| Summary: | The aim of this chapter is to explore the extent and function of rights waivers in copyright law. There are significant differences between legal systems in terms of their recognition of copyright waiver, an issue which lies at the very core of copyright systems. The universal recognition of the waivability of copyright, including moral rights, would help to avoid uncertainty on the side of users, and would make the copyright system more flexible. With each passing day, copyright law and copyright licensing become more and more complex. Nevertheless, even those who do not believe in the effectiveness or purposes of copyright law, or for a variety of reasons want to offer their works to the public, are not satisfied with some systems’ binary approach (under which there are two options to choose from: either a work is totally free to use for any purposes, or it is required to be licensed). Authors who desire to retain some limited – mainly moral – control over the use of their work face some ambiguities. Moreover, it may differ from one legal system to another whether waivers are permissible or broad in scope in terms of medium, purpose quantity, revocability, and transferability, partially as an outcome of diverse national theories regarding the nature of copyright. It is necessary to have simple and effective legal tools to dedicate works to the public domain voluntarily, but this requires an analysis of whether a waiver will be universal and effective in the long term for significant potential uses. More importantly, however, the chapter considers ways to mitigate the lack of uniformity with respect to waivers’ duration and scope, such as harmonized recognition of popular waiver clauses such as Creative Commons Zero (CC0).
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