This is an age of mixed media with new-media and traditional media, in which the new-media that its typical characteristics are the technology of digitalization and internet has already come into being, and the traditional media industry has not quitted from this age yet, even occupying an important place in the age. In this mixed media age, the copyrighted works could not only be communicated from the media intermediary, but be communicated from the authors to the users and between users as well. The nature of information is to be free, and the copyright holder gets interests from controlling the use and communication of the copyrighted work, thereby controlling the information-flow. Therefore, the protection of copyright and the free flow of the information are a pair of contradictions naturally. The copyright law should well balance the interests between the free-flow of the information and the protection of copyright in this age of mixed media. With the coming of the new-media, the new modes for creating and communicating copyrighted work will constantly generate, which will produce new business model and new form of information-flow. In order to making the copyright law be more suitable for the information-flow and the development of media industry, the copyright law should be more flexible because the flexibility of the copyright law will make the judicial department to have more discretion on deciding the infringement of copyright.
Comparing copyright laws of the US, EU and China, though the systems of right among them are not the same, it could be found that the systems of right in the three copyright laws above are stipulated in a closed form, in which the judicial department should not interpret a kind of copyright in a practical case. Therefore, the systems of right could be ignored from the comparative perspective. However, as for the systems of limitation and exception among the copyright laws of the US, EU and China, it could be found that there are fundamental differences. Though, there are many differences between copyright laws of EU and China, the fundamental homogeneity is that the systems of limitation and exception of copyright in both copyright law of EU and China are a kind of closed form, in which the judicial department has to decide a case depending on the statutory law and should not interpret a new kind of limitation and exception. However, in accordance with the US Copyright Act, the judicial department depends on four aspects to decide whether a conductive could satisfy the requirements of fair use, and the judicial department could create a new kind of fair use in a specific case. Therefore, the US Copyright Act is more suitable for the development of media industry and information-flow, the case of Google library project in the US, EU and China is a very good example. The modernization of EU copyright rules should be expected and the reform of China’s copyright law should be directed at more flexibility.
