The 100 Years of Copyright Festival organised by the Berlin cultural centre Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) provided a platform to discuss the health of the creative ecosystem. HKW asked questions such as who represents the interests of the artists and consumers in negotiations of the future conditions for creative work? How is cultural production impaired when copyright and artistic freedom are played against one another? I was invited to contribute to the festival through a workshop, at a panel with other industry representatives, and in writing, on the edited collection accompanying the festival.
Read MoreFIM’s objective is to protect and further the economic, social and artistic interests of musicians represented by its national member unions. During 2017-18 I drove FIM’s diplomatic missions to Latin America, led on knowledge sharing events and provided strategic advice on issues such as international copyright, cultural policy and diversity.
Read MoreIn the context of the latest EU copyright reform, a coalition representing 500.000 performers across Europe launched the Fair Internet for Performers Campaign to secure royalty payments on streaming. This Leverhulme-funded study carried out at the University of Cambridge examined i) the political reform process; ii) the effectiveness of the campaign; and iii) whether relative bargaining power predetermined success. The full peer-reviewed article resulting from this case study can be found here.
Read MoreBringing policy-makers in productive collaboration with academic researchers is one of The Arts and Humanities Research Council’s key priorities. With funding from the AHRC, I lectured on this course designed in collaboration with policy consultancy RAND Europe that introduced PhD students to public policy engagement and provided them with the unique opportunity to present their policy proposals to a distinguished panel of decision-makers.
Read MoreThe government is increasingly steering universities to demonstrate the impact of their research projects through the so-called ‘impact agenda’. Scholars are therefore expected to engage with industry and government to find out what the key issues might be and help to address them through research. I offered this course in collaboration with Professor of Intellectual Property Lionel Bently to provide a platform for scholars to engage critically with the impact agenda by entering in direct conversation with some of the music industry’s most influential stakeholders.
Read MoreConsidering the complexities inherent in copyright and neighbouring rights in the music industry, commentators have asked whether the legal distinctions between composers and performers are justified. Drawing on interviews with classical and pop musicians and relevant case law, I found that the legal categories of joint or individual authorship, adaptation and performance protect most contributions to a musical work and align with social understandings of the different types of contributions. The resulting peer-reviewed article is available here.
Read MoreThe rise of digital technologies in the 1990s threw the record industry into crisis. Artists and entrepreneurs were forced to think creatively in order to survive. Among these was the London Symphony Orchestra, a century-old organisation used to recording weekly for the best-known labels. When recording commissions started to dry up, the orchestra set up its own label, LSO Live. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork with the orchestra, this study reflected on the aesthetic, economic and legal implications of moving from studio to in-house live recording. Findings can be found in this peer-reviewed article and book chapter.
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