‘The major discrepancy between the legal position and the common practice in which millions of  copy prohibitions are violated every day shows that something is missing here: namely, an ethics of copying,’ says the head of the conference, the philosopher Professor Dr. Reinold Schmücker from the University of Münster. Such an ethics would have to be effective in two fields: it would have to work out standards that correctly balance the interests of all involved in the copying process, and it would have to contribute to ensuring that such standards are not only taken into account in the legal regulation of copying processes but also reflected in case law. 

At the conference, 35 researchers from nine different countries will be discussing identity, originality, plagiarism, and copyright law while considering how to define what should be understood as a copy and working out an ethics of copying. The conference will be held in English.