Maxime Lambrecht

• 2015 - ... : Post-doctoral researcher at the Hoover Chair of economic and social ethics (UCLouvain)
• 2014 : Visiting researcher at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University (from february to april)
• 2010 - 2015 : Phd student in law at UCLouvain, under the supervision of Philippe Van Parijs and Séverine Dusollier

PhD thesis (defended on March 4, 2015) : "Copyright and the Openness of the Digital Environment : Social Responsibility against Legislation?" (in French)

Abstract:

The impact of policy choices regarding copyright on Internet regulation and architecture is often underestimated. Yet Internet regulation raises important issues for a conception of justice committed to real freedom. We must therefore consider these two questions together, and confront the traditional justifications for copyright law (proprietarian, utilitarian or personalist justifications) with the arguments in favor of an Internet regulation which aims to preserve the positive potential of the digital environment for real freedom. We claim that regulation should be guided by a presumption in favor of openness, i.e. a presumption in favor of freedom to disseminate, use and reuse information. This normative approach implies namely a perspective reversal for copyright law, limiting the power of the gatekeepers of the digital environment, as well as a set of strict guidelines for the use of « code » for law enforcement purposes.

Moreover, bottom-up initiatives aiming to unlock the copyright regime raise the issue of the relationship between social responsibility and legislation for advancing the openness of the digital environment. On the one hand, the open licenses movement, animated by a particular vision of their social responsibility for the digital environment, constitutes an original approach to promote openness. On the other hand, different legislative reforms could address the lack of breathing space in the copyright regime, such as an exception for user generated content, an open « fair use » style exception, or a semi-open exception, inspired by the new Canadian « fair dealing ». What are the strengths and weaknesses of both approaches ? What to think of the paradox of the open licenses approach, which relies on the very same legal regime that it attempts to subvert ? What are the tensions and convergence between the social responsibility approach and the legislative approach ?

These discussions will allow us to contribute to the search for the best path for a regulation of information in the digital environment that contributes to the conditions of a just society.