COUNTER Conference

COUNTER: Balancing rights and responsibilities for protecting intellectual property and reducing levels of counterfeiting, piracy and filesharing in the digital economy.

The COUNTER Conference is taking place on the 23rd and 24th March, 2010. The venue of the conference is the Hilton hotel, Manchester (see below). Invited delegates are asked to register online or to contact us if you have any questions.

The COUNTER Project (www.counter2010.org), funded under Framework 7 of the EU SSHRC Programme, is a two year multidisciplinary project exploring the economic, legal, consumer and cultural dynamics of counterfeiting, piracy and filesharing. It aims to generate new knowledge which will contribute towards the development of evidence-based policy making at the European, national and international level. The project emphasises that effectively addressing this complex area requires a variety of strategic multistakeholder actions which recognise the importance of understanding and engaging with the psychological, social and cultural dynamics of consumer behaviour.

The COUNTER Conference is to be held at the Deansgate Hilton in Manchester, UK on the 23rd and 24th March 2010. The conference marks the end of a two-year European Commission Framework 7 funded research project examining intellectual property, counterfeiting, piracy and filesharing. The event is the international dissemination event for the key findings and recommendations of the project which will be showcased throughout the programme. It will bring together key national, European and international stakeholders including the European Commission, industry, national policy makers, academics, NGOs and activists in keynote and panel sessions to discuss the key recommendations of the project within wider social, economic and political contexts. The conference will also provide a forum for the invited stakeholders to debate key issues and challenges including: consumer attitudes and behaviours; legal and regulatory perspectives; new distribution channels and business models; alternative licensing and open source; cultural production and heritage; user-generated content and the digital environment.

The conference programme demonstrates that contemporary debates about these issues are widely contested and characterised by the involvement of a variety of stakeholders who often have opposing perspectives, competing agendas and different perspectives on the most appropriate strategies for reducing demand and changing consumer behaviour. The conference will address the challenges associated with balancing these conflicting concerns and ensuring that policy making at the European and national level is transparent and proportionate, providing equal protection to rights holders and consumers, cultural production and heritage, innovation and the development of the digital economy.

Conference Venue

The conference is taking place at the Hilton Hotel, 303 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 4LQ, UK. The location of the hotel is shown below.

To keep arrangements simple, a block booking has been made for accommodation at the same hotel. Invited delegates simply need to provide their names at check-in and quote the reference ‘Counter Conference’.