学术数据库经营者不公平高价行为的规制困局及其破解

The Regulatory Predicament of the Unfair and High-Priced Behavior of Academic Database Operators and the Solution

学术数据库是当今学术工作者不可或缺的网络学术信息主流载体,其对部分学术资源的独家垄断,是知识产权保护下的合法垄断。然而,如果学术数据库经营者将版权保护作为攫取垄断利润的手段而非激励创新的催化剂,排除、限制相关市场竞争,其滥用行为便应当受到反垄断法的审查与规制。当前,反垄断实践经验的空位及理论上的诸多争议,使认定学术数据库经营者不公平高价行为的过程面临诸多困境。要打破当前的“知识垄断”格局,须在相关市场界定中重新审读多边市场之利益相关性,以弥补传统相关市场界定方法在适用上的局限性。在市场支配地位认定中,考量市场份额与知识产权因素之作用,以补足适用“结构性标准”带来的认定偏差。同时,须结合个案运用合理性原则分析经营者行为之滥用性。数字学术资源的“开放存取”能够实现知识开放分享之目的,应当作为排除学术数据库市场障碍的重要激励性规制手段。

Academic database is the mainstream carrier of online academic information that is indispensable to today’s academic workers.Its exclusive monopoly on some academic resources is a legal monopoly under the protection of intellectual property rights.However,when academic database operators use copyright protection as a means of extracting monopoly profits rather than stimulating innovation,to exclude and restrict competition in relevant markets,their abuse should be subject to review and regulation by the anti-monopoly law.At present,the vacancy of anti-monopoly practice experience and many controversies in theory make it difficult to identify the unfair and high-priced behavior of academic database operators.To break the current“knowledge monopoly”pattern,it is necessary to re-read the stakes of the multilateral market in the definition of relevant markets to make up for the limitations of the traditional related market definition methods,to consider the market share and knowledge in the determination of market dominance,the role of property rights factors to supplement the recognition bias caused by the application of“structural standards”.At the same time,it is necessary to analyze the abuse of operator behavior by combining the rationality principle of cases.On the other hand,the“open access”of digital academic resources can achieve the purpose of open knowledge sharing,and should be used as an important incentive regulation method to exclude the obstacles in the academic database market.