What Constitutes Evidence for Copyright Policy?

Abstract

The Symposium ‘What constitutes evidence for copyright policy?’ was part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science 2012. It was organised by Professors Ruth Towse and Martin Kretschmer as a cooperative initiative between the Centre for IP Policy and Management at Bournemouth University (CIPPM) and CREATe (the RCUK Copyright Centre at the University of Glasgow) with the aim of exploring the concept of evidence as employed in copyright policy making, and challenge the concept from a social science perspective. The aim was to produce an orientation point in the contested debate about ‘evidence-based’ copyright reform. The Symposium took the form of four panels with specific professional and disciplinary groups: policy-makers, stakeholders, social scientists and law professors with an open session to enable wider audience participation. Each panel speaker was asked to give a short opening statement, setting out what constitutes evidence from their disciplinary perspective, using the UK Intellectual Property Office’s guidance document on standards of evidence (‘clear, verifiable and able to be peer-reviewed’) as a starting point for their contribution. These proceeding (published as CREATe Working Paper No. 1) offer an introductory essay by Martin Kretschmer and Ruth Towse, edited transcripts of the discussion and a bibliography.