INFORMING LAW AND POLICY
Karapapa's work has been cited in law-reform documents of the UK Intellectual Property Office, AG Opinions and official reports of the European Commission and the US Copyright Office. She offers expert opinion to the UK Intellectual Property Office and the European Commission on issues related to copyright law reform since 2012.
COPYRIGHT AND MASS DIGITIZATION
Karapapa's work on copyright and mass digitization (Copyright and Mass Digitization, OUP, 2013, with M. Borghi) has informed policy at the national, EU and international level. Her monograph is cited in official reports of the European Commission, such as European Commission, Standardisation in the area of innovation and technological development, notably in the field of Text and Data Mining: Report from the Expert Group, European Union, 2014; De Wolf and Partners, Study on the legal framework of text and data mining (TDM),European Union, March 2014; De Wolf and Partners, Study on the Application of Directive 2001/29/EC on Copyright and Related Rights in the Information Society, European Union, 2013. The monograph is also extensively cited in the US Copyright Office Report of June 2015, entitled Orphan Works and Mass Digitization: a report of the register of copyrights (pp. 35, 73, 74). It is also cited in the 2015 Statement of the United States Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright Office before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States House of Representatives, The Register’s Perspective on Copyright Review (p. 17)
PRIVATE COPYING
Karapapa's research on the private copying exception in copyright law is cited in the Opinion of Advocate General Szpunar in: European Court of Justice, Case C-470/14 (19 January 2016). It is also cited in legislation preparatory documents at the domestic and EU level, and in reports and studies of the EU Commission. In particular, it informs the preparatory documents that lead to the 2014 copyright reform in the UK, including: UK Intellectual Property Office’s Final Impact Assessment on the Copyright Exception on Private Copying (December 2012, p. 17); HM Government, Modernising Copyright: A modern, robust and flexible framework (December 2012, p. 22). It is also extensively cited on EU Commission studies such as: Charles River Associates, Assessing the economic impacts of adapting certain limitations and exceptions to copyright and related rights in the EU: Analysis of specific policy options, prepared for DG MARKT and European Commission (p. 82)
REVIEW OF 2014 UK COPYRIGHT REFORM
In 2019, the UK Intellectual Property Office invited Karapapa to meet and contribute to a discussion on the post implementation review of the 2014 copyright framework changes. As part of this review, which resulted in a Call for Evidence, Karapapa led the submission of the University of Reading to the UK Intellectual Property Office, bringing together various units of the University (Copyright Office, Library, Archives) with a view to draft a report with qualitative and quantitative evidence on the impact of the 2014 reform on the University and the HE sector. She submitted the report to the UKIPO on 10 April 2019.
COPYRIGHT EXHAUSTION
Karapapa's work on the copyright exhaustion principle (published in: Karapapa, S. (2014) Reconstructing copyright exhaustion in the online world, Intellectual Property Quarterly, 2014(4), pp. 304-322) was cited in the Opinion of Advocate General Szpunar in Case C‑263/18, Nederlands Uitgeversverbond, Groep Algemene Uitgevers v Tom Kabinet Internet BV, Tom Kabinet Holding BV, Tom Kabinet Uitgeverij BV, ECLI:EU:C:2019:697, [62].
CANADIAN PRIVACY LAW REFORM
Karapapa's work on search engine liability (‘Search engine liability for autocomplete suggestions: personality, privacy and the power of the algorithm’, International Journal of Law and Information Technology (IJLIT) 23 (3), 2015, pp. 261-289, with M. Borghi) informed the discussion paper of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada:
EU COPYRIGHT REFORM
On February 2014, Karapapa led the response of the University of Reading to the Public Consultation on the review of the EU copyright rules, for the European Commission.
"2039" WORKS
On December 2014, Karapapa led the response of the University of Reading to the UK Intellectual Property Office's (UKIPO) consultation on reducing the duration of copyright in unpublished (“2039”) works in accordance with section 170(2) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. She worked with the Copyright Officer of the University, the MERL Archivist and the University Library in order to produce an evidence-based report that was submitted to the Intellectual Property Office.
TEXT AND DATA MINING
Karapapa drafted the report on the regulation of text and data mining in the UK as part of the FutureTDM project, funded by the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, led by the Institute for Information Law, University of Amsterdam (IViR) (2016).
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW AND BREXIT
On August 2018, Karapapa met with UKIPO officials to contribute to a discussion on the proposed changes on a statutory instrument addressing cross-border mechanisms and arrangements in the context of intellectual property law in the light of Brexit. This followed earlier meetings in 2016 to discuss the outcome of the recent referendum on the UK's membership of the EU, and its potential implications for copyright issues affecting the university and education sector; and the policy approach towards the exhaustion principle after Brexit.
BREXIT AND RETAINED EU CASE LAW
Together with colleagues from the University of Essex, Karapapa contributed to the UK Ministry of Justice's departure from retained EU case law by UK courts and tribunals (July 2020). The position paper opposes the view that the power to depart from retained EU case law should be extended beyond the UK Supreme Court, the High Court of Justiciary, and the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and its closest equivalents in other UK jurisdictions.
UK COPYRIGHT REFORM
Karapapa consulted the government in numerous occasions during the discussions on copyright reform in 2014.
In July 2013, she submitted written comments on the draft legislation on private copying to the UK Intellectual Property Office. Some of her views have approvingly been reflected in the final piece of legislation (section 28B of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act), in particular her position on how to limit the scope of the exception to ensure that harm remains minimal. In August 2013, Karapapa submitted written comments to the UK Intellectual Property Office concerning the draft legislation on data analytics for non-commercial research. Before making these submissions, Karapapa co-authored with M. Borghi Brunel University's response to the Consultation on Copyright issued by the Intellectual Property Office on orphan works, private copying and text mining. Her views on private copying, which are also expressed in her 2012 monograph, have informed legislation preparatory documents in the UK. See UK Intellectual Property Office’s Final Impact Assessment on the Copyright Exception on Private Copying (December 2012, p. 17); HM Government, Modernising Copyright: A modern, robust and flexible framework (December 2012, p. 22).
PRIVATE COPYING LEVIES
A normative claim Karapapa make in my research on the private copying exception urges for the introduction of harmonized criteria in determining what amounts to harm as a condition for imposing an obligation to pay fair compensation for acts of private copying. Unless this is the case, discrepancies affecting the prices of products and eventually trade within the European Union will remain. Karapapa developed this claim into two of her published outputs, a report she submitted in response to a consultation issued by the EU High Mediator (Mr Antonio Vitorino) and a talk delivered at the Centre for European Policy Studies in 2012 before MPs of the EU Parliament, domestic and EU law makers. On that occasion, EU officials invited Karapapa to submit further evidence for the policy study of the High Level Mediator, which I did.My normative position on the concept of harm features in the ‘Vitorino’ report (António Vitorino, Recommendations resulting from the Mediation on Private Copying and Reprography Levies,Brussels)and I am the only academic whose work is cited. This position was also endorsed by the European Parliament and is reflected in their 2015 report, echoing my normative position that is reflected approvingly in the Vitorino report (European Parliament, Committee on Legal Affairs, Draft Report on the Implementation of Directive 2001/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 May 2001 on the harmonization of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the Information Society, 15 January 2015, 2014/2256(INI).
EXTERNAL ENGAGEMENT AND IMPACT
Karapapa has experience of engaging with:
National governments and international institutions
Lawyers and in-house working in business
Innovative legal service providers and organisations working in the law tech world
Interdisciplinary research teams and consortia
Media and press
Those engagements have concentrated on intellectual property law, with a focus on copyright, and information law.
