Digital rights management and copyright's paradigm : the implications of backdoor propertisation in digital copyright law for end-users' access to knowledge

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Warden, Cheryl (2026) Digital rights management and copyright's paradigm : the implications of backdoor propertisation in digital copyright law for end-users' access to knowledge. Other. Social Science Research Network (SSRN). (https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.6635978)

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Abstract

This paper analyses the implications of technical protection measures (TPM) enabled digital rights management systems as a mode of increased intellectual property rights for rightsholders through the backdoor. The analysis considers the implications of the backdoor propertisation of creative works for end-users within copyright’s paradigm, conducted through the lens of the Infosoc Directive’s Article 6(4). This paper establishes that the ambiguous wording of Art. 6 (4), when implemented into EU member state domestic laws, functions as an avenue for rightsholders to exploit the provision’s ambiguity to increase their IPRs through the backdoor (backdoor propertisation). Through its analysis of the implementation of Article 6 (4) into the UK's Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988's topical s.29A Text and Data-Mining exception, the paper not only strengthens its position that backdoor IPRs place unnecessary burdens on end-users accessing knowledge under copyright’s exceptions and limitations. It is also established that TPMs serve as a mechanism for the backdoor propertisation of creative works. This work established the core conceptual framework for the author's research into developing a forward-thinking theory of regime-shifting, serving as the pivotal starting point for nearly a decade of subsequent research into backdoor propertisation and Article 6(4) of the Infosoc Directive.

ORCID iDs

Warden, Cheryl ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-2648-0316;
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)