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Research Exceptions in Comparative Copyright

November 4, 2021 | 12:00 EDT, 17:00 CET
R.S.V.P For Online Participation

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Abstract

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PIJIP Director Sean Flynn

Recent scholarship has highlighted the positive impact on scholarship of copyright exceptions for text and data mining and of more “open” exceptions for research uses. Until now, however, there has not been a collection and categorization of the world’s copyright laws according to the degree to which they provide exceptions for research.

In this lecture the results of the first such study will be discussed. The study shows that every copyright law in the world has at least one exception to promote research uses of copyrighted works, but that such exceptions vary widely between countries. We conclude that the world’s exceptions for research can be categorized along a five point spectrum from the most open to (Green in our map) to the most closed (Red) to research uses, including for text and data mining (or “computational”) research. This information may be useful to policy makers searching for models as well to scholars looking for independent variables to use in impact analysis.

Sean Flynn

Sean Flynn is Director and Professorial Lecturer at the American University, Washington College of Law (WCL). He teaches courses on the intersection of intellectual property, trade law, and human rights and is Director of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property (PIJIP). At PIJIP, Professor Flynn designs and manages a wide variety of research and advocacy projects that promote public interests in intellectual property and information law and coordinates PIJIP’s academic program.

His personal page is here and he tweets at @Sean_Fiil_Flynn