Sensory copyright: a forthcoming event

Talking scents? On Tuesday 24 February the IPKat weblog teams up with the British Literary and Artistic Copyright Association (BLACA) for the second year running to host an exciting meeting on sensory copyright. Topics under review include the scent of perfume, the taste of cheese and other sensory works of authorship that fall outside the classic foursome of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works.  

Is it an aerial photo of the wilds of Canada? A close-up of a chunk of marble?
Or a shot of a distant planet? No -- it's the surface of a cheese ...

The venue is the London office of Reed Smith LLP at 20 Primrose Street (here) and IPKat/1709 Blog contributor Eleonora Rosati (University of Southampton) will present the case in favour of protection of sensory works. IP practitioner and academic Tobias Cohen Jehoram, who has litigated this very topic in his native Dutch courts, will be taking the contrary position.  IPKat/1709 Blog blogmeister Jeremy will be in the chair.

The order of ceremonies runs like this: doors open at 4.30 pm for a 5 pm start.  After the serious side of the programme there will be some sensory delights -- whether protected by copyright or not -- in the form of refreshments kindly provided by our hosts.  There is no admission fee. 

The venue only holds 100 people so if you are planning to come, do email Polly Taylor at polly.taylor@blplaw.com to register your interest and be put on the guest list. It is likely that this event is going to be oversubscribed and we are unable to reserve places.  The seats will be allocated on a first-come first-serve basis on the day so do arrive early to ensure yourself a place.

Valuing the public domain: some research -- and an event this Friday

"Valuing the Public Domain: a Workshop for UK Creative Firms" is an event coming up this Friday morning, 5 December at the Connected Digital Economy Catapult (CDEC), 101 Euston Road, London NW1 2RA. Further details are just a click away, here.  What's this all about? The project itself is explained by Martin Kretschmer -- and anyone whose surname contains five consecutive consonants deserves to be taken notice of.  This is what Martin writes:

Valuing the Public Domain: Summary of Research Findings 

‘Valuing the Public Domain’ is a major research and knowledge exchange project carried out by CREATe, University of Glasgow with the UK Intellectual Property Office, co-funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). The purpose of the project was (1) to map the size of the public domain and frequency of its use [this blogger is sceptical about whether this can be done in a meaningful manner and questions whether it's worth it -- but he's prepared to be persuaded to the contrary]; (2) analyse the role of public domain works in value creation for UK firms; (3) assist UK media companies to identify business models that benefit from the public domain [is this predicated on the assumption that UK media companies need help in regard? Let's hear from them!].

The core research team consisted of Dr. Kris Erickson (Lord Kelvin Adam Smith Research Fellow, CREATe, University of Glasgow), Professor Paul Heald (College of Law, University of Illinois), Dr. Fabian Homberg (Business School, Bournemouth University), Professor Martin Kretschmer (CREATe, University of Glasgow) and Dr. Dinusha Mendis (School of Law, Bournemouth University).

Research focused on the production of new cultural products which draw inspiration from works and ideas in the public domain, such as a video game world based on the novels of Jane Austen, interactive folk tales for classrooms, or Steampunk novels adapted from historical accounts of Bristol.

Three research case studies were chosen: transmedia adaptation of public domain works by small creative studios in the UK, uptake and reuse of public domain materials by independent creators on Kickstarter, and inclusion of public domain images by contributors to Wikipedia.

As one of the goals of this study, a definition of the ‘public domain’ was derived in collaboration with legal experts and economists during a symposium in October 2013. The adopted definition focuses on the practicability of use without requiring permission from a rightsholder.

1) Copyright works which are out of term of protection
(Literary and artistic works created by authors who died prior to 1944)
2) Materials that were never protected by copyright
(Works from antiquity and folklore)
3) Underlying ideas not being substantial expression
(Inspiration taken from pre-existing work that may include genre, plot or character ideas)
4) Works offered to the public domain by their creator
(Certain types of free and open licensed work)

Commercial uptake by creative firms:

Interviews with managers of 22 creative UK firms that previously used public domain materials to create commercial products. Research explored why firms made decisions to invest in development of public domain projects, finding 4 main rationales: 1) engagement with fan community of existing literary work, 2) use of public domain material to complement a technological platform or subscription service; 3) a conscious entrepreneurial strategy based on identification of existing demand and 4) partnership with a public institution to celebrate and engage the public about an event or anniversary of significance. Researchers identified the following issues relating to public domain uptake:

§ Firms working with visual or multimedia content reported difficulties in locating and securing high-quality sources of public domain works (image resolution, digital format). This was a significant challenge to commercialisation.

§ Archives, museums, and libraries were frequently cited as useful partners when seeking access to public domain works, able to provide access to source material and data needed to ascertain copyright status of work.

§ There was little concern about competition due to non-excludability of source material, but firms worried about costs of marketing and sustaining PD projects when initial development cost and investment was also low.

§ Clarity on legal use (e.g. requirements for ‘diligent search’ when using orphan works) would improve commercialisation potential.

Independent creators on Kickstarter:

Crowdfunding platforms such as Kickstarter appear governed by an ethos which rewards originality and niche production. But what happens when pitch creators incorporate IP from a third party rightsholder, or material from the public domain? The team performed quantitative analysis on 1,933 Kickstarter projects from January to April 2014. Researchers employed statistical techniques to model likelihood of success of projects when different underlying copyright or public domain material was present. The main findings were as follows:

§ Explicitly obtaining copyright permission to use a third party work in a Kickstarter pitch was significantly associated with higher funding levels achieved.

§ Use of both public domain and third party licensed material were significantly associated with higher likelihood of project success.

§ Previous experience and status of pitch creator was also significant to project success, suggesting that familiarity of both underlying work and its creator is important to Kickstarter funders.

§ Influence of public domain status on success rate was most pronounced in Comics and Theatre categories, compared with Publishing and Video Games. This suggests that the role of PD materials differs across mediums. Direct re-publication of public domain literature does not seem to be rewarded – adaptation to another medium may be more attractive to backers.

Wikipedia:

Wikipedia is an important global resource which benefits from availability of materials in the public domain (due to copyright term expiration and open licensed material). To assess the value of the public domain to the construction of this resource, researchers studied the presence of public domain images on biographical Wikipedia pages of 1,700 authors, lyricists and composers.

§ Pages for authors born prior to 1880 have a greater likelihood of containing an image than pages for authors born later, even though camera technology became more widespread in the 20th Century. Less than 58% of authors in the sample born after 1880 have images associated with their Wikipedia pages.

§ Controlling for notoriety of authors using a matched-pairs technique, we found that authors’ pages with public domain images attracted 17% more visitors than pages where no image was available, reflecting the value those images contribute to the Wikipedia resource.

§ Using commercially equivalent licence fees obtained from Corbis and Getty for images relating to the biographical sample, we suggest that one could assign a value of USD $200 million (£127 million) per year for the 1,983,609 English-language Wikipedia pages in appropriate categories estimated to contain public domain images.

So there you have it!

From Hypatia to Hugo -- plus lots more!

Hypatia

"Copyright in 2014: The Year in Review & Evening Lecture: Professor Jane Ginsburg" is the somewhat complex title of an event taking place this coming Thursday, 20 November, in the Metcalfe Auditorium, New South Wales State Library, courtesy of the University of Technology, Sydney's UTS: Law and the Communications Law Centre. This blogger, who is sitting in Sydney this very minute as he composes this post, is inwardly lamenting the fact that. by the time this attractive and challenging event takes place, he will be in transit, leaving the bright and sunny Australian summer for the damp, dark winter of North Western Europe.

The event is in two parts: Copyright in 2014: the Year in Review" is a three-part drama starring Vanessa Hutley (General Manager, Music Rights Australia), Joel Smith (a partner in Herbert Smith Freehills) and Nic Suzor (Transformation Fellow/Senior Lecturer, Queensland University of Technology). Then, following the interval, the curtain rises on "From Hypatia to Victor Hugo to Larry & Sergey: “All the world’s knowledge” and Universal Authors’ Rights
", starring Professor Jane C. Ginsburg (who truly needs no introduction).

If you're thinking of attending, the details are here.

Hypatia here
Victor Hugo here
and if you didn't know who Jane is, here she is!

"Are Moral Rights Human Rights?": forthcoming event

Blaca, the British Literary and Artistic Copyright Association, is running a special joint meeting with the IPKat on Wednesday 12 February to examine the question "Are moral rights human rights?" The two principal speakers are 1709 Blog and IPKat blogger Eleonora Rosati and Graham Smith (IP partner at the London office of Bird & Bird LLP and author of the Cyberleagle blog).

The meeting is to be hosted by Bird & Bird at its offices at 15 Fetter Lane, London. Admission will be from 5:00 o'clock, with the seminar beginning at 5:30 pm. The seminar will be followed by a drinks reception, kindly hosted by Bird & Bird. In the chair is Sir Colin Birss.

Admission is free but space is limited.  To register please email tom.blacatreasurer@gmail.com

Artistry and Artificiality: coming up this autumn

I've just heard from musicologist and copyright expert Dr Andreas Rahmatian (University of Glasgow) all about a fascinating event that's coming up this autumn in his adopted city. It's "Artistry and Artificiality? Music and Copyright" and it takes place on 6 September 2013, 9.30am-5.30pm, Melville Room (Main Building), University of Glasgow. According to the rubric:

This interdisciplinary workshop brings together specialists in music and in copyright law to discuss the way in which copyright conceptualises music from the perspectives of the musician/musicologist as well as the lawyer. The talks will examine issues like: what do we understand by (classical, contemporary) music and the musical work? What does music-making involve? What does music improvisation mean? What is composition and musical creativity? Does copyright take account of the notions of music and music creation, and how? What do authorship and co-authorship mean for the musician and for the copyright lawyer? What are the effects of copyright protection on the creation and exploitation of music?

"Whose idea was it to open the show with 'Jumpin' Jack Flash' anyway?"

More details and registration information are available here. There is no charge for the event, but advance registration is required for catering purposes. To confirm your place, please email Jennifer Crawford at Jennifer.Crawford@glasgow.ac.uk and tell her you're coming.