Monthly Archives: January 2018

John Street presents UEA research on musicians’ attitudes to copyright, for the Research Blog Series Investigators: John Street and Tom Phillips, University of East Anglia Copyright is seen as central to how creative industries work. It is the means by which revenue is generated and creative people are rewarded. But what do those who are presumed to be the beneficiaries of copyright law actually think about copyright? Do they think about it all? And if they do, what do they understand by ‘copyright’? These were some of the questions that we sought to answer in our research into musicians’ attitudes to copyright. We wanted to know how and when copyright impinged on their creative lives, and whether their interest in copyright was … Continue reading →

Copyright User’s Lead Producer Bartolomeo Meletti discusses the online copyright resource, for our Research Blog Series. Project: CopyrightUser.org Investigators: Bartolomeo Meletti, University of Glasgow (Lead Producer) Martin Kretschmer, University of Glasgow (Chair of the Editorial Board) Ronan Deazley, Queen’s University Belfast (General Editor, 2013-2016) Maurizio Borghi, Bournemouth University (Editor) Kris Erickson, University of Glasgow (Editor) Dinusha Mendis, Bournemouth University (Editor) Ruth Towse, Bournemouth University (Editor) What did your research aim to do? CopyrightUser.org intends to make UK copyright law accessible to everyone, with a view to helping creators make informed decisions and meaningfully participate in policy debates. How did you do it? In order to identify the knowledge needs of its audience and produce responsive guidance, the Copyright User research … Continue reading →

Ruth Towse discusses research into the effect of changes in copyright law on music publishers and song writers, for the Research Blog Series. Project: Economic survival in a long established creative industry: strategies, business models and copyright in music publishing Investigators: Ruth Towse and Maurizio Borghi (CIPPM, Bournemouth University) with Fiona Macmillan and Jose Bellido (Birkbeck College – Bellido later at Kent Law School) What did your research aim to do? Test for the effect of changes to copyright law/institutional arrangements on revenues for published music – publishers and song-writers. How did you do it? We did not ‘do it’ because data were not available that enabled the test to be applied. Instead, we looked at the historical development of … Continue reading →

Continuing our Research Blog Series, Kenny Barr describes his PhD research into the effects of the digital age on creators and investors in the UK music industry. Project: Music Copyright in the Digital Age Investigator: Kenny Barr (University of Glasgow) with supervisors Professor Martin Cloonan, Professor Martin Kretschmer and Professor Andreas Rahmatian (all University of Glasgow). What did your research aim to do? The research sought to interrogate emergent, but under-researched, responses to the ‘digital crisis’ facing stakeholders (creators and investors) in the UK music copyright industries. How did you do it? The research employed a mixed method approach of document analysis of contracts and royalty statements, combined with semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders: primary creators and key corporate decision-makers … Continue reading →

Kicking off the theme of Creative Practice and Copyright, this review of music copyright in the digital age, for the Research Blog Series, brings together research across three related work packages. Project: Understanding the politics, culture and aesthetics of musical copyright in the digital age Investigators: Adam Behr (Newcastle University), Keith Negus (Goldsmiths, University of London) and John Street (University of East Anglia) Copyright appears in one of two guises. It is either the backdrop to arguments about plagiarism – about how ‘Blurred Lines’ was stolen from Marvin Gaye, or about how Donald Trump is making (allegedly) illegitimate use of Adele and others to accompany his rallies. Or copyright is seen as central to the development of the digital economy … Continue reading →

Liz Dowthwaite presents her research exploring how creators of free online content are able to monetise their work, for our Research Blog Series Project: Monetising Free Content Investigator: Liz Dowthwaite, University of Nottingham What did your research aim to do? The aim was to explore how creators of free content, specifically webcomics, are able to use social media and other internet tools to monetise their work online, at the same time as maintaining their ownership rights and combatting attribution and copyright problems. Online copyright law is a major issue for many in the creative industries. Independent artists often rely on sharing their work across social media and content-sharing sites, leaving them open to having their work stolen or misused. When … Continue reading →

Christina Emmanouil presents her research on the use by individuals of social networking sites for commercial purposes, for the Research Blog Series. Project:  Designing for the commercial exploitation of online identity. Investigators: Christina Emmanouil with Professor Derek McAuley, University of Nottingham What did your research aim to do? Develop knowledge about the self- presentation practices of individuals who use social networking sites for commercial purposes and highlight design opportunities that emerge in support of these practices. How did you do it? By focusing on a case study of book authors to conduct three empirical studies, an online survey, an online observation, and two co-design workshops. Authors were selected as they represent a professional group with the potential to fully operate within … Continue reading →