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Of Authorship and Originality
(OOR)
Duration: 2010-2013
Commissioned by:
HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area)
Authors:
Prof. L. Bently (University of Cambridge),
Dr. M. van Eechoud,
Prof. J. Gripsrud
(University of Bergen)
Events & Outputs:
For the latest information on outputs and events, see the
OOR project public wiki pages.
Summary:
Of Authorship and Originality is a collaborative research project
funded by the joint research programme of
HERA, the Humanities in the European
Research Area. It is a multi-disciplinary collaboration bringing
together principal investigators and post-doctoral researchers of
the Institute for Information Law (University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands),
Department of Information Science and Media Studies (University of
Bergen, Norway) and the
Centre for Intellectual Property and Information
Law (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom). The project queries how
insights from literary theory, music studies, film/visual studies and other
Humanities' disciplines can help articulate copyright norms that enable sustainable
creative practices in the digital environment. Our focus will be on two interrelated,
key concepts in copyright law: the author and the work.
The project
Of Authorship and Originality is financially supported by the
HERA Joint Research Programme which is co-funded by AHRC, AKA,
DASTI, ETF, FNR, FWF, HAZU, IRCHSS, MHEST, NWO, RANNIS, RCN, VR and The
European Community FP7 2007-2013, under the Socio-economic Sciences and
Humanities programme.
The individual projects:
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Authorship
in Collective Arts
Department of Information Science and Media Studies (Infomedia)
University of Bergen
Prof. Jostein Gripsrud, principal investigator
Dr. Erlend Lavik,
post-doc researcher
This project’s theoretical challenge lies in finding
a way to modify the traditional Romanticist notion of authorship that
still inform today’s copyright laws, particularly in view of the
characteristics of collaborative production of artworks in different media
and genres, without giving up on the idea that creators or authors of such
works must retain a right to certain forms of control of the subsequent use
of their works. In collaboration with our partners in the field of law, we
wish to identify ways in which a renewed understanding could and should impact
on the making and the interpretation of copyright law. While exploring theoretical
contributions in several disciplines, our empirical focus will be creative
processes in audiovisual production and popular music. Both cultural forms
are heavily dependent on digital technologies and are thoroughly marked by
collaborative forms of production. The Bergen project will study these two
media and genres using well-proven ethnographic methodologies (participant
observation and semi-structured interviews).
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Multiplicity of Authors
Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law (CIPIL)
Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge
Prof. Lionel Bently, principal investigator
Dr. Laura Biron, post-doc researcher
Dr. Elena Cooper, post-doc researcher
At present, by and large, national rules on authorship and copyright
ownership are still based on the author as an individual autonomous agent
operating in isolation. Within the overall theme of the research proposal
on creative collaboration in the digital environment and copyright’s
response to facilitate such creative expression (or rather lack of it), the
project by CIPIL will focus on problems of multiple authorship. Central in
this stream are the relations between contributors: how roles are perceived
within creative communities, and the status that copyright law attaches to
the various roles, notably the allocation of authorial control both as regards
economic rights and immaterial interests (the ’moral rights’ of
the author). Drawing upon the authorship theories explored in the initial
phase of the CRP, and incorporating the results of the case studies by the
Infomedia, the CIPIL project will re-evaluate notions of co-authorship and
develop approaches that are conducive to collaborative creative production.
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The Work as
Creative Expression
Institute for Information Law (IViR)
Faculty of Law, University of Amsterdam
Dr. Mireille van Eechoud, principal investigator and overall project leader
Stef van Gompel, post-doc researcher
Prof. dr. Bernt Hugenholtz, advisor
This project queries the continued viability of the ’original
work of authorship’ as a legal object. From an economic
perspective, the delineation of copyright subject-matter is ofcourse
necessary in order to make it a marketable entity. Copyright law thus
has a natural tendency to view creative expression as a ’thing’,
to which rights are attached. At the same time, the law in many jurisdictions
now seems to have evolved to the point where ’original’
and ’creative’ seem to be synonymous terms, both meaning little
more than ’not directly copied’ or ’resulting from a modicum
of freedom of choice’. In this stream the focus is on insights
humanities scholarship can provide to critically rethink the concept of 'work
of authorship'. We are particularly interested in how it may inform a copyright
policy that better facilitates the needs of creators to engage with existing
works and materials without having to seek prior authorisation. Such a rethink
also needs to consider the current harmonised right of reproduction,
which is essentially a very broad technical concept, lacking normative
meaning. We are also particularly interested in how copyright
theory can better recognise art forms and practices where the creative value
is in the processes as much (or even more so) as in the final product or
artefact.
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