British Academy Event - Edinburgh

I've just been to this conference in Edinburgh today. I found it fascinating: as an exploration of challenges for producers and users of material protected by copyright in the research environment; and also because of the omnipresent (to me at least) undercurrents of the linkages between copyright, competition and human rights, particularly in the reports proposals in respect of fair dealing, and in the question of the rationales for copyright, both private and public.

I think it fair to say that most speakers were broadly supportive of some aspects of copyright, and that it was a "two way street" for users and producers (who were noted often to be the same people at different times). There were some stirring calls, however, notably by Rufus Pollock, for a new approach to be adopted to publishing, peer review and deposit and database collections because of the restrictions that copyright is placing on research; and criticism by Simon Frith of the impact of copyright owners' decisions on the direction of academic research in popular music. Open Access and Open Source licensing also received lots of attention, and Public Sector Information, and the challenges of museums, galleries and archives were considered.

Another common theme (familiar to me from former lives in practice) was the cost - financial and transactional - of litigation, reluctance to engage in it, and the power that this can give copyright owners to influence actions based on copyright - even if balances within copyright mean that the conduct proposed should in fact be permitted. I was fascinated by suggestions for smaller copyright tribunals, akin to the employment tribunals, to enable smaller claims to be more readily addressed.


The full text of the report and the suggested guidelines can be found at
http://www.britac.ac.uk/reports/copyright/index.html