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BASIC PRINCIPLES FOR MANAGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN THE DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT
PRINCIPLE 9
9. New rights and protections should be created
cautiously and only so far as experience proves necessary to meet the
Constitutional provision for a limited monopoly to promote the
"Progress of Science and useful Arts."
Sui generis protections should be considered with
extreme care and only after an adequate body of case law has
accumulated to define the dimensions of what is at stake. Extension
of copyright to new classes of works should be regarded with
skepticism until it is demonstrated that the extension affirms the
traditional balance between owners and users, and care should be
taken to consider whether other bodies of law might be more
appropriate vehicles for the protection sought and what the
consequences of such applications might be.
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