The Law School/CMCMA/Public Policy Institute seminar on European and US approaches to intellectual property in the Kleinau Theatre Monday Sept. 19th 11am-1pm

WHY COPYRIGHT AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS MATTER TO COMMUNICATION RESEARCHERS.

Downloading music is the usual zone where students know these issues affect them. But many areas of media, and also of food, agriculture, medicines, computers and still other zones are also directly affected. What is legal for you to photocopy? When is it legal for you to copy a DVD? To download a software program your friend has bought? If your song is successful, how can you reclaim ownership from the firm you sold it to?

Take a recent case involving Disney - but there are plenty others involving other firms, in and out of media. Under pressure from the Disney Corporation, in 1998 Congress extended the term of protection by 20 years for works copyrighted after January 1, 1923. Works copyrighted by individuals since 1978 got "life plus 70" rather than the existing "life plus 50". Works made by or for corporations (referred to as "works made for hire") got 95 years. Works copyrighted before 1978 were shielded for 95 years, regardless of how they were produced. This kept the Mouse, not to mention Donald and Goofy, under Disney control for an extra 20 years. Because of Congress's tendency to accommodate the media industries, the concept and practice of the public's "fair use" has been eroding, and the length of time copyright lasts has been extended (as in the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act cited above).

Current copyright law and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are a major point at which concentrated economic and ideological power fuse together. Copyright law in theory strikes a balance between the author's interests and the need for a free flow of information. In reality, it currently reflects a huge tension between two irreconcilable poles. According to seasoned Communication analyst Pradip Thomas, copyright law has come to shift that balance more and more towards protecting the creators, than towards freedom for those who need to access and use copyrighted products.

Today we have to deal with copyright law and IPR in the digital environment. But there has never been a real balance between the drive for profit among mass media owners, and the needs of all citizens to freely access information and cultural products. Despite the claim that a free market of ideas would foster creativity and diversity, the tendency for media industries to get bigger and bigger, and to dominate content production and distribution, has been a constant throughout the last hundred years.

So the issues of creativity, of commercial exploitation of knowledge, and the commercialization of everyday life, are not new. But in the digital environment, IPR and Digital Rights Management (DRM) protocols have become so intrusive, so cumbersome, and finally, so inefficient, that a revision of copyright and its management in the digital arena have become major concerns.

Concerns over these developments need to be addressed by media researchers and legal scholars, activists and citizens. It is our hope that this Law/Communication conference on Monday 19th will provide an initial ground for conversations in these areas.

The program on Dictatorship, Media and Memory in Argentina and Chile.

Thursday 7.30-9.30pm, the documentary on Chile, in Kerasotes (near Barnes & Noble), film-maker will answer questions; followed Friday in the Student Center auditorium by a lecture [9.30-10.40am] on the postmemory of state terrorism in Argentina, an exhibit of recent artwork on the Chilean dictatorship by a Chilean Art & Design MFA graduate, and a documentary [11am-1pm] on the bloody 1976-83 Argentinean dictatorship and its continuing impact right up to today, and the film-maker will answer questions; and a repeat of the Chile documentary 2-4pm.