This conference seeks to bring together specialists of Great Britain from the eighteenth century to the present to explore the complex relationship between copyright and the circulation of knowledge. We welcome case studies that focus on a particular time period as well as papers that show how attitudes and practices have changed over time.

Argument

New combinations of technology, culture, and business practice are transforming relationships among authors, publishers, and audiences in many fields of knowledge, including journalism, science research, and academia. Self-publishing, open-access, open source, creative commons, crowd sourcing and copy left: these are a few of the key words associated with recent changes in how knowledge is produced and circulated. While being celebrated for their potential to democratize knowledge, many of these changes have been accompanied by heated debates on such questions as the appropriate role of experts and ‘gatekeepers’; how to ensure that such projects are both trustworthy and economically viable; and how best to balance the interests of authors, publishers, and the general public. Copyright is often at the centre of these discussions.

Though the technologies involved have changed dramatically since the eighteenth century, similar questions were debated in the decades following the first British copyright statute (1710). Indeed, today’s discussions of piracy and copyright sometimes echo the eighteenth-century ‘battle of the booksellers' that pitted advocates of a limited-term copyright (and the creation of a public domain) against proponents of authors’ natural (and perpetual) rights over their works. Then as now, many felt that the law was not always in step with cultural norms or trade practices. While some denounced all unauthorized republications as piracies, others experimented with new ways of disseminating knowledge through translations, abridgements, compilations (including the first magazines), and cheap reprints. During the nineteenth century, technological and cultural changes and the increasingly international market for books led to more debates over the legitimacy and public utility of various forms of reprinting, as well as new strategies for combatting piracy.

This conference seeks to bring together specialists of Great Britain from the eighteenth century to the present to explore the complex relationship between copyright and the circulation of knowledge. We welcome case studies that focus on a particular time period as well as papers that show how attitudes and practices have changed over time.

Program

Friday, 7 October 2016

09:30-09:45 | registration

09:45-10:15 | refreshments and informal welcome

10:15-10:30 | introduction

10:30-12:00 Copyright and the Circulation of Knowledge in the 18th century

Chair: Bénédicte Miyamoto (Sorbonne Nouvelle)

• Rebecca CURTIN (Law School, Suffolk University, Boston, USA) The Transactional Origins of Copyright
• Jeffrey HOPE (British Studies, Université d’Orléans, France) John Dunton from licensing to copyright, 1695-1710
• Trung Thien Kim NGUYEN (British Studies, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, France) The Dissemination of Scottish Enlightenment Philosophy: Publishing the Lectures of the Literati

12:00-02:00 | lunch break

2:00-3:30 Circulation of Knowledge, then & now

Chair: Emmanuelle Avril (Sorbonne Nouvelle)

• Isabella ALEXANDER (School of Law, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia) Copyright and the Circulation of Geographical Knowledge in 18th Century Britain: The case of maps
• Aileen FYFE & Noah MOXHAM (School of History, University of St. Andrews, Scotland) The Royal Society and the circulation of scientific knowledge in print, c1700-1900
• Louisiane FERLIER (Royal Society, London, UK) The Royal Society and the circulation of scientific knowledge in the digital age

3:30-4:00 | refreshments

4:00-5:00 Copyright and Industry Practices

Chair: Will Slauter (Paris Diderot)

• Jose BELLIDO (Kent Law School, University of Kent, UK) Copyright and Toys: On King Features Syndicate v O&M Kleeman (1940)
• Fiona MACMILLAN (School of Law, Birkbeck, University of London, UK) Copyright, Musical Labour and the Regulation of Public Space

saturday, 8 october 2016

09:00-09:30 | refreshments

09:30-10:30 Key Note Speaker

• Ronan DEAZLEY (School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast) Navigating the Copyright Cortex: Law and Cultural Memory Chair: Will Slauter (Paris Diderot)

10:30-11:00 | refreshments

11:00-12:30 Copyright and the Public Domain in the Digital Age

Chair: Sarah Pickard (Sorbonne Nouvelle)

• Adrienne MUIR (Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen) Electronic Libraries and Model Licences: developments in copyright and access to academic knowledge in the UK since the Follett Report
• Andrea WALLACE (Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the Creative Economy (CREATe), University of Glasgow) Claiming Surrogate Intellectual Property Rights: When Cultural Institutions. Repossess the Public Domain
• Mathilde PAVIS & Charlotte WAELDE (Law School Department, University of Exeter & Law School, Coventry University) The Circulation of Copyright Knowledge in the UK in the 21st Century

12:30-13:00

Discussion / roundtable

Organizers

• Emmanuelle Avril - professeur des universités - Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (CREW/CREC EA 4399)
• Louisiane Ferlier - digitization project manager - the Royal Society
• Bénédicte Miyamoto - mcf - Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (CREW/CREC EA 4399)
• Sarah Pickard - mcf - Université Sorbonne Nouvelle (CREW/CREC EA 4399)
• Will Slauter - mcf - Université Paris Diderot (LARCA UMR 8225)

copyright-conference@univ-paris3.fr

With the support of:

Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 | CREW (EA 4399) - the Centre for Research on the English-speaking World | CREC - the Centre for Research on British Studies

Université Paris Diderot | LARCA (UMR 8225) - Laboratoire de recherches sur les cultures anglophones | Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) | The Royal Society