IPFF OPINION – 2:2008
Response by the IP Foresight Forum
to the European Commission’s Green Paper:
Copyright in the Knowledge Economy (November 2008)
AHRC Beyond Text Funding Application Success
Following the initial meeting of the IPFF, a successful funding application was made by Professor Charlotte Waelde (School of Law, University of Edinburgh) and Professor Philip Schlesinger (Centre for Cultural Policy Research, University of Glasgow) to the AHRC Beyond Text call for a Research Network, entitled Music and Dance: Beyond Copyright Text?
The theme of this network is centred on the challenges posed to copyright law through the development and dissemination of innovative forms of digital music and dance works (together called ‘experiential works’).
The core proposition is that the copyright framework, which has its origins in the protection of text, provides an inappropriate base for the protection of experiential works. The law neither grants appropriate protection within its categories, nor gives sufficient space to experiment with new forms.
If experiential works are found to be beyond the scope of the law, two major questions arise
Exploration of these related questions will enable the network members to develop a holistic picture of the place of experiential works. The project will consider not only whether experiential works are within or beyond the copyright framework, but also how they can be supported by cultural policy and how they may be exploited within the wider creative economy.
Combining experts in copyright law (Professor Fiona MacMillan, Birbeck College, London; Professor Charlotte Waelde, School of Law, University of Edinburgh); musical composition (Professor Michael Alcorn, Queen’s University Belfast); creative dance (Professor Helen Thomas, London College of Fashion); cultural policy (Professor Philip Schlesinger, Centre for Cultural Policy Research, University of Glasgow) and cultural economics (Dr. Gillian Doyle, Centre for Cultural Policy Research, University of Glasgow), calling upon other expertise in the course of its life, and developing links with researchers engaged in related enquiry, the network will examine the issues from an inter-disciplinary perspective not hitherto attempted.
The project will go beyond existing desk-based analyses of copyright law and experiential works date by employing empirical research methodology (questionnaires) and observation (filming and otherwise recording the production of experiential works) to produce an illustrative picture of actual practices in the creation of new works. The aim is to map the copyright framework, the cultural policy apparatus and modes of exploitation onto the results offering a way of addressing the intersections between cultural policy, copyright protection and exploitation.
Further information about the project will be available in due course.
Joint academic statement stating opposition for copyright term extension for sound
recordings.
Posted 06 August 2008