[ecrea] Call for Papers for EuroCPR 2016 “content creation and distribution in the digital single market”

31st European Communications Policy Research Conference

*“CONTENT CREATION AND DISTRIBUTION IN THE DIGITAL SINGLE MARKET”*

14-15th March 2016

Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)

Place du Congrés 1, Brussels

*CALL FOR ABSTRACTS*

Online content and carriage have always been interlocked. Yet today’s
electronic communications markets and policy are tested by the sheer
abundance of online content and its need for distribution through
multiple channels and regardless of frontiers. Access to a wide variety
of relevant content is key to democracy and the exercise of fundamental
rights, just as the freedom to express oneself and disseminate and
access content irrespective of means of communication is fundamental for
pluralism. Moreover, content creation, distribution and consumption are
increasingly occupying a crucial role for the success of online business
and European competitiveness on the internet. Besides authors and media
companies, internet users also increasingly generate content, which in
turn contributes to the richness of diverse information available to
European citizens, and beyond.

The more access to content becomes valuable, the greater the stakes in
securing a prominent role in the selection and distribution of content,
especially in the online environment. The presence of network
externalities and centripetal forces on the internet, coupled with a
relatively favourable regulatory environment in many legal systems that
grants a menu of safe harbours to online intermediaries, has led many
online intermediaries to occupy a remarkably large space in the internet
ecosystem. These new powerful players have come to disrupt and also
replace traditional publishers and content distributors as the real
intermediaries between content producers and consumers.

To EU policy makers such trends can be ambiguous either representing the
disruptive forces of competition or as indicators for new points of
control in the internet ecosystem. Some commentators and policy makers
argue that structural, aggressive policy measures are needed, from
network neutrality to platform regulation, and antitrust interventions
such as even breaking up large intermediaries to limit their ability to
capitalise on their vertical and conglomerate integration. Others argue
that the new online intermediaries represent a welcome disruptive
innovation that should be allowed and enabled, as they bring further
benefits to consumers, and as they introduce innovative business models
such as personalized services and predictive algorithms.

The European Commission recently acknowledged in its Digital Single
Market Strategy the growing importance of creating a fertile environment
for content creation and distribution. Priority has therefore been given
to content-related policy initiatives such as reforming copyright law,
evaluating the “fitness” of legislation on audio-visual media services,
and taking action against detrimental geo-blocking practices that limit
cross-border access to content. At the same time, concerns about the
role of intermediaries are being tackled through antitrust
investigations and sectoral inquiries (e.g. on e-commerce), and also
through an online public consultation to be launched in the fall of
2015. All these efforts are likely to usher in a new wave of policy
measures aimed at ensuring that the Digital Single Market is
increasingly a place in which content can be created, funded and flow
seamlessly across countries, in a way that stimulates the interests of
creators while giving access to diverse contents to end users.

*WE INVITE PAPERS ON THE FOLLOWING SUBJECTS:*

  * Old and new value chains for content creation: innovation, sector
    dynamics and changing technology of content delivery and
    distribution networks
  * Narrowing or extending the scope of the Audiovisual Media Services
    Directive: Are changes needed?
  * Co-regulation in content delivery and distribution: how effective is
    co-regulation in delivering and supporting regulatory objectives?
  * Media pluralism and media diversity in an age of abundance: beyond
    net neutrality?
  * Cross-cultural, cross-border and cross-countries consumption: do we
    need a Digital Single Market  for all content services?
  * The future of news production and distribution
  * The future of film support schemes and cultural heritage initiatives
  * Toward a demand driven content economics: EU policies pertaining to
    online intermediaries
  * Everything’s cloud: Effective policy and regulation for cloud
    service providers
  * Content delivery in the streaming era: policy challenges
  * How to tax digital content and services?
  * Copyright enforcement in the Digital Single Market
  * Copyright and copyleft: enabling the circulation of works while
    stimulating creation
  * Emerging patterns of consumption: multiscreens, multidevices, 
multiusers
  * The right measure of personalisation: consumers’ privacy, autonomy
    and choice
  * Empowering end-users in the age of personalised services and datanomics
  * Technology as an enabler or a barrier to participation (new digital
    divide)
  * Impact of digital technologies on the economics of content creation
  * Open Data and the economic, innovation-related, legal and regulatory
    challenges


In line with the EuroCPR philosophy, we welcome papers that reflect on
the business/policy and policy/legal dimensions of the topics listed
above as well as on their societal and economic implications. We welcome
papers that compare policy trends in Europe and other regions of the
world. Please note that also papers that are relevant to the overall
conference theme, but not directly related to the suggested themes and
topics, will be considered for participation in the conference. All
papers will be assessed by a panel of independent reviewers.

A selection of EuroCPR papers will be published in journals such as
Communications & Strategies; Telecommunications Policy; and Info, the
journal of policy, regulation and strategy for telecommunications,
information and media.

**

*PRACTICAL INFORMATION*
*Important dates*

Deadline for abstract submission: 31 October 2015

Notification of selected abstracts:  30 November 2015

Deadline for submitting final papers: 15 February 2016

*Abstracts*

Abstracts should be no longer than 1000 words and should address the
research question, outline the main results, theory, methods and data
(as appropriate) and highlight the policy relevance.

Euro-CPR is using the Easychair online submission system. To submit an
abstract to EuroCPR 2016 please go to the online submission page at
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=eurocpr2016.

All abstracts will be subject to a blind review procedure by the members
of the EuroCPR Scientific Committee. The members are listed at
http://www.eurocpr.org/scientific-committee.html.

*Registration*

Registration will open on the 1st of November 2016 at www.eurocpr.org
<http://www.eurocpr.org/>.

The conference registration fee is €300.

Students, including doctoral students, can access the conference at the
special price of €100.

*ABOUT EUROCPR*

EuroCPR is organised annually with the ambition to contribute
constructively and critically to European Information Society Policy
developments. The conference addresses the use of ICT throughout society
and economy as well as the evolution of the ICT and media sectors.
EuroCPR uniquely brings together academia, policy makers, and industry
representatives in order to facilitate systematic interaction and
critical analysis of both the highest academic excellence and the
maximum policy and industrial relevance. The conference takes place most
often in a single room, with sessions consisting of two presentations
with discussants, and a general debate. The format of the conference is
deliberately kept small - with a maximum of 80 participants - favouring
quality over quantity and encouraging a high level of interaction.
EuroCPR invites abstracts for theoretically and empirically grounded
papers that reflect critically the developments that are part of the
Digital Agenda and the Internal Digital Market and on factors
contributing to progress towards EU public policy goals so far.




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