“A critical survey of the views driving the current debate over U.K. legal alternatives to the U.S. ‘Fair Use Doctrine’, including a comparative analysis of the US and UK legal regimes.”
Dr. Mark L. Woods, B.A., Ph.D., LL.M., PgDL, PGCHE, TESOL, FHEA
University of Glamorgan Law School / University of South Wales
Pontypridd / Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
The School of Law, Accounting and Finance
Faculty of Business & Society
University of Glamorgan
28 September 2012
This dissertation is submitted in part completion, of study for the award by the University of Glamorgan of the degree of LL.M. in the academic year 2011/2012.
Signature: Date:
Dr. Mark L. Woods September 28, 2012
This dissertation is my own work. All sources used, quoted, summarised and otherwise referred to within are fully credited and cited in the foot/endnotes and the bibliography.
Signature: Date:
Dr. Mark L. Woods September 28, 2012
“A critical survey of the views driving the current debate over
U.K. legal alternatives to the U.S. ‘Fair Use Doctrine’,
including a comparative analysis of the US and UK legal regimes.”
Word count: 20,000 words.
Abstract: This Master of Laws thesis (the “Thesis”)surveys critical commentary driving the current debate over U.K. legal alternatives to the U.S. ‘Fair Use Doctrine’. The survey first situates this commentary in an overview of the existing legal regimes in the United Kingdom and in the United States of America. The following analysis of related commentary makes comparisons to other so-called ‘Common Law Jurisdictions’, which have either adopted, ignored or rejected any changes to their laws, i.e., approving statutory codifications intended to move them away from the U.K.’s Fair Dealing model and toward the U.S.A.’s Fair Use Doctrine model. This study is informed by applying critical approaches, which are based on legislative and case law analysis, legal theory and legal history. Other informed or relevant commentary and writings are privileged for their relevance to the broader discourse. Therefore, observations and conclusions are achieved by methods including Comparative Law and Multi-disciplinary research. Consequently, the study provides both practical, historical and theoretical insight into specific areas of Intellectual and Industrial Property Law (IP), while also exploring the relationship of IP Law to European Union Law, Competition Law, the Law of Obligations, Commercial Law, and various other areas of international law, Common Law and Equity.
Key words: Copyright, Fair Dealing, Fair Use Doctrine, Intellectual Property Law, Common Law, European Union Law, British Law, American Law
© Copyright 2012 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods, All Rights Reserved.
Dottore Mark 