CREATe, the Centre for Regulation of the Creative Economy at the University of Glasgow, has received a major infrastructure award from the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC). On 11 March 2024 we held an event to celebrate this opportunity and announce our future research agenda.
Digital platforms play a central role in 21st Century life. Their power shapes economic, social and cultural structures. They mould human creativity. The domains of law that can be mobilised to regulate this space are complex and technical. They range from Intellectual Property Law (copyright, trade marks, patents, designs, confidential information) to Competition Law (market power, mergers) and Technology and Information law (data, privacy, AI).
How will legal interventions affect the development of AI, streaming, and virtual worlds? How should creators, entrepreneurs, and citizens navigate in this environment? As UK research infrastructure, CREATe will develop evidence and guidance resources, independent policy assessments and build capacity in one of key sectors for the UK economy.
photos by Weiwei Yi, PhD researcher
On Monday 11th of March, CREATe announced its agenda for the next five years with an exhibition of seven themes at the intersection of Creativity, Technology and Markets. These are (1) Dealing with Creators, (2) Legal History and Cultural Memory, (3) The Law of Innovation, (4) Automation, Decentralisation and Platforms, (5) Access to Knowledge, (6) The Political Economy of Digital Regulation, and (7) Digital Technologies and Humanism.
The launch also included a discussion with regulators Ofcom, CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) and the Intellectual Property Office about new modes of regulation, the formal and informal coordination of responsibilities between regulators, and the UK’s geopolitical positioning.
The day ended with a keynote and conversation with Professor Anu Bradford (Henry L. Moses Professor of Law and International Organization at Columbia University, New York) on her book Digital Empires: The Global Battle to Regulate Technology.
Quotes
Prof. Kristofer Erickson, Professor of Social Data Science, CREATe Co-Investigator and Deputy Director
Examples of technological disruption include the impact of Artificial Intelligence on creative jobs, reflected in recent global labour disputes; the interface between new decentralised networks and traditional institutions; the resilience of platforms against manipulation, including by state and non-state actors; widespread embedding of software code in everyday consumer devices raising privacy, intellectual property and consumer protection issues. To have legitimacy, the policy process needs robust and transparent evidence.
Dr Magali Eben, Senior Lecturer in Competition Law, CREATe Co-Investigator and Deputy Director
Confronting the challenges of digital regulation responsibly requires a holistic approach and that diverse voices are at the table. As Professor Bradford’s keynote vividly illustrates, regulators, authorities and courts worldwide have to consider the impacts of global technology in the context of their local or regional priorities. These objectives tend to be diverse and interlinked – requiring an approach which marries the insights and tools of various areas of law and various disciplines.
Prof. Martin Kretschmer, Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Director of CREATe
National creative economy and innovation policy is inexorably linked with intellectual property, markets and technology regulation as much as with cultural life and individual freedom. This is a delicate balancing act with high stakes for the UK and future generations. Academic research has an important role in supplying insight about the present and future impacts of new technologies and offer independent guidance and proposed solutions.
Prof. Anu Bradford, Henry L. Moses Professor of Law and International Organization, Columbia University, New York
The digital economy today is multifaceted and calls for analyses that spans across policy domains, jurisdictions, and scholarly disciplines. CREATe is ideally placed to make a significant contribution to some of the most important debates that shape our digital economies and societies.
Dr Allan Sudlow, Director of Partnerships and Engagement, Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
There is an urgent need for an evidence-based legal and regulatory understanding of digital technologies such as AI that underpin our national strategies and key economic sectors such as the creative industries. CREATe contributes significant research to deliver expert advice to creators and innovators who wish to act responsibly and effectively in this rapidly moving environment.
Prof. Sir Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow
The University is very proud to host the UK Centre for Regulation of the Creative Economy (CREATe), which was one of the first large Centre investments by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).
Since its inception in 2013, CREATe has transformed the evidence base for copyright regulation and has strengthened interdisciplinary research across the fields of law, technology, creative industries and market regulation. In this era of Artificial Intelligence, advanced technologies and shifting regulatory landscapes, it is essential that Centres like CREATE are providing the robust evidence needed to inform policymaking and to support the creative industries and businesses to navigate the complex digital environment.
About CREATe
CREATe is the Centre for Regulation of the Creative Economy, anchored in intellectual property, competition, information and technology law. The name is an acronym for Creativity, Regulation, Enterprise and Technology. We were established in 2012 as the result of a competition for a national centre for “copyright and new business models in the creative economy”. As the only UK research centre funded jointly by AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council), EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) and ESRC (Economic and Social Research Council), we conceived and delivered an interdisciplinary research programme at the intersection of law, technology, social sciences and humanities.
In 2017, we received follow-on funding from the AHRC. In 2018 and 2020, we won two large grants as part of the AHRC Creative Industries Policy & Evidence Centre (PEC) and the EU H2020 project “reCreating Europe: Rethinking digital copyright law for a culturally diverse, accessible, creative Europe”. We are now UK research infrastructure, core-funded by the AHRC and hosted by the University of Glasgow’s School of Law (a global top 50 law school). We provide resources and new research of national and international significance as part of the University’s Advanced Research Centre (ARC), working across the Colleges of Social Sciences and Arts & Humanities.