Dr Simone Schroff

Dr Simone Schroff is a researcher in copyright law at the University of Plymouth. She specialises in the qualitative, quantitative and comparative analysis of copyright law and policy. She currently works on the structural position of authors in the creative industries, the overlap between competition and copyright law and copyright education for creative professionals.

Dr Schroff completed a BA in History and Politics at Keele University and an MA in European Governance (with distinction) at the University of Exeter. She has since gained a PhD from the University of East Anglia, where she defended her thesis, ‘The Evolution of Copyright Policy 1880–2010: A Comparison between Germany, the UK, the US and the International Level’. Simone Schroff was awarded the Outstanding Publication by a Postgraduate Research Student Award from the University of East Anglia Law School for her article titled ‘The (Non) Convergence of Copyright Policy’.

She developed her work further at the RCUK Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the Creative Economy (CREATe; 2013–2015) on a project covering the regulation of collective management organisations within the EU. At the Institute for Information Law (University of Amsterdam; 2015–2017), Dr Schroff’s work focused on copyright and related rights in the digital context and a range of projects related to digitisation and cultural heritage. She then developed her work further by shifting her focus towards copyright-related business models as a Canon Foundation Fellow, working as a Guest Scholar at Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan; 2017–2018). Her research examined the selective enforcement of copyright – in particular, where copyright owners draw the line between infringing behaviour that can be tolerated and those actions that cannot. She was also interested in how this enforcement relates to business models in the content industries more broadly.

Since Dr Schroff arrived in Plymouth, she has researched copyright-related business models, the role of the author in the creative sectors and worked to ensure cultural heritage institutions have access to copyrighted works in line with the law.

Qualifications

BA Keele; MA Exeter; PhD University of East Anglia

Professional membership

Socio- Legal Studies Association

Teaching interests

I currently lead and/ or teach on the following modules:

• Intellectual Property Law
• Dissertation
• Work-based Action Research
• Methods of Legal Research (@ University of Amsterdam)
  
• Research Methods in Law (LLM Law)
• European Integration [teaching only]

I have previously led and/or taught:

• EU Intellectual Property Law
• Copyright X (in cooperation with Harvard University)
• Research Lab (interdisciplinary research design, methodology and methods)
• Work-based learning: Research Law Clinic
• EU Law [teaching only]
• English Legal System
• Introduction to Law (Law minors)
• Introduction to Contemporary Politics [teaching only]
• Political Theory [teaching only]

Research interests

Empirical methodologies and methods in law; copyright law and policy; copyright-related business models.

Grants & contracts

2019- 2020: Heritage Lottery Funding for Plymouth Powerful Women project (Co- I)

2017–2018: Visiting Researcher at Waseda University (Canon Foundation)

2015: Working Paper Development grant (RCUK Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the Creative Economy)

2014–2015: Academic Japanese Language Study at the Kansai Center (Japan Foundation)

Reports & invited lectures

Other academic activities

2019- 2022 Co- Director of the Culture and Knowledge Exchanges (CHEx) group (formerly known as #CHITCHAT)

2018- 2022 Member of the HUM Faculty Ethics Committee

2019- 2021 Member of the Research Committee