AHRC Primary Sources on Copyright History Project: Conference – Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th March 2008 – Stationers' Hall, London

This two day conference is the culmination of a  research project involving the creation of a digital resource concerning the history of copyright in five key jurisdictions; France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US, for the period before 1900. The project involves the selection of certain key documents, their digitisation, transcription, and translation. The project will create a free electronic archive of primary sources from the invention of the printing press (ca1450) to the Berne Convention (1886): in facsimile and transcription, translated and key word searchable. The documents will include statutes, materials relating to legislative history, case law, tracts, and commentaries. Editorial headnotes will provide context. The project is entirely publicly-funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and benefits from an advisory board of internationally-recognised experts in relevant fields. When complete, the digital resource will be hugely valuable to scholars from all disciplines interested in the history of copyright. More information about the project is available at Primary Sources on Copyright History.

Keynote Speakers: Professor Mark Rose University of California Santa Barbara , Professor Laurent Pfister University of Versailles Saint-Quentin and Professor Karl Nikolaus Peifer Köln University.

The conference will be held at the Stationers' Hall in London. (The Research Group is very grateful to the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers for providing Stationers' Hall gratis and to Emmanuel College, Cambridge for sponsorship towards the cost of the conference. The Research Group is also very grateful to Robin Myers and Sue Hurley for curating a unique exhibition (and catalogue) of materials. In particular, this will feature the Stationers' Charter of 1684 and the original parchment copy of the 1710 Statute of Anne.). The booking fee is £100 (to include refreshments, lunches and drinks reception). A booking form can be downloaded here. Please contact Gaenor Moore  for more information.

Programme Wednesday 19th March

09:30 – 10:00 COFFEE AND REGISTRATION
10:00 – 10:15 Welcome Professor Bill Cornish, Emeritus Herchel Smith Professor of Intellectual Property Law, University of Cambridge
10:15 – 10:45 Introduction and Demonstration of Resource Professor Lionel Bently, University of Cambridge and Professor Martin Kretschmer, University of Bournemouth
10:45 – 11:30 Keynote Speech: The Public Sphere and the Emergence of Copyright: Areopagitica, the Stationers’ Company, and the Statute of Anne Professor Mark Rose, University of California, Santa Barbara
11:30 – 11:45 COFFEE
11:45 – 12:30 Keynote Speech: Author and work in the French Print Privileges system Professor Laurent Pfister, University of Versailles Saint-Quentin
12:30 – 13:00 From the Stationers’ Company Archive Robin Myers, Honorary Archivist Emeritus, Stationers’ Company
13:00 – 14:00 BUFFET LUNCH AND OPPORTUNITY FOR DELEGATES TO EXPLORE THE DATABASE ON WIRELESS NETWORK AND TERMINALS PROVIDED
14:00 – 15:20 National Editors’ Afternoon (1) Institutions. The Political Economy of Copyright, Dr Oren Bracha, University of Texas (US); From Local to National to International Regimes, Dr Friedemann Kawohl (Germany)
15:20 – 15:40 BREAK FOR TEA/COFFEE
15:40 – 17:30 National Editors’ Afternoon continues (2) Ideas. Subject Matter, Dr Joanna Kostylo, University of Cambridge (Italy); Originality, Dr Frédéric Rideau, University of Poitiers (France); Derivatives, Dr Ronan Deazley, Birmingham University (UK).
17:30 – 18:30 DRINKS RECEPTION

Programme Thursday 20th March

09:00 – 09:15 COFFEE
09:15 – 10:45 Invited Papers: The Significance of Copyright History for Publishing History and Historians Professor John Feather, Loughborough University; Visualising property in art and law Dr Katie Scott Courtauld Instiute of Art; A mongrel of early modern copyright: Scotland in European perspective Dr Alastair Mann Stirling University
10:45 – 11:00 COFFEE
11:00 – 12:30 Invited Papers: Metaphors of Intellectual Property William St Clair University of Cambridge; Digging up fragments and building IP franchises Professor Kathy Bowrey, University of New South Wales; Perpetual Copyright: the Venetian Experiment (1780-1789) Dr Maurizio Borghi, Brunel University
12:30 – 13:30 BUFFET LUNCH
13:30 – 14:30 Invited Papers “Neither bolt nor chain, iron safe nor private watchman, can prevent the theft of words”: The birth of the performing right in Britain Dr Isabella Alexander University of Cambridge; Les formalités sont mortes, vive les formalités! Copyright formalities in nineteenth century Europe and their significance for current discourse Stef van Gompel, University of Amsterdam
14:30 – 15:15 Keynote Speech: The Return of the Commons - Copyright history as a common source Professor Karl Nikolaus Peifer, Köln University
15:15 – 15:45 BREAK FOR TEA/COFFEE
15:45 – 16:30 Open Discussion: A View of Copyright History Introduced by: Professor Lionel Bently and Professor Martin Kretschmer
16:30 – 16:45 Closing Rapporteur Professor Jane Ginsburg, Columbia University
16:45 – 17:00 Launch of the International Society for the History and Theory of Intellectual Property
17:00 Conference Closes