Preserving and accessing our cultural heritage - the role of copyright law, digitisation and the Internet

“Preserving and accessing our cultural heritage - the role of copyright law, digitisation and the Internet”

Sponsored by BILETA, the British and Irish law, Education And Technology Association - www.bileta.ac.uk

King’s College London, 30 March 2009, 9 am - 6.15 pm

Conference Programme

This conference aims to explore how to improve the preservation of and access to copyright works in the digital environment. To that effect, the conference will assess some of the challenges that digitisation and the Internet pose to UK copyright law in relation to any future centralised digital database preserving copyright works and allowing their global access and enquire whether the law should be modified. Although some initiatives to preserve and access works globally have been undertaken (Creative Commons initiative, European digital libraries project, Google Book Search Project), this is being done in a piece-meal fashion and without consulting the key stakeholders. The conference will debate the issues of preservation and access in a digital and networked world, for the first time gathering the key stakeholders; not only lawyers, policy-makers and rights holders but also users, libraries, archives, museums, scholars of various academic disciplines interested in copyright other than law with the ultimate goal to inform policy-making.

Morning:
8.30-9.00: Registration
9.00-9.30: Introduction – Dr E. Derclaye

A global digital register for the preservation and access to cultural heritage: problems, challenges and possibilities
Chair: Dr Estelle Derclaye, University of Nottingham

9.30-10.15: the point of view of the copyright lawyer: Dr Tanya Aplin, King’s College London

10.15-11.00: the point of view of the cultural heritage specialist: Lucky Belder, University of Utrecht

The speakers will discuss the legal deposit scheme, problems related to the constitution of a register (legal barriers, management/maintenance, ownership) and whether it would help to resolve the problem of orphan works

11.00-11.30: coffee break

11.30-12.45: Panel commenting on the two previous speeches
Commentators: T. Padfield (The National Archives), R. Brousson (British Film Institute), representative from DACS, T. Cook (Bird & Bird solicitors), Dr J. Gaster (European Commission, DG Internal Market), R. Peters (V&A), B. White (British Library), Dr H. Obhi (Senior Litigation Counsel, EMEA, Google), A. Murray (LSE/Creative Commons)

12.45-14.15: lunch

Afternoon
Special issues: does copyright prevent or incentivise preservation and access of cultural heritage?
Chair: Dr Estelle Derclaye

14.15-15.00: (1) Authorship and originality: should copyright attach to digitised, restored or reconstructed public domain works? Dr Andreas Rahmatian, University of Leicester giving the point of view of the lawyer and the musician

15.00-15.45: Panel
Commentators: S. Perlmutter (Executive Vice President, Global Legal Policy, IFPI), R. Brousson, T. Cook, A. Murray, Dr E. Derclaye

15.45- 4.30: coffee break

Chair: Rt. Hon. Lord Justice Robin Jacob, Court of Appeal of England and Wales

4.30-5.00: (2) “Archiving exceptions”: are they adequate to preserve and access copyright works? Prof. Paul Torremans, University of Nottingham

The talk will focus on current UK copyright law, the Gowers review, the European libraries project and the Green Paper on copyright in the knowledge economy

5.00-5.30: Commentators: T. Padfield, T. Aplin, T. Cook, DACS representative, B. White, R. Brousson, Dr H. Obhi, S. Perlmutter

The European dimension
5.30-5.50: The view of the Commission on all the issues discussed and what does the Commission envisage to do in the future? Dr Jens Gaster, DG Internal Market

5.50-6.00: Commentator: Prof. Paul Torremans

6.00-6.15: Conclusions and close: Dr Estelle Derclaye

6.15-19.45: Reception; drinks

Practical information

Conference fee: £35. Student discount: £25. This includes refreshments, lunch and copies of the papers. Places are limited and will be attributed on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Venue Address: King’s College London, Council room and room 2C, Strand, London,
WC2R 2LS. Strand Campus location and detail.

Registration: if you wish to register please do so at: estelle.derclaye@nottingham.ac.uk or 0115 951 5735 and also send an email to Mrs Jane Costa, Jane.costa@nottingham.ac.uk or tel 0115 846 7208 in order to make your payment. Attendees should normally be able to pay by cheque, bank transfer or credit card.