Sustainable Originality in Copyright Law: Creative Character Frontier Technologies Competition
Date and Time: January 21st, 2025, 16:00h
Room: Viale Pola, Aula Negoziazione
The meeting will center on the presentation of the recent book published by the ILEO member Vincenzo Iaia in the Luiss Law Department Monograph Series. The book is an updated elaboration of his doctoral research defended at Luiss University in September 2022. It represents a significant academic milestone that explores the intersections of copyright originality with traditional and innovative questions, from the theoretical interpretation of creativity and the need for a European harmonization, to the recent challenges raised by Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, to the inconsistent integration of the anti-competitive concerns in this evaluation.
We warmly invite all ILEO members, the broader academic community, and students to join this event and contribute to this enriching exchange.
Program:
16:00 – 16:10 Chair and introduction
Christophe Geiger, Professor of Law and Director of the Innovation Law and Ethics Observatory, Luiss, Rome
16:10 – 16:40 Presentation
Vincenzo Iaia, Postdoctoral Researcher and Member of the Innovation Law and Ethics Observatory, Luiss, Rome
16:40 – 17:00 Discussion
After the academic program, the members of ILEO will discuss the projects and future events to be organised in 2025.
Abstract:
The requirement of creativity, as a condicio sine qua non for an intellectual work to enter the gates of copyright protection, is affected by significant interpretative and applicative ambiguity. This is also the result of divergent jurisprudential sensitivities regarding the meaning to be attributed - among the many possible interpretative solutions - to a general clause whose etymological roots lie outside the legal domain.
Apart from the longstanding uncertainties surrounding this ethereal and evolving concept, there has been added the more recent debated role of investment-related interests, particularly those aimed at fostering the construction of Big Data and the production of content through Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, these developments have brought into focus the uneven attention paid to the subsequent pro and anti-competitive effects of the originality exam. These factors collectively contribute to the multifaceted opacity of the trajectory of creativity within contemporary copyright law.
By clarifying each interest and mapping their intersections during the creativity exam the book aims at proposing more precise interpretative coordinates than those advanced thus far. The search for shared metrics to draw a line between creative and trivial intellectual productions seeks to mitigate the risk that the corresponding legal assessment devolves into an arbitrary verdict, thereby undermining legal certainty and potentially leading to discriminatory treatment of creators who are equally (and diversely) creative, in violation of Articles 2 TEU and 3 of the Italian Constitution. This could also prejudice rights clearance processes, including the latest one regarding text and data mining for machine learning purposes advocated by a line of scholars.
In this vein, the objective is to channel the aforementioned trajectories of copyright creativity into the framework of sustainability, aligning with Target 8.3 of the UN 2030 Agenda. This target promotes development-oriented policies that support, inter alia, creativity and innovation.
About the speaker:
Vincenzo Iaia is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Luiss University in Rome as part of the research project “Copyright, Digital Constitutionalism and Sustainability: What Regulatory Framework for Ethical Innovation in the EU?”. Additionally, he holds a position of Teaching Assistant in Business and Intellectual Property Law at the University of Bari and he is Of Counsel at AKRAN Intellectual Property. His primary research and practice areas cover Intellectual Property Law, Business Law and Information Technology Law.