[InetBib] Upcoming webinar (13 February): Flexible Copyright Exceptions – The Next Step for Europe?

[Harald Müller via InetBib <inetbib@xxxxxxxxxx>]

This webinar brings together legal scholars from National Chengchi
University (Taiwan), King’s College London and Bournemouth University
(UK) and will focus on flexible copyright exceptions from the
perspective of civil law jurisdictions, with a particular focus on
Japan, Taiwan and Europe. Join us on 13 February 2023, 11:00-12:30 CET

Copyright limitations and exceptions play a defining role in supporting
innovation and scientific progress. Broadly speaking, there are two
approaches: One is to set broad principles which can be applied by users
(and courts if necessary) in existing as well as new situations. The
other is to define exceptions narrowly, only allowing users to undertake
specific pre-defined tasks.
Nowadays, we tend to  associate the civil law systems that dominate in
Europe with this latter category. But in fact, traditionally, they have
been characterised as codifying broad and flexible principles into law,
giving courts much leeway in their interpretation. It is only over the
20th century, as copyright law has been frequently updated, and the
European Union has sought to bring some unity to diverse legal
traditions, that much of this openness and flexibility has been lost.
Ironically, now it is sometimes even said that open norms are alien to
civil law traditions.
Such an inflexible approach to law making in Europe where narrowly
defined exceptions are the norm, however brings with it important and
substantive issues. It is a matter of fact that copyright lawmaking
cannot keep up with the pace of technological change, and therefore a
lack of flexibility acts to chill innovation and scientific progress.
For example, whereas researchers and technology companies in some
European countries still cannot undertake machine learning and AI
lawfully because of delays to the transposition of the Copyright in the
Digital Single Market Directive, those based in the US have been free to
do so since at least 1976 thanks to the presence of a flexible exception
in American copyright law known as “fair use”.
Governments around the world are increasingly realising that open
flexible exceptions are a better means for achieving economic growth and
meeting their numerous public policy goals.
Given Europe’s heritage, what scope is there to return to a more
flexible, pro-innovation model today, and what lessons can we learn from
elsewhere?
This webinar will look at flexible exceptions from a European
perspective as well as hear about the introduction in the last fifteen
years of open norms into two civil law jurisdictions in East Asia –
Japan and Taiwan.

Speakers:
*Professor Emily Hudson* joined King’s College London in January 2015,
having previously held academic posts at the University of Melbourne,
University of Queensland and University of Oxford. She has a particular
research interest in copyright law, and is the author of Drafting
Copyright Exceptions: From the Law in Books to the Law in Action
(Cambridge University Press, 2020).
*Professor Chung-Lun Shen* serves as Associate Dean and Distinguished
Professor at College of Law, National Chenchi University in Taiwan. He
is also  appointed as a distinguished lecturer by Taiwan Intellectual
Property Court and Intellectual Property Office and  works at the
Petitions and Appeals Committee of the Ministry of Economic Affairs to
review patent and trademark appeals  against the administrative
decisions made by the Taiwan Intellectual Property Office.
*Benjamin White* is a PhD researcher at the Centre for Intellectual
Property Policy & Management focussing on copyright and Artificial
Intelligence. Recently he spent 4 months on a Japan Foundation
Scholarship based at Waseda University, researching the introduction of
open norms into Japanese copyright law. He has spoken as an expert
witness on copyright matters in the British and European parliaments,
and is a member of the UK Intellectual Property Office’s Research
Experts Advisory Group.

Chair:
*Felix Reda* is a copyright expert and founder of the strategic
litigation project control © at German fundamental rights litigation NGO
Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte (Society for Civil Rights). Between
2014 and 2019, Felix was a Member of the European Parliament, with a
policy focus on the EU copyright directive and the regulation of online
platforms. Felix is a member of Knowledge Rights 21 Policy Committee,
Shuttleworth Fellow and an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for
Internet & Society at Harvard University. Felix holds an M.A. in
political science and communications science from Mainz University, Germany.

In addition to presentations from practitioners, there will be an
opportunity for Q&A so you can get answers to your own queries and concerns.

*TIME: 13 February 2023, 11:00-12:30 CET*

--
Dr. Harald Müller
Aktionsbündnis "Urheberrecht für Bildung und Wissenschaft"