage and facilitate copyright infringement. Traditionally, in order to ensure compliance with the law, the copyright regime could rely upon the properties of physical media to constitute a natural barrier against copyright infringement. As the medium went digital, however, its properties became a catalyst for infringement. Designed for the physical world, the structure of the copyright does not adequately address the issues inherent to digital media. Private regulation therefore came into play in order to resolve the problem. While restrictive licensing agreements combined with technological measures of protection purport to reestablish a technological barrier against copyright infringement, permissive licenses such as Creative Commons purport to reduce the scope of protection granted by default under the law. Although differing in method, these approaches share a common goal: to realign the properties of the work with the properties of the digital medium by readjusting the legal attributes and technical characteristics of digital copies. As a legal concept, however, the notion of a copy must be precisely defined. After performing an ontological analysis of the copyright regime within the scope of the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records and the Information Artifact Ontology, the research concludes that physical copies fundamentally differ from their digital counterpart. While the former qualify as a token, the latter qualify as a class that is capable of multiple instantiations. Moreover, given that the identity of a digital copy can no longer be defined by its physical characteristics, it is fundamentally for the copyright license to determine the scope of the copy to which it refers.

International audience ; In recent years, copyright law has been subject to a series of legislative reforms aimed at preserving the self-regulating feature of the copyright regime in the digital environment. However, as the law does no longer reflect their expectations, a growing number of right holders are relying on private ordering in order to adjust the default provisions of the copyright regime with a variety of contractual means. Within the digital environment, the establishment of an alternative regime of property rights could however facilitate the exploitation and the dissemination of digital works, allowing for the copyright owners to maintain a certain level of control over the exploitation of theirs works while simultaneously decreasing the level of discrepancies that may occur between copyright law and property law. The regime would distinguish between the copyright protection granted to the work as an intellectual creation and the specific terms and conditions governing the exploitation of any given instance of the work, into which the copyright owner could introduce a series of restrictions and/or obligations enforceable erga omnes. Digital works would therefore become more akin to virtual goods which could be alienated independently of any contractual relationship, given that the rights and obligations regulating the consumption of a work would now be vesting into the actual instance of the work. By getting rid of the contractual relationship that is today required for the consumption of digital works, the ownership thereof could be transferred to any third party and the doctrine of exhaustion be reintroduced, thereby allowing for the market for information goods to develop with fewer constraints.

Blockchain technology enables the creation of decentralized currencies, decentralized applications powered by smart contracts, self-executing digital agreements, and intelligent assets that can be controlled over the Internet. Blockchains also enable the development of new governance systems with more democratic or participatory decision-making, and decentralized (autonomous) organizations that can operate over a network of computers without any human intervention. These applications have led many to compare the blockchain to the Internet, with accompanying predictions that this technology will shift the balance of power away from centralized authorities in the field of communications, business, and even politics or law. Blockchain and the Law explores the benefits and drawbacks of this emerging decentralized technology and argues that its widespread deployment will lead to expansion of what we term lex cryptographia: rules administered through self-executing smart contracts.--

International audience ; Interaction among individuals underlies all social processes. Underpinning the emergence of complexsocial organisations is the ability for individuals to influence one another, either directly, through peerpressure and social reinforcement, or indirectly, through the establishment of larger social structures,such as communities, families, companies, governments, and many other types of institutions. Severaltheoretical frameworks have been developed in a variety of disciplines to understand how individualsorganise themselves into these social structures and how these social structures in turn contribute toshaping individual attitudes, infrastructures, tools, behaviours, ideas and beliefs. The concept ofinstitutions is particularly central to most theoretical frameworks in the field of organisational andgovernance theory. While some of these frameworks focus on the structural properties of social groupsthat support or reinforce intended social interactions, others focus on social environments and culturalphenomena as a means to investigate how culture affects social dynamics and individual practices in thecontext of interactive and relational social structures. Yet, while most of these frameworks do recognizethe interplay that subsists between the structural elements and the cultural components of these socialgroups, they often assimilate both of these components into a monolithic framework ofanalysis—thereby limiting the opportunity to distinguish between the different logics that animate eachof these components. In this paper, we introduce an integrated theoretical framework to analyse theinterplay between formalized social structures composed of codified roles and rules which are commonlydescribed as "institutions'', and the more latent interpersonal relationships that shape and animate theseinstitutions—we introduce the notion of "extitutions'' to describe the latter. The main contribution ofthis paper is to provide an ontological framework to characterize the reciprocal interactions ...

International audience ; Blockchain technology has spurred the emergence of powerful narratives to promote new ways of governing outer space. The list of proposed uses for blockchain applications in outer space is endless-from property registries for asteroid mining, to supply chain management systems, or interplanetary cryptocurrencies for the space economy-along with Elon Musk claiming that "SpaceX is going to put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon." 1 Yet, thus far, none of these projects have gone beyond simple declarations or white papers, mostly due to the inherent limitations on the effective enforcement of blockchain-based rules outside of their own technical framework. In this essay, we argue that blockchain technology is relevant for outer space because it fosters novel narratives 2 advancing possible futures characterized by new modes of governance. The strongest and most prominent of these narratives is the crypto-libertarian one, which draws heavily on the absence of a state, the sanctity of property, and the primacy of private ordering through decentralized markets. But there are other narratives proposed by relevant actors in the blockchain space that are dedicated to other modes of governance. 3 By focusing on alternative narratives for blockchain technology, we illustrate how the possible applications of blockchain technology in outer space may extend beyond the current libertarian dreams, to support a more commons-based approach to outer space governance. International Legal Framework of Outer Space Governance and the Commercial Space Industry Outer space governance was established through a series of international treaties, enacted during the Cold War period. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 (OST) is the most significant piece of legislation in this regard. It establishes an international legal framework for outer space, intended to preserve outer space as a global commons-i.e.

International audience ; Blockchain technology has spurred the emergence of powerful narratives to promote new ways of governing outer space. The list of proposed uses for blockchain applications in outer space is endless-from property registries for asteroid mining, to supply chain management systems, or interplanetary cryptocurrencies for the space economy-along with Elon Musk claiming that "SpaceX is going to put a literal Dogecoin on the literal moon." 1 Yet, thus far, none of these projects have gone beyond simple declarations or white papers, mostly due to the inherent limitations on the effective enforcement of blockchain-based rules outside of their own technical framework. In this essay, we argue that blockchain technology is relevant for outer space because it fosters novel narratives 2 advancing possible futures characterized by new modes of governance. The strongest and most prominent of these narratives is the crypto-libertarian one, which draws heavily on the absence of a state, the sanctity of property, and the primacy of private ordering through decentralized markets. But there are other narratives proposed by relevant actors in the blockchain space that are dedicated to other modes of governance. 3 By focusing on alternative narratives for blockchain technology, we illustrate how the possible applications of blockchain technology in outer space may extend beyond the current libertarian dreams, to support a more commons-based approach to outer space governance. International Legal Framework of Outer Space Governance and the Commercial Space Industry Outer space governance was established through a series of international treaties, enacted during the Cold War period. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 (OST) is the most significant piece of legislation in this regard. It establishes an international legal framework for outer space, intended to preserve outer space as a global commons-i.e.

International audience ; Despite its promise to establish a more decentralized society with a novel economic order,5 many of the blockchain-based networks or applications implemented thus far ultimately rely on market dynamics and economic incentives for distributed coordination. Indeed, consensus, in a large majority of existing blockchain-based networks, is established — at the protocol level — through a combination of code-based rules and game theoretical mechanisms that ultimately replicate the current economic order. This type of governance by the infrastructure has already shown its shortcomings, especially when it comes to promoting or preserving decentralization, mostly due to its inability to account for external political and economic forces that exist outside of a blockchain-based platform. We claim that, in order to ensure that these platforms cannot be co-opted by these external forces, a more comprehensive governance model must be elaborated — one that extends beyond the realm of pure algorithmically verifiable actions, and that supports or facilitates the governance of the infrastructure.

International audience ; Despite its promise to establish a more decentralized society with a novel economic order,5 many of the blockchain-based networks or applications implemented thus far ultimately rely on market dynamics and economic incentives for distributed coordination. Indeed, consensus, in a large majority of existing blockchain-based networks, is established — at the protocol level — through a combination of code-based rules and game theoretical mechanisms that ultimately replicate the current economic order. This type of governance by the infrastructure has already shown its shortcomings, especially when it comes to promoting or preserving decentralization, mostly due to its inability to account for external political and economic forces that exist outside of a blockchain-based platform. We claim that, in order to ensure that these platforms cannot be co-opted by these external forces, a more comprehensive governance model must be elaborated — one that extends beyond the realm of pure algorithmically verifiable actions, and that supports or facilitates the governance of the infrastructure.