Trying to find balance? Come to UCL IBIL's copyright panel on Wednesday

If you are anything like the AmeriKat, the relentless political insanity may be leaving you depleted and yearning for some balance.  You are in luck!  UCL's Institute of Brand and Innovation Law (IBIL) has an event for your this Wednesday at UCL's Darwin Building.

From 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM, Sir Robin Jacob is chairing an event focused on the tension between copyright law (providing incentives for creativity) and freedom of expression (preserving access to works for socially valuable uses) in the US, UK and Europe.  The event includes a blockbuster cast including:

Judge M Margaret McKeown (US Court of Appeal, 9th Circuit) 

Jonathan Griffiths (Professor of Intellectual Property Law, Queen Mary University of London) 

Julia Reda (Member of the European Parliament, Pirate Party) 

John Halton (Assistant General Counsel, Financial Times)

The event announcement explains that the evening will include:

• A view from the US – in particular, considering Google v Garcia 786 F 3d 733 (9th Cir. 2015) and the trend for litigants to try to use copyright law to remedy personal harms or to protect privacy interests. 

• A view from the UK – the impact of recent jurisprudence from the Court of Justice of the European Union tending to suggest that copying of relatively small parts of a work may amount to infringement; and the introduction of new exceptions. 

• In order to reach the right balance, speakers ask: Do we need less copyright to promote free speech (i.e. are current exceptions/defences are sufficiently broad)? Or, do we need more copyright to promote free speech (i.e. the proposed ancillary press publishers right)?

The event promises to be an exciting examination of how IP rights interact with fundamental rights at a time where such rights are increasingly under attack.  

For more information and to register, click here.