| Abstract [eng] |
This Master thesis analyses the topic of the possibility of exploiting the distribution right in the digital space. The topic is revealed by discussing three theories of the formation of the exhaustion rule and assessing whether they would support the application of exhaustion in virtual space. The paper discusses the impact of new EU legislation on the application of exhaustion. It finds that property theory would not support the application of exhaustion in the digital space today, as the legal status and rights of digital data that express a work have not been fully resolved in national law and in European Union law. Until there is clarity, there is also no answer as to how to reconcile the rights of the author, the holder of related rights and the sui generis rightholder with the rights of the owner of the data set. The application of exploitation in the digital space would be supported by another theory, that of remuneration, given that fair remuneration for authors and performers in the virtual space has been implemented in EU legislation. The theory of turnover provision is considered in the thesis as consisting of two aspects: turnover provision and the creation of a single market. The analysis summarises that the digital exhaustion would ensure turnover by opening up a secondary virtual market. As the digital single market is slowly being created by other means and the application of exhaustion has been postponed by the EU legislator, the application of exhaustion is not considered to be an appropriate instrument to achieve this objective. The questions discussed in the paper have been used in the final part of the paper to answer the question of whether or not new technologies, such as NFTs, could be subject to exhaustion. |
