論公共領域於著作權法之界限

A Study on the Boundary of the Public Domain in Copyright Law

由我國著作權法第1條開宗明義所揭櫫之立法意旨以觀，著作權之立法著重公、私益間之平衡。著作權法一方面為了保障著作人之權益，透過賦予著作人於著作上一定時間之專屬權，激勵著作人持續進行新的創作；另一方面，著作權法欲創造各種管道使公眾合法利用既有之著作，藉以調和公共利益，進而達到促進文化發展之終極目標。然而，近代社會對於著作權之維權意識高漲，高度關注著作權保障私益之面向，多次透過立法擴張著作權之範圍，相對地導致公共領域逐步萎縮，忽視著作權法調和社會公益，促進國家文化發展之最終目的，致生本末倒置之疑慮。本文欲從公共領域之角度出發，藉由對著作權立法之觀察，凸顯公共領域逐步遭到壓縮之現象，進而思考重建公共領域合理界限之方法。

Article 1 of Taiwanese Copyright Law shows that the legislation of the law focuses on the balance between private interests and public good. The Copyright law on one hand gives protection to copyright owners by granting certain exclusive rights to copyright owners as an incentive to further produce creative works. The law on the other hand intents to create diverse ways for general public to legally use existing copyrighted works so that the ultimate goal of the law, to promote the development of national culture, will finally be achieved. In recent years, however, the social awareness of copyright protection forces nations to gradually expand the scope of copyright. Public domain, on the contrary, has been shrunken by copyright legislations. This article is an intent to find ways to rebuild the reasonable boundary of the public domain in the copyright law. In doing so, the article will first look into the concept of public domain. The article will then introduce the copyright legislations which make public domain shriveled in order to rediscover a reasonable bound of public domain.