Wizard of OS4

‘Information Freedom Rules’ in Berlin

Gordon Duggan was invited to speak on the Appropriation Art Coalition at the fourth annual ‘Wizards of WOS4′ (http://www.wizards-of-os.org/)conference -Information Freedom Rules’ in Berlin, September 12-15
The international conference focussed on ‘Free Culture’ issues. The conference attracted 1000 participants, 90 of whom were invited speakers. Press coverage in Europe and the U.S. was extensive with 200 press attending the event. The ‘google footprint’ for the site reached 1.36 million hits.
Duggan participated in a closed workshop entitled “Art and Copyright” and a panel discussion “Freedom of Art , Limited”

The workshop “Art and copyright” was summerized by Nicholas Malevé as follows:

Yesterday, an international group of artists, programmers and
theoreticians met for a concentrated exchange of experiences within a
workshop situation. The program of the day included a general discussion
about terminology (esp. in regard to openness and freedom as derived
from open source and free software and applied to arts and culture); it
addressed questions of authorship (collaboration and distibutive
practices as challenges for the art world); it discussed the role of
free tools as better instruments for artistic creations and as mediators
between the public and an esthetic experience; it tried to understand
how the practices and the licenses mutually influenced one another, and
finally demonstrated a new model of open publishing (print on demand) as
well as an exploration of free tools in design and publishing

Duggan also participated in a panel, presenting the history and strategies of the coalition, as well as the key issues and concerns addressed to the Canadian Government. The panel “Freedom of Art, Limited” description by Cornelia Sollfrank follows:

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 d’auteur, 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?