Art & Copyright Thursday, 14 September 2006, 17:00, Columbia Club
Freedom of Art, Limited
A considerable part of contemporary artistic practice, in all disciplines,
is based on the reworking and interpretation of preexisting material. This requires the "appropriation" of material which can be works of art just as well as objects and phenomena of everyday culture. Such approaches put artists in a legal grey-zone: on the one hand, with regard to the legal protection of their own, newly created works; and on the other, regarding the possible infringement of existing copyrights, trademarks, or personal rights.
Although many legal systems regulate artistic freedom, freedom of
expression, fair use, and other copyright exceptions, this legally guaranteed tolerance is currently threatened by the increasing preeminence and commercialization of intellectual property rights, and by the spread of technical means of protection (DRM) as well.
Unlike those with vested interests in intellectual property, proponents of artistic freedom have no lobby, so far. There is a plausible reason for this: artistic freedom is often at odds with material interests. Additionally, the notions of what a protected work is and what authorship means, as codified within copyright and droit dauteur, very often prove inflexible with regard to artistic practices of appropriation.
What are the limits of artistic freedom and what interests do they collide with? How do artists deal with these limitations in their daily work? How can contemporary artistic appropriation practices get the routine juridical approval and precedence they deserve?
Chair: Cornelia Sollfrank Cyberfeminist Concept Artist, Creator of automatic Net.art generators, Co-Founder of the Cyberfeminist International and Webmaster of artwarez.org, Hamburg
Gordon Duggan Artist and Co-Founder of Canadian based copyright advocacy group 'Appropriation Art: A Coalition of Art Professionals,' Denman Island, British Columbia, Canada
Christian von Borries is a trademark behind which hides a Producer/ Conductor/ Composer, i.e. an Originator registered with Gema, GVL and VG Wort, Berlin
Michael Iber Pianist, Electronic Musician and Computer Programmer, passionate supporter of the Linux audio world, Berlin & Coburg
Simon Yuill Artist and programmer, works with Free Open Source Software projects and is interested in various forms of autonomous social practices and non-institutional knowledge systems, Glasgow
Séverine Dusollier Doctor in Law, Professor at the University of Namur (Belgium), Head of the Department of Intellectual Property Rights at the Research Center for Computer and Law, the University of Namur & Project Lead Creative Commons Belgium, Namur