La privatisation de l'information par la propriété intellectuelle.. Quels remèdes pour la propriété littéraire et artistique ?

Information is at the heart of the knowledge economy and is increasingly sought after. Information also lies at the centre of intellectual property, even if it has been traditionally left outside the field of reservation. In addition to a recent evolution, some basic principles have progressively fallen from view and the subject has experienced a deep mutation. Copyright was originally designed to protect the author and to provide incentives for him to create for the benefit of society. Nowadays, it is more and more often presented as a mechanism to protect investment. Furthermore, the access to works in the digital environment has been restricted by technical measures, which are at the same time protected by anti-circumvention law. This mutation has had a certain influence over the free use of information, which has been called into question in many regards. This contribution seeks to first trace back this evolution, acknowledging the tendency towards a privatisation of information through copyright (understood here in an extended sense, including neighbouring and sui generis rights). Secondly, it successively proposes three types of remedie : first, returning to basic principles in applying rules belonging to this subject; second, re-establishing these principles through rules outside copyright law, such as competition law, media law and fundamental rights; and third, re-evaluating and reshaping existing rules in the light of their new paradigms.