US research trip November 2015

The trip to the US had two main aims – to raise the profile of the project amongst some academics and practitioners, and to gain some information.

On the 10th November, a presentation was given to the Centre for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and on the 11th to the Information Society Project at Yale University. On the 12th Dr Danbury attended the conference, Journalism & Silicon Valley at the Tow Centre for Digital Journalism, Columbia University. On the 13th he met with various copyright lawyers at New York law firms.

The main information sought related to how useful copyright was seen in the US as a tool for generating revenue for US news publishers – both whether it was a legal tool that could plausibly be used, and whether it would a useful economic tool. Additionally, one question that was investigated was whether copyright laws that purchase on news can be challenged under US freedom of speech law.