BU Research Blog

28 May 2014

National Security and Public Health: Exceptions to Human Rights?

Bournemouth U’s Sascha Dov Bachmann (EBC) and Prof Joachim Sanden (Germany, Luneburg) presented a paper on National Security and Public Health at the IALS – SAS in London (http://events.sas.ac.uk/events/view/15689). Their topic “The Right to Liberty and Security, Public Health and Disease Control”uses the examples of the Escherichia coli (E. coli O157) outbreak in Surrey in August 2009 and the EHEC-O104:H4 outbreak 2011 in Germany by Fenugreek Sprouting seeds, to discusses potential human rights implications of food safety hazards across the food chain (see the European crisis management according to Art. 10 of EC regulation 178/2002 and the U.K. Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984, the Public Health (Infectious Disease) Regulations 1988 and the Food Safety Act 1990). Both authors also touched upon potential legal vacuums and loopholes around public and civil safety and security when dealing with new health and environmental threats such as Avian or Swine influenza (flu), which can lead – especially if used as a potential means of bioterrorism – to a national health and security crisis and even mutate into an international pandemic. Consequently, any emergency responses by a state can also directly affect human rights.

6 May 2014

Could new framework take pressure off businesses who have to deal with privacy compliance?

lrossiter

The next Cyber Security seminar will be on:

‘Legal – URN (User Requirements Notation) Framework for Privacy Compliance’

Tuesday, 13th May

Coyne Lecture Theatre, Talbot Campus

4pm -5pm.

Bournemouth University is delighted to welcome Dr. Sepideh Ghanavati from CRP Henri Tudor, who will be visiting on the 13^thMay to present an overview of the Legal-URN framework, which includes compliance analysis techniques and provides guidelines to manage multiple regulations at the same time.

The number of regulations an organisation needs to comply with has been increasing, and the pressure is building for them to ensure that their business processes are aligned with these regulations. However, because of the complexity and intended vagueness of regulations in general, it is not possible to treat them the same way as other types of requirements.

The cost of being non-compliant can also be fairly high; non-compliance can cause crucial harm to organisations, who may incur financial penalties or loss of reputation. Therefore, it is very important for organisations to take a systematic approach to ensuring that their compliance with related laws, regulations and standards is established and maintained. To achieve this goal, a model-based privacy compliance analysis framework called Legal-URN has been proposed.

If you would like to join us for this presentation, please book your place via Eventbrite.

We will look forward to seeing you!

20 March 2014

BU Researchers launch a new online copyright resource at the AHRC Creative Economy Showcase London

Awarded & submitted bids, Funding opportunities, Fusion, PG research, Post-award, Public engagement, REF Subjects cippm

Following the internal launch at BU on the 14th February 2014, BU Researchers at the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) launched the Copyrightuser.org at The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) Creative Economy Showcase.

The event was held at Kings Place, London, on Wednesday 12^th March 2014. The Showcase demonstrated the outputs and innovations of AHRC investments in the Creative Economy through presentations, workshops and exhibitions. The sectors exhibited on the day, included fashion, design, video games, architecture, broadcasting, archives, digital technologies and dance.

Amongst the various funded initiatives showcased on the day, Copyrightuser.org held a prominent exhibition stand and exhibited the website which was complemented by large posters, bookmarks and myth/reality cards (illustrated below) which explained the most common myths about copyright.

This high-profile event was attended by over 450 delegates and included policy-makers, business leaders in the creative industries, knowledge exchange practitioners, directors of research in universities, senior representatives from partner organisations in the Creative Economy, other strategic funding agencies in the sector, representatives from the AHRC’s investments in the Creative Economy and other stakeholders.

Keynote speakers included amongst others Sebastian Conran (Designer), the Hon David Willetts (Minister of State for Universities and Science), Ed Vaizey MP (Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries) and Professor Rick Rylance (CEO, AHRC).

Highlights from the day can be streamed here.

Copyrightuser.org was funded by the BU Fusion Investment Fund in 2012 and was developed by the Business School’s Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) in collaboration with Centre for Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP). Following the success of the Fusion Funded project, the CIPPM-led team went on to secure RCUK funding provided by CREATe in August 2013 to extend the scope of the project. Phase II of the copyrightuser.org is now underway.

The launched online resource aims to make UK copyright law accessible to creators and members of the public. This 1-minute video captures the concept behind the Copyrightuser.org project.

Using quantitative and qualitative methods the site aims to provide answers to the most pressing concerns that creators and the public have about copyright law. To achieve these aims, interviews with creators where conducted and a video for each creative sector was produced demonstrating their thoughts and questions about copyright, see the musicians video here for example. Secondly, 200 frequently asked questions posted by users online were sourced, analysed and coded down to the 20 most common.

The Copyrightuser.org has so far been received very well as evidenced by the positive feedback from various organisations, individuals, legal professionals and the creative industries.

During the launch, the website received 232 visits; and has now received over 1,558 visits to date.

Please also visit our twitter page – @copyrightuser to keep up with the Copyrightuser.org developments.

The copyrightuser.org team consists of:

Dr. Dinusha Mendis (Principal Investigator & Co-Director CIPPM)

Mr. Bartolomeo Meletti (Lead Multimedia Producer and CIPPM Research Assistant)

Ms. Hayleigh Bosher (PhD Candidate (Copyright) and CIPPM Research Assistant)

Professor Martin Kretschmer (Principal Investigator & Director CREATe)

Dr. Kris Erickson (Co-Investigator, CREATe).

The team is further assisted by a Production Team consisting of Marco Bagni (Art Direction, Design and Animation), Sar:co (Music and SoundFX), Davide Bonazzi (Illustrations) amongst others and an Editorial Board consisting of Professor Maurizio Borghi (Director, CIPPM); Professor Ruth Towse (Co-Director, CIPPM); and Professor Ronan Deazley (Professor of Copyright Law, University of Glasgow) amongst others.

13 March 2014

Bournemouth European Network in Cyber Security (BENICS)

Fusion Shamal Faily

In recent years, the field of Cybersecurity has attracted researchers and practitioners from academic fields ranging from Computer Science and Design, through to Psychology and Business Studies. To date, however, these communities have not been influenced by each other. Their research are disseminated in a variety of workshops and conferences across these fields. As a result, there is a misunderstanding of the role these different fields play in improving cybersecurity. For example, some researchers describe people are “the weakest link” and encourage designers to build systems that “Homer Simpson” can use safely. Unfortunately, treating users as a problem limits opportunities for innovation when people are engaged as part of a solution. Similarly, treating practitioners like cartoon characters disenfranchises the very people that a design is meant to support. Bournemouth University is one of the few institutions in the world with interests across the disciplines contributing to Cybersecurity, a small enough size for academics across these disciplines to engage with each other, and the vision necessary to fuel this engagement. To take advantage of the opportunities afforded to Bournemouth, an interdisciplinary seminar series in cybersecurity was launched in September 2013. The seminar series has attracted both staff and students from across the university, together with practitioners from local industry with interests in cybersecurity. So far, this has led to connections forming across the Faculty of Science & Technology, and the Media and Business schools. Resulting collaborations with our seminar speakers have also led to prospective KTP and Horizon 2020 proposals, and invitations to deliver guest lectures at other universities.

To build on this momentum in interdisciplinary cybersecurity activity at Bournemouth, we have created the Bournemouth European Network for Interdisciplinary Cyber Security (BENICS): a FUSION funded SMN activity. Over the coming year, BENICS will bring five invited European cybersecurity academics to Bournemouth to engage in short (one-week), focused collaborative visits. These visits will introduce invited academics to Bournemouth’s cybersecurity capabilities, allow them to share their interests with us as part of the cybersecurity seminar series, and engage in short and focused proposal building, research, or teaching resource creation activities.

Following each visit, Bournemouth and the visiting academic will engage in pump-priming activities; these will refine deliverables produced to sustain the momentum created during the visit. These deliverables will form the basis of a joint publication at an agreed international conference or journal.

Watch this space for more information about these visits, and please get in touch if you’re interested in engaging with BENICS and our cybersecurity research in general.

26 February 2014

The Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) launches copyrightuser.org

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Post-award, Public engagement cippm

On Friday 14 February 2014, the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) launched the Copyrightuser.org

Copyrightuser.org is an independent online resource aimed at making UK copyright law accessible to creators and members of the public.

The project was funded by BU’s Fusion Investment Fund (FIF) in 2012 and was developed in collaboration with CIPPM and the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP)

The online resource is applicable to anyone who uses copyright – whether it be in education, music, film, gaming, artistic work etc.

The objective of the portal is to inform creators on how to protect their work; how to license and exploit it; and how to legally re-use the works of others.

As such, it is a useful tool for creators and also for the general public in understanding the issues surrounding copyright law.

The 1-minute video on the landing page of copyrightuser.org further demonstrates what this online resource is about.

Following on from the success of the research carried out as a result of the support received from the FIF, the CIPPM-led team went on to secure RCUK funding provided by CREATe, University of Glasgow in August 2013 to extend the scope of the project.

The work on Phase II of copyrightuser.org is now underway.

The copyrightuser.org team consists of:

Dr. Dinusha Mendis (Principal Investigator & Co-Director CIPPM)
Mr. Bartolomeo Meletti (Lead Multimedia Producer and CIPPM Research Assistant)
Ms. Hayleigh Bosher (PhD Candidate (Copyright) and CIPPM Research Assistant)
Professor Martin Kretschmer (Principal Investigator & Director CREATe, University of Glasgow)
Dr. Kris Erickson (Co-Investigator, CREATe, University of Glasgow).

The team is further assisted by an Editorial Board consisting of Professor Maurizio Borghi (Director, CIPPM); Professor Ruth Towse (Co-Director, CIPPM); and Professor Ronan Deazley (Professor of Copyright Law, University of Glasgow).

We invite you to visit copyrightuser.org and welcome your feedback.

12 February 2014

Workshop on Business and Human Rights – Networks of Transnational Governance at Hebrew University

PG research, Public engagement, REF Subjects, Research themes sbachmann

Dr. Guy Harpaz, Prof. Sascha-Dominik Bachmann, and Pini Miretski are organizing an exciting international workshop on Business and Human Rights – Networks of Transnational Governance that will be held on February 19-20, 2014, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

The workshop aims to bring together scholars and practitioners, in order to examine the various interfaces among networks of transnational regulation designed to regulate the respect of businesses for human rights. We shall seek to understand the interfaces and linkages between the various regulative initiatives in this developing field. In the workshop we will question whether emerging networks are replacing the roles previously taken by the state, whether the privatization of regulation is supplied by transnational networks and orchestrated by states, or whether an evolution of polycentric governance is complementing an entrapped international legal order.

http://mishpatim.mscc.huji.ac.il/upload/CFP.for.BHR.Workshop.pdf and http://lcbackerblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/call-for-papers-workshop-on-business.html

5 February 2014

Cyber Security Seminar: Managing the arms race: tools for controlling cybercrime

Public engagement Shamal Faily

Our next Interdisciplinary Cyber Security Seminar will take place on Tuesday, 18th February at 5pm. The seminar will take place in EB202 in the Executive Business Centre, and will be free and open to all. If you would like to attend, please register at Eventbrite.

Our speaker will be Professor Paul Ekblom. Paul is currently part-time Professor at the University of the Arts London Research Centre on Design Against Crime, based at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design; also Visiting Professor at the Applied Criminology Centre, University of Huddersfield, and the Department of Security and Crime Science, UCL. His current work covers design and evaluation of products, places, systems and communications; horizon-scanning, and developing practice-knowledge and process evaluation frameworks for general and cyber crime prevention, community safety, counter-terrorism and problem-oriented policing. These frameworks can be viewed at www.designagainstcrime.com/methodology-resources/crime-frameworks and http://5isframework.wordpress.com. As a researcher in the UK Home Office for many years, Paul initially worked on crime prevention projects including police truancy patrols, shoplifting, drink and disorder, and crime on the London Underground. He then orchestrated the industrial-scale evaluation of the Safer Cities Programme, focusing on the impact of residential burglary projects. Final Home Office responsibilities centred on horizon-scanning; advising on Design against Crime (including on Safer Places, the government guide to crime prevention and the planning system, and the Foresight project Cyber Trust and Crime Prevention) and developing the professional discipline and knowledge management of crime prevention. Paul has worked internationally with EU Crime Prevention Network, Europol, Council of Europe, Australian Institute of Criminology, Government of Abu Dhabi, and UN.

Abstract: Crime and security are in a perpetual co-evolutionary arms race where new technology and changes in social and business life continually perturb the balance of advantage between the two sides. This is especially true for cybercrime given the rapid changes and efficient dissemination of both new vulnerabilities and perpetrator techniques. What works now in security will very probably not work in a few years’ or even months’ time. Focusing exclusively on winning individual battles may therefore lose us the wider campaign. Controlling cybercrime – keeping it at a tolerable level – thus becomes a matter of developing, and deploying, the capacity to anticipate and out-innovate adaptive perpetrators. In this seminar I will present a range of conceptual tools I have developed to help boost our innovative capacity, such as the Conjunction of Criminal Opportunity, and the Misdeeds and Security framework, and manage the arms race.

3 February 2014

Launch of the Copyright User Portal – 14th February 2014

Awarded & submitted bids, Fusion, Post-award, Public engagement cippm

The Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM), Business School, will hold a lunch-time event on Friday 14th February 2014, to launch the Copyright User portal. The event will take place from 12-1 pm in EB302. A light lunch will follow from 1 – 1.30 pm providing a further opportunity to chat to the project team.

The Copyright User portal is an independent online resource aimed at making UK copyright law accessible to creators and members of the public.

The project was funded by BU’s Fusion Investment Fund in 2012 and was developed in collaboration with CIPPM and the Centre for Excellence in Media Practice (CEMP)

In August 2013, the CIPPM-led team secured RCUK funding provided by CREATe, University of Glasgow to extend the scope of the project.

The online resource is applicable to anyone who uses copyright – whether it be in education, music, film, gaming, artistic work etc. The objective of the portal is to inform creators on how to protect their work; how to license and exploit it; and how to legally re-use the works of others.

It is a useful tool for creators and the UK creative industries and as such the content is relevant to the various creative stakeholders in the UK.

The session will be useful for anyone involved in the use of copyright works. The session will include presenting the online resource to the attendees and through an interactive session gather feedback on user experience.

To book your place at this event, please visit this page.

The Copyright User team consists of:

Dr. Dinusha Mendis (Principal Investigator & Co-Director CIPPM);

Mr. Bartolomeo Meletti (Lead Multimedia Producer and CIPPM Research Assistant);

Ms. Hayleigh Bosher (PhD Candidate (Copyright) and CIPPM Research Assistant);

Professor Martin Kretschmer (Principal Investigator & Director CREATe, University of Glasgow); and

Dr. Kris Erickson (Co-Investigator, CREATe, University of Glasgow).

The team is further assisted by an Editorial Board consisting of Professor Maurizio Borghi (Director, CIPPM); Professor Ruth Towse (Co-Director, CIPPM); and Professor Ronan Deazley (Professor of Copyright Law, University of Glasgow).

16 December 2013

ILA Committee on Nuclear Weapons, Non-Proliferation and Contemporary International Law to present final report and draft resolution in Washington in 2014

Public engagement, REF Subjects, Research themes sbachmann

A specialist Session at the Washington Conference will be devoted to Legal Aspects of Nuclear Disarmament and to discuss future activities to be taken under the Committee’s mandate, ‘to consider legal approaches to non-proliferation and regulating nuclear weapons within the contemporary context and, ultimately, to present options for future legal cooperation in this field’.

The Committee has compiled a report on the subject and drafted a draft resolution for consideration. The work of ILA as a scholarly NGO and its Committees often feeds into lawmaking at the UN.

Dr.Sascha-Dominik Bachmann, Associate Professor in the Department of Law, is a member of the British section (http://www.ila-hq.org/en/committees/index.cfm/cid/1025/member/1) and has been part of the on-going Committee work since 2010.

field’.

4 November 2013

Improvised Explosive Devices – Symposium in Stockholm

Fusion, Public engagement, REF Subjects, Research themes sbachmann

Sascha-Dominik Bachmann, Associate Professor, Dep Law, as part of an ongoing research collaboration on Hybrid Threats and Cyber Terrorism with the Swedisch National Defence College and BU will visit Stockholm and give a lecture on the use of Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) by Terrorist Groups and the legal ramifications for Nation State Combatants.

Besides his role as an Associate Professor in International Law Sascha holds the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the German Army and served as a peacekeeper in the Balkans (Kosovo) on three occasions while completing his LL.D with the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Trained as a Mountain Warfare Officer he had the privilege to be seconded to the 23rd Marines as an exchange officer as part of the official US-German Reserve Officers Foreign Exchange Officer Program.

His lecture focuses on the use of IEDs by terrorist non state actors when engaging with conventional forces and touches upon questions of criminal responsibility, countermeasures, deterrence, reciprocity, targeting practices and policy issues.

As part of his ongoing research collaboration with the SNDC

he argues that an unconvential approach to such assymetric

threats is needed.

30 October 2013

Erasmus Trip to Pisa 2014

Festival of Learning, Fusion, Public engagement hdavis

BU Research Blog Template

Brief overview of the activity. I give lectures (in English) at Pisa University. The students are mainly Italian law students who do English as an ancillary subject. My subjects for the four talks relate to recent developments in human rights law in the UK but this subject also involves human rights themes at a European and international level. I also attend one or two of the language classes the students have and answer questions on the English legal system and English life as a whole.

What do you hope to achieve? Italian law students study a codified “civilian” legal system and so I hope to interest them a bit in the somewhat different common law system that we have in the UK. In particular it is interesting to consider how universal norms such as human rights can be given effect as positive legal rules given the qualities and structures of the different systems. The interest is reciprocal and I hope to learn from them about how the civil law system works in this context, too. The other point is that these lectures can be used to try out first drafts of articles or first attempts to make sense of recent developments and changes to, in my case, the law. The lectures work at a high, general level; so not so good for the detail but quite good for trying out the context and the general framework.

Future plans I have been doing this for a number of years and have built up a good friendly and professional relationship with both some legal academics and also members of the language school over there.

Any advice for anyone considering applying to the Fusion Fund Give it a go, it is a good combination of work and enjoyments. People at other universities always seem pleased to meet.

14 October 2013

The Cambodian Experience

Julie Northam

Dr Melanie Klinkner shares her experience of undertaking research in Cambodia…

Perhaps it is due to a genetic predisposition to embrace the continental Kaffeehaus tradition of discussing matters for hours on end or simply because of an affinity to the Socratic dialogue, interviewing has been a key component of my research. It would be wrong to say that I am not nervous before each interview or don’t question my methodological approach, but, in general, interviews have been exciting, worthwhile and a superb way to network. I keep being amazed by the generosity of participants in giving up their time, going to the trouble of meeting me, sharing their experience and expertise, sending relevant information or answering follow-up questions.

The experiences from a fieldtrip to Cambodia epitomises the fun of qualitative research for me. On arrival at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia outside the capital Phnom Penh, I was met by the then head of PR who had not only organised an interview schedule with judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers but also offered me a tour of the (then not quite complete) building. Sure, this might have been part of their general public relations efforts, but it was me who benefitted from meeting these individuals. I was the lucky one sitting in the office of a Cambodian participant, with a translator present, conducting an interview whilst feeling strangely observed by the statue of an elusively smiling Khmer head on the top of a cupboard. I was similarly impressed with one interviewee who was on a business trip to Bangkok whilst I visited Phnom Penh, but was still happy to meet me in a Hotel lobby in the centre of Bangkok an hour after my plane from Phnom Penh touched down on Suvanarbhumi Airport. It would also be amiss to forget the other impressions gathered on this trip. The taxi driver who took me to the Extraordinary Chambers each day and dropped me at the Killing fields on the outskirts of Phnom Penh shared his experiences from the Khmer Rouge area. A young TukTuk driver and English language teacher practiced his English by telling me about the education system. Whilst not explicitly relevant to the research – implicitly this information is priceless.

It is with some sadness that I read of the difficulties the Extraordinary Chambers are facing with allegations of corruption, lack of funding, political meddling, the age and death of defendants hampering its progress. Surely Cambodia and the Cambodian people deserve better. Perhaps one day (when the children are older) I will be able to return to Cambodia for an interdisciplinary study to further our understanding as to the forensic, legal but also cultural significance the displayed human remains have within Cambodian Society – they are a fascinating substrate for research. For now, I have one small regret: I should have bought a sculpture of a Khmer head with its elusive smile to put on my book shelve at home.

10 October 2013

CIPPM/BU Law hosts 8th GikII Conference and receives a write up about it in the New Scientist

Public engagement, Research themes cippm

The Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) together with the Law Department was delighted to host the 8th GikII Conference which was held on 16-17 September 2013. The conference was chaired by Dr. Dinusha Mendis, Co-Director CIPPM and Professor Lilian Edwards, Deputy Director CREATe, University of Glasgow and Professor of Internet Law at University of Strathclyde.

The conference has previously been hosted at the Universities of Edinburgh, Oxford, Amsterdam, London, Gothenborg and East Anglia. This year’s conference dubbed the ‘beach edition’ did not fail to live up to its name – GikII. Invited speakers presented papers focusing on present and future issues in the field of law and technology. The papers included a consideration of the legal issues surrounding rights of robots, cyber security, 3D printing, privacy, genetic testing, autonomous cars, algorithms, fan fiction and a lot more. Full details of the programme can be found here.

A write-up about the conference was published in the New Scientist on 16 September 2013 which further raised the profile of this hugely popular event in the field of law and technology. The article authored by Richard Fisher of the New Scientist and titled ‘Future Law: Can you be slandered by a robot?’ opened up with the statement that “in a world awash with robots, teleports and self-driving cars, you are going to need a good lawyer”!

A glimpse into the discussion which took place over the two days was captured on twitter and published on Storify. The discussion which took place on Day 1 can be found here and the discussion on Day 2 can be accessed here.

A short video about the conference as explained by the Co- organisers Dr. Dinusha Mendis and Professor Lilian Edwards can be accessed here.

16 July 2013

Argyro Karanasiou’s article featured in the International Forum for Responsible Media Blog (Inforrm)

Public engagement, Publishing unknown

The article “Debunking the PBS myth: Media in Crisis ?” written by Argyro Karanasiou, Lecturer in Law and member of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) is featured in the International Forum for Responsible Media Blog (Inforrm), the influential media policy blog set up to debate issues of media responsibility. As stated in the article, this issue is not only of local interest but it also encompasses certain parameters pertaining to constitutional and EU law matters. This contribution comes in a timely manner: the issue was discussed last week in the European Parliament while the bill for its substitution has been submitted to the Greek Parliament only a few days ago. Argyro notes:

The long standing debate over interventionism and liberalism in the EU market of services is also reflected in the regulation of competition for broadcasting services in the EU. And while the EU Parliament and the Commission remain undecided as to how PBS should be treated in terms of the market’s internal policy, the case of ERT faces us with the following paradox: a public broadcaster officially shut down by the state yet transmitted through the EBU satellite operators to this day.

The case of ERT furnishes us with a great example of how myths are deconstructed in times of crisis. However, as in every myth, what is of particular value is always the epimythion, the moral of the story. And if there is something to be learnt from the ERT switch-off that is that the current financial crisis is not simply a fiscal issue of local nature; it also threatens the societal foundations of democracy and EU cohesion in total.

To read the article in full please click here.

For updates follow Argyro on twitter @ArKaranasiou

10 July 2013

A new Portal addressing questions on Copyright is launched in London

Awarded & submitted bids, Funding opportunities, Fusion, Post-award, Public engagement cippm

A BETA version of the ‘Copyright User Portal’, funded by Bournemouth University’s Fusion Investment Fund (awarded 2012) was launched at the Law Society of England & Wales on 2 July 2013. The main event of the day was the launch of the UK Intellectual Property Office’s Commissioned Report on Copyright and Orphan Works co-authored by academics from CIPPM, Bournemouth University and CREATe, University of Glasgow. It also provided a platform to launch a BETA version of the Copyright User Portal.

The Copyright User Portal is an online resource aimed at making UK copyright law accessible to creators and members of the public. In particular the Portal aims to clarify UK copyright law for musicians, filmmakers, performers, writers, visual artists and interactive developers. The goal is to inform creators about how to protect their work, how to license and exploit it, and how to legally re-use the work of others. As such, the aim of the Copyright User Portal is to provide answers to the most pressing concerns creators have about copyright.

To find the answers to the most pressing queries which creators have, the research used two specific approaches. First, the 200 most frequently asked questions (FAQs) about copyright law was analysed which was then filtered down to the most important 20 FAQs. The second approach consisted of directly engaging with various creators, including musicians, filmmakers, performers, writers, visual artists and interactive developers and producing videos consisting of interviews with these creators, their artistic process, thoughts and questions about copyright. These two approaches helped the research team to create a rich resource capturing the common concerns faced by media professionals in their day-to-day work.

During Summer 2013, a complete version of the Copyright User Portal will be launched. A BETA Version of the resource can be accessed here

The Copyright User Project team consists of Mr. Bartolomeo Meletti (Lead Multimedia Producer), Dr. Kris Erickson (Principal Investigator and Executive Producer, CEMP), Dr. Dinusha Mendis (Co-Investigator and Executive Producer CIPPM), Professor Martin Krestchmer (Co-Investigator and Executive Producer CREATe, University of Glasgow) and Ms. Hayleigh Bosher (Research Assistant and Assistant Producer, CIPPM).

10 July 2013

Inventions and Intellectual Property Law comes alive at the Festival of Design and Innovation 2013

Fusion cippm

The annual Festival of Design and Innovation (FoDI) opened on Thursday 20 June 2013. It was an opportunity for students from the School of Design, Engineering and Computing (DEC) to exhibit their innovations and creations. “A cake icing pen, a computer game controlled by brain power and a glamping pod were just some of the ground-breaking ideas and inventions on display at this year’s FoDI.”

During the academic year, final year students from DEC are paired off with final year students from the Law Department studying Intellectual Property (IP) Law. The law students are tasked with advising their DEC clients on the protection and exploitation of their innovative creations. The DEC clients then incorporate the advice which they have received from the ‘lawyers’ into their final year projects.

The IP-DEC Project brings Intellectual Property law to life. It gives an opportunity for law students to apply IP Law to real-life inventions and in turn it helps the DEC client to understand the importance of strong IP protection when preparing to protect, market and exploit their various creations.

The IP-DEC Project culminates with Awards for the Best DEC Student; Best IP Student and Best IP-DEC Group sponsored by Paul Turner, a retired Patent Attorney.

The Paul Turner Prize for the best IP-DEC Group was awarded at the opening night of the Festival. The prize was awarded to Law Students Danielle Foster and Luke Trim and DEC Students Benjamen Armstrong, George Burge, Joseph Carter, Markko Reinberg, Nicholas Cron, Thomas Clements and Thomas Reynolds.

Paul Turner with two of the winning DEC students and law students Luke Trim and Danielle Foster.

The Paul Turner Individual Prize for the Best IP Student went to Gemma Jefferies whilst the Paul Turner Prize for the Best DEC Student was awarded to Coco Canessa. The Individual Prize winners will officially receive their awards at the Graduation Ceremony in November 2013.

The opportunity to apply Intellectual Property Law to real-life scenarios and to real-life innovations together with helping the DEC clients to grasp the importance of IP law, makes this project truly unique.

The IP-DEC Project is co-ordinated by Dr. Dinusha Mendis (Law); Dr. Tania Humphries (DEC); and Dr. Reza Sahandi (DEC).

8 July 2013

Commissioned Report on Copyright and Orphan Works by academics at BU and Glasgow is launched in London

Awarded & submitted bids, PG research, Public engagement, Research themes cippm

Copyright and the Regulation of Orphan Works, a report commissioned by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) and co-authored by Dr. Marcella Favale, Dr. Fabian Homberg, Dr. Dinusha Mendis and Dr. Davide Secchi of the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) at Bournemouth University and Professor Martin Krestchmer of CREATe, University of Glasgow was launched at the Orphans and Images event at the Law Society in London. It took place on 2 July 2013. Marcella Favale and Fabian Homberg introduced by Professor Martin Kretschmer presented the report.

The event was sponsored by the Technology Strategy Board (TSB) and CREATe, the Research Council UK Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the Creative Economy.

The report consisting of two Studies, included a comparative international review of actual and proposed orphan works legislation in several jurisdictions aimed at identifying key characteristics of orphan works licensing schemes and simulated rights clearance for six scenarios in order to identify pricing models in the studied jurisdictions.

A panel discussion chaired by The Honourable Mr. Justice Arnold followed the launch of the Report. The panel included Richard Boulderstone (British Library); Matthew Cope (Intellectual Property Office); David Hoffman (Editorial Photographers EPUK / Hoffman Photos), Dr. Ros Lynch (Copyright Hub), Professor Derek McAuley (University of Nottingham and TSB Connected Digital Economy Catapult) and Dr. Jeremy Silver (Bridgeman Art Library).

The event also provided an opportunity to launch the the research agenda of CREATe and to launch the CREATe working paper series. For more information, please see http://www.create.ac.uk/

The Report, titled ‘Copyright and the Regulation of Orphan Works: A Comparative Review of Seven Jurisdictions and a Rights Clearance Simulation’ can be accessed here

1 July 2013

The ‘Clone Wars’: Episode 1 – The Rise of 3D Printing and the Implications for Intellectual Property

Training Nikki Harvey

Do you, or any of your colleagues / students want to find out more?

17 July 2013

Bournemouth University, Executive Business Centre, 89 Holdenhurst Road, Bournemouth BH8 8EB

Arrival from 6pm for a 6:30pm start

The Centre for Entrepreneurship together with the Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Management (CIPPM) will present a series of workshops which will focus on 3D printing with particular focus on the Intellectual Property implications. The workshops will be led by Dr. Dinusha Mendis, Co-Director of CIPPM.

This workshop will be based on Dr. Dinusha Mendis’s recently published paper on this topic and will provide an overview of the challenges to IP as a result of 3D printing. In looking to the future and in drawing parallels with the entertainment industry and the download culture, Dr. Mendis will consider whether any lessons can be learnt from the past and if so, how they can be applied to this new type of technology which will most certainly challenge IP laws. The presentation will also suggest that rather than focusing on stringent IP laws the future lies in adopting new business models in adapting to this new technology. In conclusion Dr. Mendis will present some thoughts for the future in taking this suggestion forward.

Workshop 2 and 3 will take place later in the year and will include a hands-on workshop with a 3D printer, and a round table discussion about the future of 3D printing.

This is a free event for businesses, BU students, BU staff and BU Alumni. Refreshments will be provided.

To find out more or to book your place please visit http://bucfe.com/events/3d-printing-intellectual-property-law/

Category / Law