The Need to Recognize Self-help in Modern Law

In intellectual property law, in some cases (especially in the digital world), ‎public and formal protections arising from the intellectual property rights are ‎not able to fully guarantee the exclusive rights of right holders. Self-help is a ‎way that is well able to cover the shortcomings of formal systems that protect ‎intellectual property and play a complementary role alongside formal ‎institutions. The legitimacy of personal actions is limited to cases where there ‎are grounds for exercising the right; therefore, any reciprocal and retaliatory ‎action is illegitimate due to the lack of grounds for exercising the right. Of ‎course, protecting the right through personal action is not immune. Lack of ‎restraint in the implementation of personal actions can make it a means for the ‎right holders to abuse their rights and endanger the public interest and peace. ‎Therefore, it is necessary for legal systems to always consider the balance ‎between the public interest and the interests of right holders and to make it a ‎tool in order to respect rights by targeting personal actions.‎