Vol 48, No 1 (2024)

The article continues a series of publications based on the results of traditional expert surveys conducted by the UNESCO Chair on Copyright, Related, Cultural and Information Rights of the National Research University Higher School of Economics together with the law firm Nextons among participants in annual scientific and practical conferences on media law and intellectual property law. The article summarizes and analyzes the results of an expert survey conducted in the fall of 2023 and dedicated to the human right to choose when using digital technologies. The thesis about the right to choose as a new generation of human rights is put forward and discussed.

As part of the survey, respondents were asked questions based on real examples of the implementation of digital technologies in various spheres of life in modern Russian society. Questions related to unmanned vehicles, the use of artificial intelligence for personnel selection, the use of voice assistants and chat bots for communication with the population, the integration of video surveillance and photographic recording systems into smart city projects, etc.

The results of the study showed that in most cases, respondents chose those answer options that provided individuals with the opportunity to refuse to use a particular technology. In general, the results obtained do not contradict the results of surveys conducted on similar topics in other jurisdictions.

The necessity is substantiated in the very near future to introduce in industry legislation the obligation to inform citizens about the use of certain digital technologies (for example, artificial intelligence technologies) and to create non-discriminatory conditions in the field of digitalization, where for persons who do not have the knowledge and/or ability to use them, there is always an alternative non-digital interaction will be provided.

The purpose of the research is to analyze civil legislation regarding the turnover of utilitarian digital rights, the issuance of which is carried out in the process of investment using investment platforms (information systems on the Internet).

Based on the goal set by the authors, the objectives of the study include the analysis of the norms on crowdfunding and the practice of their application, taking into account the digitalization of civil turnover in the Russian Federation.

The conclusion of the study is that utilitarian digital rights are a kind of property rights that have both a binding nature and a special sphere of implementation — through the use of information systems in electronic form. The comparison of the domestic experience of attracting investments and foreign approaches to crowdfunding carried out using the Internet is carried out. It is noted that such rights are one of the ways of investing, which is carried out on an investment platform and is not a popular financial instrument due to the terminological complexity of the current legislation and the insufficient level of investor awareness of the mechanisms used.

The article attempts to analyze the views of M.A. Fedotov, expressed in the developed concept of the general theory of authorship. The authors, while supporting the proposed doctrine, at the same time express a number of critical comments and doubts, including their own vision of certain provisions of the doctrine.

Russian civil legislation unambiguously says that only a human being (by whose creative work the result of intellectual activity was created) is author of this result. There is no direct indication in international conventions, but the same is implied. The legislative acts do not assume any other way of creation. Thus, the privilege of creativity is reserved for a human being.

This approach was once in line with natural scientific views. Science considered the ability to create to be unique to humans; it was seen as a fundamental distinction between humans and animals. Consequently, the norms of law were constructed in accordance with this paradigm.

However, modern natural science recognises the capacity for creativity in animals. The new evidence makes it increasingly difficult to deny the close similarities between humans and other animals, including in the area of intelligence and creativity.

The article demonstrates specific examples of creative abilities of non-human animals and the results of intellectual activity created by them. For greater clarity, the author compares individual works created by animals with individual works created by humans. Attention is also paid to natural science works, which help to better understand the changes taking place in science.

The author concludes that the life situations discussed in the article cannot be accommodated within the existing legal forms.

In this regard, intellectual property law is faced with the question of conceptual choice of its future path: whether it will develop in the same line with natural sciences; whether the achievements of natural sciences will be completely ignored by law; or, perhaps, the choice will be made in favour of preserving the human privilege not of creativity, but of legal protection of the results of creativity.

In a broader sense, the discovery of the ability to create in animals (and the disappearance, following the attribute of “intelligence”, of another attribute that was previously thought to distinguish humans from the rest of the animal world) adds new colours to the discussion on the legal status of animals. The fact that animals are recognised as having not only intelligence, but also the ability to create requires reflection by legal science and, perhaps, is one more argument “for” the question of the expediency of recognising new subjects of civil law and law in whole.

The article is devoted to certain provisions in the license agreements of various well-known MMORPGs such as: Linage 2 (free-to-play game type) and World of Warcraft (pay-to-play game type), as well as the later Axie Infinity (play-to-earn game type). The provisions of the license agreements for computer games are a vivid example of incorrect and, often, unenforceable conditions. In an effort to gain access to the game, players unquestioningly accept them and, unaware of their rights or seeking to avoid costly litigation, rarely challenge them. In this regard, and also taking into account the value of the gaming industry for the international economy, the article provides a legal analysis of some provisions of the license agreements of these computer games.

The article deals with the main issues of copyright arising in the conditions of active development of artificial intelligence. The emerging problems in the copyright system are analyzed, as well as ways to solve them. The active development and application of neural networks in an increasing number of spheres of public life leads to multiple copyright violations. Modern legislation, in turn, is currently not adapted to the changes associated with the development of artificial intelligence. In this connection, there is a request for further research on this topic in order to protect copyrights in an actively changing external environment and the development of artificial intelligence.