Entries Tagged 'copyfight' ↓

“Adventures in Illegal Art: Creative Media Resistance and Negativland” with Mark Hosler a founding member of Negativland, at the Knoxville Museum of Art, Wednesday November 12, 5pm.

Presented by Students for the Study of Law & Culture at the University of Tennessee in collaboration with COPYSHOP. Free and open to the public.

Pioneers of “culture jamming” (a term they coined way back in 1984), the group Negativland have lead and defined movements against traditional copyright for decades. They became a critical, high profile example in the copyfight movement when U2 (the group with Bono) sued the band to prevent a Negativland release titled U2.

In 2003, members of Negativland were asked by Lawrence Lessig to help write a new kind of copyright license for Creative Commons. This collaboration resulted in the “Sampling License” - a license that allows people to create collage art and “mash-ups” (as well as other art forms based on re-used materials) from licensed works.

COPYSHOP has invited Mark to help us celebrate the end of COPYSHOP in Knoxville. Please join us for his talk at the Knoxville Museum of Art at 5pm!

In conjunction with Students for the Study of Law and Culture, at the University of Tennessee, we are excited to present Sonic Outlaws by Craig Baldwin! It will be shown at the College of Law, Nov 6, room 135 at 5:15pm.

Open to everyone! Five lucky visitors will receive copies of the Sonic Outlaws DVD from Craig. Visit early to get a spot.

The University of Tennessee, College of Law - with Students for the Study of Law and Culture - will host a talk with AGoK and Superflex on November 3 - at 6pm (room 132).

This talk will give us a chance to talk about Copyshop, consider the work of Superflex and AGoK, and make plans for the future. Please come see us!

Earlier today, SB3974 (the “copyright” Bill) was passed unanimously. Remarkably, the Bill was amended to reflect the concerns of all those who had called, mailed, and gathered in protest. As a result, the Bill will no longer:

(1)  Prohibit the non-infringing use of copyrighted material

(2)  Restrict an educational institution’s use of copyrighted material under the provisions of 17 U.S.C. § 107

Read the Amendment

Congratulations to all those who helped make this change!

SB3974 is a Bill written by the RIAA, and sponsored by Knoxville Sen. Tim Burchett, that forces any institution of “higher learning” to monitor all public university students and (according to the RIAA) expel any who access copyrighted content.

Copyshop has been organizing a protest against this Bill over the past weeks. Before the current amendment, the language of the Bill was so vague that it would have forced Universities to stop the transfer of almost all content over the School network. The current Amendment corrects many of these errors - although it continues to demand a system that will police and criminalize students.

Listen to the Audio Podcast by Jett Loe, Letter to America “Chapter 80 - Shafted/3974 - RIAA Special Edition” on our work in Nashville against Bill SB3974. Chris is heard from as he continues alone in front of the Legislative Plaza, and Senator Tim Burchett and RIAA lobbyist Wendell Moore contribute their thoughts.

Letter to America - Chapter 80 - Shafted/3974 - RIAA Special Edition

Digg: Senator says he let RIAA write Bill banning net at schools!

The RIAA bill forces TN Universities to spend millions to stop kids using internet. In podcast interview RIAA lobbyist says universities should expel students for downloading. Senator sponsoring Bill admits he doesn’t know computers, didn’t write it, let the RIAA write it for him! This bill is being voted on this week - let’s stop this bill!

“In recent years copyright has moved away from being an esoteric and technical legal subject to one that affects musicians, designers, artists, students, authors, ordinary consumers, and more generally any one involved in any way in cultural production. Copyright stories assault us everyday in our newspapers, our emails and in the next few years, will play a very important role in determining the way we think of creativity; either in terms of exlusive property or in terms of collaboration. It is an issue in which content creators have a vital stake and certainly too important an issue to leave to the lawyers alone.

This booklet serves as an introduction to the world of ‘open content licensing’, a paradigm that is rapidly emerging as an important alternative to the existing model of copyright.” - Lawrence Liang, Introduction ”Guide to Open Content Licenses”

Download Now

Action on SB3974/HB3915 has been delayed until March 12 … March 19th!

Calendar updates can be seen here. 

Get together with us this Friday and Saturday for some discussions, videos from Oil21  on issues of File-Sharing and Rights Management, good food and FREE BEER 3.3!

Just in the past few days we found out about this Bill they are trying to pass in the TN State Senate.  SB3974, sponsored by Sen. Tim Burchett, forces any institution of “higher learning” to monitor all public university students and expel any who access copyrighted content.  Since nearly everyone will access some kind of “copyrighted” content online - they will be forced to expel thousands of students from any public university!

Completely last minute - we organized a protest.  Helped along by Boing Boing and all our COPYSHOP friends - we got to Nashville early this morning, made some noise - and caused them to delay the hearing for another week! Our big chance to help is next Wed (March 5). We have a chance to stop this!

Here’s the plan:

[1] Meet up with us next Wednesday (March 5th) to go to Nashville and protest! (5:00 AM - March 5th) we will have a bus - we will leave at 5AM in Knoxville (meet at COPYSHOP).

Gather at 8AM (if you can get there by yourself)
on the corner of 6th and Union St in Nashville!

[2] NOW Email the Senators:
sen.tim.burchett@legislature.state.tn.us
sen.jamie.woodson@legislature.state.tn.us
sen.rusty.crowe@legislature.state.tn.us

Subject: Objection to Bill SB3974 (no copyright law!)

Body: Senator,

I am concerned about an upcoming Bill: SB3974/HB3915

I understand that this Bill is up for your consideration, and that it “requires institutions of higher education to develop a policy prohibiting copyright infringement by persons using the school’s computer and network resources and take certain steps to prevent such infringement. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 7″

It is remarkable that a proposal such as this one would move forward. The proposal degrades our institutions and prevents the greatest purpose of higher learning: the honest and unregulated exchange of knowledge. To demand that any College or University police the exchange of information among its students is shameful.

I understand that this Bill may be directed at the exchange of pirated “entertainment” (movies, music, etc.) but it has much broader implications. By enacting a Law such as this one you enforce a strange, abusive system and limit the possibilities for new advances in learning.

The RIAA would like to blame “file sharing” for its financial problems, but studies have shown that “file sharing” has little effect on record sales.  In fact, some academic studies suggest that “file sharing” has boosted record sales (http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/04.15/09-filesharing.html).

I strongly encourage you to reconsider this Bill.  It is not one that works in our interest.

Sincerely,
———

When we were at the hearing today we got video of Sen. Tim Burchett presenting the Bill. In this clip Sen. Tim Burchett jokes about the MPAA lobby, saying they have promised to cast Matthew Mcconaughey in a biopic about his life.  Facts said here about record sales loss are completely false - see: http://www.hno.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/04.15/09-filesharing.html

To see the Bill go to: http://www.legislature.state.tn.us/bills/currentga/BILL/SB3974.pdf

Thank you Gavin Baker and Janet Hawtin for bringing this issue to our attention!