CREATe Public Lecture by Kristelia García: Refusals to License and other Vertical Mischief in Copyright
CREATe Public Lecture by Kristelia García: Refusals to License and other Vertical Mischief in Copyright
Social Sciences Hub
Date: Monday 18 November 2024
Time: 16:00 - 19:00
Venue: Hothouse, Room 282, Adam Smith Building, 2 Discovery Place, G11 6EY
Category: Public lectures
Speaker: Kristelia Garcia, Anne Fleming Research Professor of Law, The Georgetown University Law Center.
Website: www.create.ac.uk/blog/2024/10/14/create-public-lecture-by-kristelia-garcia-refusals-to-license-and-other-vertical-mischief-in-copyright/
For our second Public Lecture this semester, we are delighted to welcome Kristelia García, Anne Fleming Research Professor of Law, The Georgetown University Law Center.
Kristelia will talk to us about her research on “Refusals to License & Other Vertical Mischief in Copyright“.
This event will take place on Monday 18 November 2024, at 4.00pm in the Hothouse, Room 282, Adam Smith Building, and will be in-person-only. Following the lecture, and the Q&A with the audience, the discussions will have a chance to continue at the drinks reception.
To secure your seat in the audience for this free event, please register your attendance via our Bookitbee page.
We will see you all on 18 November!
Refusals to License & Other Vertical Mischief in Copyright
Over-consolidation has long been an issue for many of the copyright industries. Historically, the concern stemmed from horizontal activity—for example, a record label merges with another record label. In contrast, most of the recent consolidation activity—particularly in the digital space—has been vertical—that is, a content distributor acquires, or invests in, a content producer and vice versa. Some of these newly combined entities proceed to either withdraw, or decline to license, their copyrighted works to competitors. There are at least a couple of reasons to be concerned about this particular variety of anticompetitive behavior: First, this is not what copyright is for, and predatory withholding of licenses can both dilute the ability of copyright to achieve its intended ends, and may also negatively impact public perception of copyright and copyrighted works. Second, given the oligopolistic nature of many of the copyright industries, predatory withholding of licenses can amount to the withholding of key inputs that lead to implications that go beyond the conventional antitrust harms for consumers and other third parties. This lecture explores the (mis)use of copyright as a means for entities to engage in anticompetitive behavior, and considers the pros and cons of possible interventions, including antitrust law and regulatory access arrangements.