Periodic Reporting for period 2 - reCreating Europe (Rethinking digital copyright law for a culturally diverse, accessible, creative Europe)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2021-07-01 al 2023-03-31
reCreating Europe aimed at delivering ground-breaking contributions towards a clear understanding of what makes a regulatory framework fit to promote culturally diverse production and optimized inclusive access and consumption of creative content. Its final goal was to go beyond the state of the art by offering a holistic, multi-disciplinary assessment of the impact of copyright on culture and creativity within the context of the DSM.
Its research questions and tasks were articulated around key stakeholders (end users, authors and performers, creative industries, cultural heritage institutions, intermediaries) and activities (access, consumption, intermediation, creation) in order to provide the first contextual legal mapping and empirical measurement of key indicators of regulatory efficiency and fairness in each of the policy areas involved in the debate.
The cross-feeding of research methods and results between vertical WPs was enriched by the constant exchange with stakeholders through surveys, interviews and workshops. They also interacted with open research outputs and participative knowledge creation, and shared their views on the project’s best practices and policy recommendations.
The project also achieved societal impact by raising awareness on the needs of various cultural/creative stakeholders. It overcame the shortcomings related to an artificial separation between various stakeholders, by identifying strategies that best strike a balance between competing interests for the benefit of the whole society. The project also had broader and multi-level theoretical impact at the crossroad of copyright, EU law and cultural economics, falling within the realm of the discourse on the role of EU as more than an economic entity. In this sense, reCreating Europe contributed to the discussion on the use of market regulation to achieve non-economic goals and the long standing, topical debate on the relationship between market and non-market values.
Its research questions and tasks were articulated around key stakeholders (end users, authors and performers, creative industries, cultural heritage institutions, intermediaries) and activities (access, consumption, intermediation, creation) in order to provide the first contextual legal mapping and empirical measurement of key indicators of regulatory efficiency and fairness in each of the policy areas involved in the debate.
The cross-feeding of research methods and results between vertical WPs was enriched by the constant exchange with stakeholders through surveys, interviews and workshops. They also interacted with open research outputs and participative knowledge creation, and shared their views on the project’s best practices and policy recommendations.
The project also achieved societal impact by raising awareness on the needs of various cultural/creative stakeholders. It overcame the shortcomings related to an artificial separation between various stakeholders, by identifying strategies that best strike a balance between competing interests for the benefit of the whole society. The project also had broader and multi-level theoretical impact at the crossroad of copyright, EU law and cultural economics, falling within the realm of the discourse on the role of EU as more than an economic entity. In this sense, reCreating Europe contributed to the discussion on the use of market regulation to achieve non-economic goals and the long standing, topical debate on the relationship between market and non-market values.
End-users. The project performed an unprecedented comparative mapping of copyright flexibilities and their treatment by private ordering sources. It assessed legal, economic and technological barriers to access for vulnerable groups through desk research, semi-structured interviews and surveys, lcomplemented by two case studies on the effectiveness of regulatory measures to increase digital access to academics and people with visual impairments. The project also developed an agent-based model simulating different scenarios on how digitization and copyright law affect patterns of cultural goods consumption. It updated the “Global Piracy Study” (2018), offering adetailed cross-country/industry picture of channels of consumption of cultural goods, highlighting the degree of awareness of copyright law and the level of self-indulgence in copyright violations. Results were conveyed in best practices for stakeholders and policy recommendations.
Authors and performers. reCreating mapped the state of the art and developed a survey that assessed the experience of creators and artists with income development and copyright reversal. They examined the application of EU copyright law to outputs generated by AI via desk research and interviews with experts, with a focus on musical works, proposing interpretative guidelines and policy recommendations. Last, they developed with stakeholders three case studies on techniques underpinning advanced data analytics, to assess how proprietary assertions on information will shape the future of ML technologies.
Creative industries. The project produced a scoping paper on territoriality in the DSM, a report on EU policy space in light of the international framework and two expert workshops, which resulted in policy recommendations. It conducted interviews with users of 3D model sharing platforms, and investigated problems related to their asymmetrical administration of user metadata, developing an IPR lifecycle theory. It also built a new taxonomy for the studies of negative IP spaces, implementing it on a case study with Italian Michelin-star chefs. It collected data on micro and small-sized creative enterprises in local creative hubs to study entrepreneurship patterns in gentrifying urban neighbourhoods. It conducted research on E&Ls for creative audiovisual re-use, organized four deliberative workshops to identify copyright issues faced by documentary filmmakers and curators of immersive digital heritage experiences, and developed best practices codes. Finally, it developed the new EU Copyright User Portal.
GLAMs. The project performed a comparative mapping of public and private regulatory sources impacting on cultural heritage digitization. It also administered surveys to understand the impact of digitisation and regulation on openness, access and accessibility of collections. On this basis, it elaborated Guidelines to help cultural heritage institutions in digitization endeavors. It also carried out desk and empirical research on the role of IPRs in EU-place making, elaborating a policy report on place/cultural heritage branding practices.
Intermediaries. The project carried out an EU and cross-national mapping of public and private ordering sources impacting on content moderation and removal, and their effect on digital access to culture and the creation of cultural value. It empirically investigated current practices and structure of copyright content moderation and removal on key platforms, performing a normative analysis of the interplay between public and private legal frameworks, shedding light on risks of bias carry-over from datasets to content moderation, and empirically measuring different dimensions of the impact of such phenomena on access and diversity of content online. Research results were channeled into best practices and policy recommendations.
Dissemination, engagement and training activities met all KPIs. Further cooperation, events and activities have been launched, ensuring great visibility for the project, the broadening of its network and a remarkable impact and involvement of all stakeholders and the civil society as a whole.
Authors and performers. reCreating mapped the state of the art and developed a survey that assessed the experience of creators and artists with income development and copyright reversal. They examined the application of EU copyright law to outputs generated by AI via desk research and interviews with experts, with a focus on musical works, proposing interpretative guidelines and policy recommendations. Last, they developed with stakeholders three case studies on techniques underpinning advanced data analytics, to assess how proprietary assertions on information will shape the future of ML technologies.
Creative industries. The project produced a scoping paper on territoriality in the DSM, a report on EU policy space in light of the international framework and two expert workshops, which resulted in policy recommendations. It conducted interviews with users of 3D model sharing platforms, and investigated problems related to their asymmetrical administration of user metadata, developing an IPR lifecycle theory. It also built a new taxonomy for the studies of negative IP spaces, implementing it on a case study with Italian Michelin-star chefs. It collected data on micro and small-sized creative enterprises in local creative hubs to study entrepreneurship patterns in gentrifying urban neighbourhoods. It conducted research on E&Ls for creative audiovisual re-use, organized four deliberative workshops to identify copyright issues faced by documentary filmmakers and curators of immersive digital heritage experiences, and developed best practices codes. Finally, it developed the new EU Copyright User Portal.
GLAMs. The project performed a comparative mapping of public and private regulatory sources impacting on cultural heritage digitization. It also administered surveys to understand the impact of digitisation and regulation on openness, access and accessibility of collections. On this basis, it elaborated Guidelines to help cultural heritage institutions in digitization endeavors. It also carried out desk and empirical research on the role of IPRs in EU-place making, elaborating a policy report on place/cultural heritage branding practices.
Intermediaries. The project carried out an EU and cross-national mapping of public and private ordering sources impacting on content moderation and removal, and their effect on digital access to culture and the creation of cultural value. It empirically investigated current practices and structure of copyright content moderation and removal on key platforms, performing a normative analysis of the interplay between public and private legal frameworks, shedding light on risks of bias carry-over from datasets to content moderation, and empirically measuring different dimensions of the impact of such phenomena on access and diversity of content online. Research results were channeled into best practices and policy recommendations.
Dissemination, engagement and training activities met all KPIs. Further cooperation, events and activities have been launched, ensuring great visibility for the project, the broadening of its network and a remarkable impact and involvement of all stakeholders and the civil society as a whole.
The project went beyond the state of the art by offering detailed and comprehensive mappings and assessments of public and private regulatory solutions in specific sectors. By performing this exercise not only via desk research but also through participatory research tools, reCreating Europe gathered first-hand insights on perceptions, awareness and strategy of key stakeholders vis-à-vis the regulatory framework and its bottlenecks.
It complemented its mappings with an empirical assessment of a number of key phenomena, relevant for evidence-based decision-making (e.g. access to and fruition of born digital and digitised content; users’ perceptions on digitisation and copyright and their impact on consumption patterns; effectivity of regulatory measures to increase digital access in specific sectors; experiences, perceptions and income developments of creators and performers; impact on laws and practices on content moderation, etc.)
All results, developed and validated through stakeholders’ involvement to maximize impact, were channelled into policy recommendations and best practices, directed to remove the barriers created by the current regulatory framework to access to culture for all, including vulnerable groups, and to the democratic thriving of creative and cultural practices and businesses.
It complemented its mappings with an empirical assessment of a number of key phenomena, relevant for evidence-based decision-making (e.g. access to and fruition of born digital and digitised content; users’ perceptions on digitisation and copyright and their impact on consumption patterns; effectivity of regulatory measures to increase digital access in specific sectors; experiences, perceptions and income developments of creators and performers; impact on laws and practices on content moderation, etc.)
All results, developed and validated through stakeholders’ involvement to maximize impact, were channelled into policy recommendations and best practices, directed to remove the barriers created by the current regulatory framework to access to culture for all, including vulnerable groups, and to the democratic thriving of creative and cultural practices and businesses.