Enforceability of Contractual Limits to Copyright Infringement Exceptions

Abstract

Copyright law has provided a channel for the public in order to use the copyright works in certain circumstances without the permission from the copyright owner and this use does not amount to the copyright infringement, or so called “copyright exception”. However, nowadays there have been the sale contracts that restrict or exempt the consumers from any use that may otherwise fall within the ambit of copyright exception, for example, when the movie DVD is purchased, there is the contract affixed the DVD stating that “only for personal use” despite that the consumers may use this DVD in other ways such as for research and study, for teaching etc., but the consumers are only allowed for personal use. Therefore, there has been an interesting question as to whether this contract is enforceable. From the study on the legislations in other countries, there are two directions: the first is to give important respect to the principle on the freedom of contract and in this case, the court enforces the contract. And the second is to give recognition to the consumer protection and in this case, there is specific provision in copyright law that makes this contract void. However in Thailand, there is no such provision in copyright law, and it is quite difficult to apply the Civil and Commercial Code in this area. Therefore it is necessary to develop such provision in copyright law in the future.