Dr Amy Thomas
- Lecturer in Intellectual Property and Information Law (Law)
Biography
Amy Thomas is a Lecturer in Intellectual Property and Information Law at the University of Glasgow School of Law / CREATe centre. Amy joined the University of Glasgow as a PhD student in 2017, thereafter working as a Research and Teaching Associate in 2019.
Amy completed her PhD in 2022, having defended her doctoral thesis entitled 'The Copyright User: A Socio-Legal Enquiry'. Her PhD thesis offers an alternative methodological approach to conceptualising the user through contract, using critical discourse analysis.
Amy has a background in law and social sciences, and works as the Managing Editor of the Copyright Evidence Wiki, which curates empirical evidence on how copyright works in society, and You Can Play, a digital resource which tracks content policies for video games. She also leads the Creators Earnings Hub, an ESRC-IAA funded initiative which gathers empirical evidence on the lived realities of primary creators, and in particular their earnings and contractual relationships with intermediaries.
Grants
- 2024: Directors UK commissioned report on earnings of directors and screenwriters
- 2024: British Equity Collecting Society commissioned report on earnings of audio visual performers
- 2024: Desgin and Artists Copyright Society commissioned report on earnings of visual artists
- 2023: Carnegie Trust Research Incentive Grant 'A case study of Robert Burns: presenting a distinct theoretical foundation for Scottish copyright law'
- 2023: ESRC IAA Follow on Fund 'The Creators' Earnings Hub'
- 2023: ALCS and NUJ commissioned report on earnings of freelance journalists
- 2023: Alliance of Independent Authors commissioned report on earnings of independent authors
- 2022: AHRC Policy and Evidence Centre commissioned policy briefing on authors' earnings in the UK
- 2022: ALCS commissioned report 'UK Authors' Earnings and Contracts: A Survey of 60,000 Writers'
- 2022: ESRC IAA Follow On Fund 'You Can Play'
- 2021: ESRC IAA User Engagement Fund ‘You Can Play: Developing User-Generated Content Policies for Video Game Creators'
- 2017: PhD Scholarship in legal aspects of data and digital innovation at School of Law, in collaboration with international law firm CMS and CREATe
Supervision
Weiwei Yi (2022 - present) How free is free-to-play?”: How to regulate the utilisation of player data in video games under the context of the EU’s new paradigm of data protection (e.g., GDPR, DSA, DA)
Teaching
Current teaching roles
- Course Convenor, Intellectual Property Law: Culture and Personality (UG) University of Glasgow
- Course Convenor, Copyright in the Digital Environment (LLM) University of Glasgow
- Course Convenor, Intellectual Property, Technology and Communities (LLM) University of Glasgow
- Lecturer, Digital Creative Industries (UG) University of Glasgow
Previous teaching roles
- Course Convenor, Intellectual Property Law (CCPR, Masters) University of Glasgow
- Course Convenor, CopyrightX:CREATe (affiliated course offered by Harvard Law School) University of Glasgow
- Lecutrer, Law for Engineers (intellectual property law) (Undergraduate) University of Glasgow
Amy has given guest lectures at the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities, the University of Strathclyde, the University of Stockholm, and Dublin Trinity College.
Additional information
Amy holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (with Distinction, 2023) and Associate Fellowship of Recognising Excellence in Teaching (2020), both from the University of Glasgow.
Amy is an active member of professional bodies for legal practitioners and scholars, including as a member of the Intellectual Property Law committee at the Law Society of Scotland and the Scottish Law and Innovation Network.
She is a peer reviewer for the International Journal of Cultural Policy, the Journal of World Intellectual Property, the Interactive Entertainment Law Review and the Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice. She is the honorary editor for the technology section of the Glasgow University Law Review.
Amy's work has also been presented at a number of national and international conferences, including as a keynote speaker for Icepops (the international copyright-literacy event) and the Creative Commons Summit (2020). Her empirical research has been presented at meetings of the All Party Writers Group at House of Commons, and covered in a number of trade and national presses and radios/podcasts.
