Copyright law and enjoyment of the right to information: a study of justifiability and reasonability of Sri Lankan law on copyright law

Abstract

This study was on justifiability and reasonability of the copyright law of Sri Lanka in the context of globalization of economic activities and business. The rationale of the study was based on the observation that manual labour had been increasingly replaced by mental labour in which productivity is dependent on the availability of information. It is generally observed that copyright law has become a hurdle in nurturing mental labour. Further, there is a dearth of studies which examine copyright law from a critical normative perspective. In the above context, the present study provides a normative and comparative discussion and analysis of different frameworks of copyright law from a critical perspective. The study found two pieces of law which have been framed after Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreement of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) model. Further, it is found that law enactment in the field of copyright law had been carried out without proper consultation with the public and assessment of its developmental needs. The study found WIPO model was more beneficial to countries like Sri Lanka and it included provisions enabling translation and reuse within a shorter period of time. However, the TRIP model had done away with those developing country-friendly pieces of copyright law provisions making access to knowledge and information and their reproduction a daunting task for those eying the development of mental labour as required by the present global market.