Summary

Any legal instrument at the level of law must have a legal political and legal theoretical basis. In Estonian practice, this basis is usually in the fi rst section of an act as there is no tradition of using a preamble in texts of law. Compared with the fi rst revision of the Copyright Act of 1992, the objectives of the act have changed considerably. While initially the conceptual and legal-political basis was merely the protection of the interests and rights of authors and subjects of clearly defined rights related with copyright, later two significant economic domains directly connected with the copyright Act were added: industries based on copyrights (i.e., the creative industry) and international trade. This change was caused by amendments to international treaties and Estonia’s accession to the European Union. At the same time, there are some keywords in the WIPO copyright treaty not reflected in §1 of the Estonian Copyright Act. In the 21st century,the objectives of copyrights have been further complemented and several new challenges have emerged. The balance of interests and the need for achieving a social agreement before different stakeholders should be mentioned first. Innovation has become another notable keyword. This article explores the evolution of the legal and political basis of the Copyright Act over time and its potential future.