Creating, infringing, sharing and helping yourself: two tempting events

The Copyright Clearance Center’s OnCopyright 2014 takes place on 2 April, 9:00 am – 4:30 pm on the 40th floor of the NY Academy of Sciences at 7 World Trade Center. You can learn all about it from its web page here.  According to information supplied,

"It’s a one-day symposium where we bring together people who create, publish, re-purpose and re-invent content to answer the question everyone’s asking: what’s next? From disruptive innovation to legislative evolution, the copyright conversation is getting interesting… "

A bevy of participants, including the driven, the inspired, the well-informed and the distracting, will be chaired by Robert Levine, journalist and author of Free Ride: How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business and How the Culture Business Can Fight Back. Apart from food and drink, there's a 3D printing demo by MakerBot and an original song composed and performed in real-time with “One Hundred Songs in a Day” artist Matt Farley. Those who can't attend in person can stream it here.

The lovely location of Stationers' Hall is the venue of 11 April 2014, 3-6 pm, for a CREATe Report Launch: ‘A review of the causes and impacts of unlawful file sharing’, starring Steven James Watson, Daniel John Zizzo and Piers Fleming [they must have run out of middle names by the time they got to no.3].  According to the registration bait:

"Using systematic reviewing techniques drawn from the medical sciences, a team of behavioural economists and psychologists from the University of East Anglia has undertaken a scoping review of all evidence published between 2003-2013 into the welfare implications and determinants of unlawful file sharing. Articles on unlawful file sharing for digital media including music, film, television, videogames, software and books, were methodically searched; non-academic literature was sought from key stakeholders and research centres. 54,441 sources were initially found with a wide search and were narrowed down to 206 articles which examined human behaviour, intentions or attitudes. 

Whether unlawful file sharing confers a net societal cost or benefit to welfare remains unclear based on the available evidence, with both of the approaches employed – (1) looking at the association between sales and unlawful file sharing, and (2) examining people’s willingness to pay with and without the possibility of unlawful file sharing – suffering from serious limitations. This conclusion casts doubt on approaches which strengthen the civil enforcement system to meet the challenges of the internet revolution, at least without clearer evidence of demonstrable benefits of specific measures". 

The programme also features a panel response with speakers from creative economy sectors as well as intermediaries, users and policy makers. Full details and registration can be sorted out by clicking here.

Showcasing the Creative Commons

This arresting poster reached me a couple of days ago and I thought it might be worth publicising it over the blog in the hope that some kind person who is attending the event might be persuaded to write up a report on the speakers and the ensuing discussion, as well as producing a film review.

There's something quite appealing about this event. Maybe it's because it reflects the fluidity and possibly even ambivalence that characterises the copyright scene today.  Creative Commons is variously portrayed as a means of releasing works from the shackles of copyright, as a means of asserting the right-owner's continuing interest in it, and as all sorts of other things in between.  Blender likewise treads the narrow path between sharing/caring community-building and respect for private economic and also moral rights.  The Pirate Party has also gone to some effort to sort what it regards as the wheat from the chaff in supporting some elements of existing copyright while rejecting others.

If you'd like to write this event up for this weblog, do let me know by email here.

Three forthcoming events

The 1709 Blog's Big Copyright Debate on Tuesday 12 July, on whether we come to bury copyright or to praise it, had by midnight on Sunday night notched up no fewer than 130 registrants.  The auditorium holds more, so please don't feel shy about letting us know if you'd like to come.  The venue is the London office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and admission is free.  To register for this event, which is being held in conjunction with the IPKat weblog, just email here and let us know you're coming.

Policy Forum: IPR in the age of the Internet is the title of an event hosted by the Institute for European Studies (IES) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (that's the Free University of Brussels).  The Forum is coming up very soon, in fact it's this Thursday, 16 June 2011. According to the organisers:

"Intellectual property rights (IPR) are essential in our information economy and have received a high level of protection and attention in the European Union. On 24 May 2011, the European Commission published a new strategy for intellectual property rights, seeking to address the key opportunities and challenges for IPR in the single digital market. In this policy forum Ms Elaine Miller, policy officer in DG Internal Market & Services, will share the Commission's view on the future of copyright in the EU. Prof Tuomas Mylly, a high-level expert in the field of copyright, will provide comments on the new IPR strategy, as well as address the balance which needs to be sought between protection of IPR online and other interests".

The Forum takes place from 12:00-14:00 at the Institute for European Studies, Pleinlaan 5, 1050 Brussels. Participation is free of charge and open to all but, due to space limitations, registration is required. Further information is available here.  Those wanting to participate can register by sending an email here. 

Talking Copyright: What’s All The Fuss? With the recent prevalence of online activity having moved the subject of copyright from the lofty confines of academic and legal circles into the mainstream consciousness, this seminar is an opportunity for panellists and participants to voice their opinions. What’s copyright? Why should we care about copyright? Where are consumers’ rights? Would the world be a better place without having all rights reserved? What’s all the fuss about?

“Economic evidence is not, of course, the sole driver of IP policy. Legitimate questions of culture, fairness and “just reward” for creators also arise, and have tended to dominate the debate on copyright issues.” Hargreaves Review Of IP, May 2011

Panel: Kienda Hoji (University Of Westminster Commercial Music BA programme director), Saskia Walzel (Consumer Focus policy advocate), Dr Catherine Lee (IPKat contributor), Dr Enrico Bonadio (City University London law lecturer), Emmanuel Legrand (World Copyright Summit conference coordinator), Prof Martin Kretschmer (Centre For Intellectual Property Policy & Management director), Danilo Mandic (University Of Westminster Law School doctoral researcher), Chris Cooke (CMU co-publisher & business editor). Chair: Kwaku (BBM/BMC founder). In association with University Of Westminster Commercial Music and CultureTalkClub.

This event takes place on Friday June 24 2011, 6.30-9pm, at the University Of Westminster (The Old Cinema), 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW (Oxford Circus). Registration is free but pre-booking is essential.  You can find further information from British Black Music here or ask for it here.

Coming up in Cannes

Here's a note of some attractions to diarise if you're going to be in Cannes for this year's Festival (13th to 24th May).

1. The European Audiovisual Observatory will hold its annual workshop and the topic should be close to the hearts of festival-goers (if you don't get paid for it, it is a hobby): "Show me the money! Monitoring film revenues and collecting rightsholders’ money". This workshop will take place on Sunday 17th May from 4pm to 6pm at the Salon des Ambassadeurs (Palais des Festivals); entry is free to all market accreditations.

"Cinema analyst Martin Kanzler will present the Observatory’s 2008 cinema admissions, production figures and market share statistics. The focus will then turn to the legal position of the various rightsholders and the challenges for collecting societies in Europe to act as potential guardian of rightsholders’ income from film exploitation. Susanne Nikoltchev, Head of the Observatory’s Department for Legal Information, will provide the European overview of the rights of authors’ and performing artists and explain their making use of collecting societies in different countries and different contexts. Roberto Olla, Executive Director of Eurimages, will present the funding body’s strategy, introduced at the beginning of this year, of the compulsory use of collection account management for Eurimages funded films. The Head of the Observatory’s Department for Information on Markets and Financing, André Lange, will then look at the various methods of monitoring a film’s success and revenues currently in use. The workshop will end with a panel discussion which will examine future thinking on regulation, business models and contracts in the context of international distribution."

2. The International Chamber of Commerce's 23rd Annual conference will also take place, under the aegis of the ICC Institute of World Business Law, at the Palais des Festivals on the 15th May. The morning session will look at financial risks and solutions in the filmmaking business, with the afternoon dedicated to risks and solutions in the film distribution process.

"Distinguished speakers will include Ted Shapiro, Senior Vice President, General
Counsel and Deputy Managing Director, EMEA, Motion Picture Association European Office; Steve Bersch, President, Sony Pictures World-wide Acquisitions Group (SPWAG), USA; Hal Sadoff, Head of International and Independent Film ICM International Creative Management; Pierre David, Chairman-CEO, Imagination Worldwide, LLC, USA and Jérôme Paillard, Executive Director of the Marché du Film."

For further information, please contact Katharine Bernet, Events Department. Tel: +33 1 49 53 28 91 or email her here.

Posted by Jeremy for Amanda Harcourt