reCreating Europe Final Conference – Report

Three years of intense research and dissemination activities culminated in reCreating Europe’s final conference, which took place in Brussels on 21-22 March 2023. The Conference was an opportunity for project partners to celebrate, connect and discuss their results with reCreating’s key stakeholder groups, EU policy-makers, members of the European Parliament, academics, legal practitioners, representatives of NGOs, and copyright enthusiasts at large. Over 80 participants enjoyed two-days of panels, keynote speeches and presentations on all-things digital copyright law.

Day 1 – Museum of Natural Sciences

The first day of the event was hosted at the Museum of Natural Sciences, and was devoted to the presentation of the project’s substantive research results. The results were then commented on by distinguished scholars and members of key stakeholder categories.

The conference kicked off with the opening remarks of the project coordinator, Caterina Sganga (Associate Professor of Comparative Private Law, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna), who walked the audience through the three years of reCreating’s activities and results. Her intervention was followed by the presentations of two keynote speakers, Niva Elkin Koren (Professor of Law, Tel-Aviv University), who talked about copyright in generative AI modes, and Imke Reimers (Associate Professor of Economics, Northeastern University), who shared her reflections on the digital challenges in the book publishing industry.

The day was then structured around 5 panels – one per each group of stakeholders on which the project has focused its research. Panels presented the most relevant results of reCreating Europe, which were commented upon by a leading academic commentator and two representatives of stakeholders. For a full overview of the commentators, see the Final Conference Programme.

Session 1 – End-Users

Maria Lillà Montagnani (Professor of Commercial Law, Bocconi University) chaired the first session of the conference, which was centered around end-users’ perspectives. The session started with Caterina Sganga’s presentation of the results of reCreating Europe’s EU and comparative mapping of copyright flexibilities. Péter Mezei illustrated the findings of the empirical research conducted on online platforms’ end-user license agreements and their attitude vis-à-vis users’ rights and obligations. Arianna Martinelli and Joost Poort provided an update on the Global Piracy Studies, while Delia Ferri commented on the technological, legal and economic challenges, barriers, and opportunities for access to knowledge for vulnerable groups.

Session 2 – Authors, Performers, and AI

The next session focused on authors, performers, and AI, with Martin Senftleben (Professor of Intellectual Property Law and Director, Institute of Information Law, University of Amsterdam) taking over the role of chair. Joost Poort presented the results of a survey on authors’ and performers’ experiences with the use of AI and platform algorithms. Thomas Margoni and Martin Kretschmer reported on their study on the interplay of new technologies and IP, with a particular emphasis on AI training and text and data mining, whereas João Pedro Quintais illustrated reCreating’s report on interaction of copyright and neighbouring rights for AI (music) productions. Finally, Ula Furgal elaborated on the reversion rights.

Session 3 – Creative Industries

Chaired by Sean Flynn (Professor; American University, Washington College of Law), Session 3 was centered on creative industries. Eneli Kindsiko commented on the results of reCreating’s empirical studies on new business models and challenges in niche creative industries. Her talk was followed by Ingmar Pastak, who shed light on the impact of COVID-19 on selected creative enterprises. Bartolomeo Meletti and Stef van Gompel shared the codes of best practices the project developed for the reuse of copyright content in the field of documentary film-making. Alessandro Nuvolari and Raffaele Danna (Postdoctoral research fellow, Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna) offered an insight into the results of their surveys on EU-based IP negative spaces. The session ended with Bartolomeo Meletti’s presentation of a brand-new online platform for users and creators of copyright-protected works, www.CopyrightUser.EU.

Session 4 – Cultural Heritage Institutions (GLAM)

The panel on cultural heritage institutions was chaired by Marie-Christine Jannsen (Professor and Director; KU Leuven, CITiP). Roberto Caso and Paolo Guarda opened the session with an overview on their report on copyright and openness of cultural data. Giulia Dore and Laura di Nicola (Research fellow, University of Trento) followed up with a presentation of the results of their evidence-based research on the impact of digitisation for galleries, libraries, archives, and museums. Last, Marta Iljadica and Pınar Oruç talked about the interaction of copyright, trademarks and placemaking. This session also hosted representatives from reCreating Europe’s sister-project, inDICEs, with Konrad Gliscinski, who presented their final policy recommendations.

Session 5 – Intermediaries

The final session, chaired by Tanya Aplin (Professor of Intellectual Property Law, King’s College London), revolved around intermediaries. João Pedro Quintais discussed the fragmentation of the EU legal landscape in the field of copyright content moderation, while Sebastian Schwemer shed light on the future of content-filtering. Christian Katzenbach and Daria Dergacheva (Postdoctoral researcher, University of Bremen) concluded by offering insights on their empirical research on content moderation on online platforms.

View the live-stream of the event (please note, due to a technical issue sound is missing from the first part of the video)

View the presenters slides.

Day 2 – Policy Recommendations at the European Parliament

The second day took place at the European Parliament, and focused on reCreating Europe’s policy recommendations, targeting national and EU policymakers. The event was hosted by MEP Brando Benifei (Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament; Rapporteur of the AI Act), with the cooperation of MEP Axel Voss (Group of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament; Rapporteur of the CDSM Directive).

A two-hour roundtable on “The future of EU copyright law: policy recommendations” was preceded by the keynote speeches of MEP Benifei, MEP Voss and Marco Giorello (Head of the Copyright Unit, DG CONNECT, European Commission, and featured the presentations of reCreating’s policy conclusions by Caterina Sganga, Peter Mezei, Joost Poort, Martin Kretschmer, Roberto Caso and João Pedro Quintais, chaired by Paul Keller (President of COMMUNIA Association & Director of Policy at OpenFuture Foundation).

View the recording of the event.

reCreating Europe would like to thank you to all of our speakers, consortium members, hosts, technical team and participants for making the conference possible. Together, we will continue to reimagine copyright law for a more culturally diverse, accessible, and creative Europe!