João is Assistant Professor at IViR. Starting with a focus on copyright law, João’s research agenda has developed along three research strands. First, he studies how intellectual property (IP) law applies to new technologies, from peer-to-peer networks, to streaming, hyperlinking, blockchain, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Second, he examines the implications of copyright law and its (algorithmic) enforcement on Internet users’ rights and freedoms, on creators’ remuneration, and on technological development. Third, he assesses the role and responsibilities of large-scale platforms, especially in the context of algorithmic content moderation of user-uploaded illegal/harmful content.
João’s past legal and interdisciplinary projects include: “Copyright in the Age of Online Access: Alternatives to Copyright Enforcement” (NWO Top-Project 407-11-050); the “Global Online Piracy” study; and “Reconstructing Rights: Rethinking copyright’s economic rights in a time of highly dynamic technological and economic change”. Recent and current projects include: work on the ERC-funded Blockchain&Society Research Lab; leading a Work Package on content moderation on hosting platforms and its impact on access to culture for the Horizon 2020 project ‘reCreating Europe’; interdisciplinary projects for the European Commission tackling the challenges of AI to the IP rights framework and collective rights management in Europe; and interdisciplinary research in the project ‘Governing AI-driven Virtual Assistants’, funded by the Research Priority Area Human(e) AI at the UvA.
João is also Co-Managing Editor of the widely read Kluwer Copyright Blog, member of the European Copyright Society, member of the Information, Communication & the Data Society (ICDS) initiative at the UvA, and the Netherlands Network of Human Rights Research (Working Group Human Rights in the Digital Age). João has published extensively in the area of information law. His publications can be found in the list below or on SSRN. In November 2020 he was awarded the prestigious NWO VENI Grant (SSH) for the project “Responsible Algorithms: How to Safeguard Freedom of Expression Online”; this project will officially start in 2021.