[Open-access] Authors and Institutional Users: Finding a Fair and Appropriate Equilibrium in Copyright Law

[Kuan Hon]

Thought this list might be interested in this free lecture in London on 
4 Apr in London, 6-8pm. Obviously feel free to forward the link.

http://www.law.qmul.ac.uk/events/items/57312.html

"National and international copyright laws are traditionally premised on 
the notion that this species of law is concerned primarily with 
protecting authors’ rights. Upon closer scrutiny, however, one observes 
two glaring contradictions. First, copyright law benefits a far wider 
range of stakeholders than just the author. These include employers, 
producers, corporations, publishers and collective management 
organisations. The theoretical position is that the “author” is best off 
by being represented and remunerated by one of these institutional 
stakeholders. However, the practical position is that the author is 
surprisingly ill-served under copyright law, as she struggles to retain 
both acknowledgement and remuneration. Secondly, it is often forgotten 
that copyright law’s overriding purpose is to support creativity not 
solely out of a moral obligation to do so but as a way to benefit 
society as a whole. It follows from this that copyright law has a public 
policy obligation to protect the rights and duties of public cultural 
institutions which promote the “conservation, development and diffusion 
of science and culture.

Drawing on the lessons of the recent “orphan works” debate, and 
employing intellectual property and human rights laws, this lecture 
argues that we urgently need to clarify our view of what copyright law 
is for in order to counter the current discrimination, and instead 
achieve a more fair and appropriate equilibrium which recognises the 
interests of authors, public cultural institutions and the general public."

Kuan