Compulsory Licences as an Enabler of New Business Models

Technology continuously throws up new modes of distribution of copyrighted works. The history of copyright is very much about keeping up with these technological advancements, making sure, on the one hand, that copyright owners’ control over the use of their works is not rendered meaningless by the new mode of distribution and, on the other hand, that the public gets to enjoy the works in a different manner. In this balancing act, one option is the use of compulsory licensing. Yet national policy-makers have been slow to deploy compulsory licensing as an enabler of new business models that are built on new modes of distributing copyrighted works. Why is so? Perhaps it is due to the concern that international law does not permit use of compulsory licensing. Another reason could be the concern that compulsory licensing will not achieve the right balance. These concerns are explored in this chapter.