Aram Sinnreich

MediaCon Panel with Trevor Pinch & DJ Spooky (audio)

This weekend, I was fortunate to host a keynote discussion between media theorist (and Moog afficionado) Trevor Pinch and DJ/author Paul D. Miller, a/k/a DJ Spooky. It was part of an excellent conference called "Extending Play" organized by the doctoral students at Rutgers SC&I. 

Our panel was a lot of fun -- a freewheeling discussion that ranged from music and tech geekery to broad social theory. You can listen to the audio transcript here:

ExtendingPlay_Keynote_Sinnreich_Pinch_Miller

 

 

Aram talks Piracy Crusade at NYU (video)

Last month, I got a chance to give a talk based on my forthcoming book The Piracy Crusade at NYU, as part of the Computer Science department's Computers and Society lecture series. I always love talking to those folks, in large part because the guy who puts it together, Professor Evan Korth, is one of the coolest people I know. At a certain point, I just abandoned the presentation altogether and got into the nitty gritty. Fun ensued.

p.s. Big ups to Joly for recording and posting the video!

New Syllabus: Copyright, Culture & Commerce

This semester, I'll be teaching a class called "Copyright, Culture & Commerce" at Rutgers SC&I. I used to teach a very similar course at NYU (which I inherited from Siva Vaidhyanathan), but this is basically a complete reboot. I've built the syllabus from scratch, and made a real effort to balance some of my own opinions with conflicting ones, and to integrate debate into the classroom experience.

One of the biggest problems I've faced is that I know so much more about the subject than I did 5 years ago when I first taught the class, and have read so many more texts, that it's much harder to squeeze it all into one coherent undergraduate experience. 

I welcome your feedback -- especially over the next few days, before I have to finalize the syllabus and hand it out to my students.

Week 1: Introduction

Week 2: Why Do We Have Copyright?

• Readings:
  • Vaidhyanathan, Copyrights and Copywrongs, Ch. 1
  • Patterson, Copyright in Historical Perspective, Ch. 1 & 12
  • Also peruse: http://www.copyright.gov/history/
• Debate: Madison vs. Jefferson, U.S. Constitution
• EXTRA CREDIT: Attend Amy Goodman talk, 7pm at RSC Multipurpose Room

Week 3: Commons & Anticommons

• Readings:
  • Boyle, The Second Enclosure Movement: http://j.mp/VFVrtH
  • Heller, Gridlock Economy, Ch. 1
• Debate: New York Times Co. v. Tasini: http://j.mp/VfXvrb

Week 4: The Growth of Copyright

• Readings:
  • Lessig, Free Culture, Ch. 10: http://j.mp/UovJIa
  • Netanel, “Copyright and a Democratic Civil Society”, Section I: The Expansion of Copyright Holder Rights: http://j.mp/Y5TdXa
  • Hatch, Introduction of The Copyright Term Extension Act of 1997: http://j.mp/VfX9B2
  • Miller, Extending Copyrights Preserves US Culture: http://j.mp/VfX5Bb 
• Debate: Eldred v. Ashcroft: http://j.mp/Y5RxNp

Week 5 : Fair Use and the Public Domain

• Readings:
  • Aufderheide & Jazsi, Reclaiming Fair Use, Ch. 1-4
  • Lethem, The Ecstasy of Influence: A Plagiarism: http://j.mp/W9Kj5B
  • Article about Rupert Murdoch opposition to fair use: http://j.mp/W9IaXA
• Debate: Rogers v. Koons: http://j.mp/UkOtYQ

Week 6: IP & Corporate Power

• Readings:
  • Bollier, Brand Name Bullies, Ch. 8 & 11
  • McLeod, Freedom of Expression, Ch. 5: http://j.mp/UoKxX1
  • Steiglehner, 10 Questions for Evaluating a Company’s IP Portfolio: http://j.mp/W9Lxh4
• Debate: Toywar: http://j.mp/11BOoFQ

Week 7: Copyright & Globalization

• Readings:
  • Brown, Can Culture be Copyrighted?: http://j.mp/Upmzef
  • Drahos & Braithwaite, Information Feudalism, Ch. 5: http://j.mp/UpnJqa
  • Interview with Francis Gurry, WIPO Director: http://j.mp/VIzDgY
• Debate: ACTA: http://j.mp/X8Eu6Y

Week 8: Piracy & Punishment

• Readings:
  • Sinnreich, The Piracy Crusade, Ch. 4-5
  • Johns, Piracy: The Intellectual Property Wars, Ch. 15
  • Drahos & Braithwaite, Information Feudalism, Ch. 2: http://j.mp/UpnJqa
• Debate: MGM v. Grokster: http://j.mp/VKL1ZK
• Guest Lecture: Ray Beckerman, Recording Industry vs. The People
• Midterm Assigned

Week 9: DRM & DMCA

• Readings:
  • Copyright Office DMCA summary: http://j.mp/X7zAHq
  • EFF, Unintended Consequences: Twelve Years under the DMCA: http://j.mp/X7Aqnm
  • Doctorow, Content, Ch. 2-3: http://j.mp/X7zeAq
• Debate: Felten v. RIAA

Week 10: Copyright, Convergence & Configurability

• Readings:
  • Sinnreich, Mashed Up, excerpted on Truthdig.com: http://j.mp/W9T5QX
  • Jenkins, Convergence Culture, Ch. 5
  • Latonero & Sinnreich, The Hidden Demography of New Media Ethics
• Debate: Newton v. Diamond: http://j.mp/X8NEQW & Bridgeport v. Dimension http://j.mp/VKNIuD

Week 11: Open Source, Free Software & Copyfight

• Readings:
  • Stallman, GNU Manifesto: http://j.mp/VKktrO
  • Barlow, Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace: http://bit.ly/axHR1T
  • Lessig, Free Culture, “US, NOW” pp. 276-286: http://j.mp/UovJIa
  • Coleman, Coding Freedom, pp. 185-205: http://j.mp/X7KigV 
• Debate: tk 

Week 12: In Defense of Copyright

• Readings:
  • Levine, Free Ride. Ch. 3
  • Sherman, What Wikipedia Won’t Tell You: http://nyti.ms/y59NF7
  • Day, In Defense of Copyright: http://j.mp/UQG11Q
• Debate: tk
• Guest lecture (via Skype): Robert Levine 

Week 13: Can Copyright be Fixed?

• Readings:
  • Lessig, Free Culture, “THEM, SOON” pp. 287-306: http://j.mp/UovJIa
  • van Schijndel & Smiers, Imagining a World Without Copyright: http://j.mp/X8bhsW
  • Patry, How to Fix Copyright, Ch. 2
  • Public Knowledge, The Internet Blueprint: http://j.mp/Wi6Pcn
  • Debate: OPEN Act: http://j.mp/VKlMqL
• Final project assigned

Week 14: Is Democracy Piracy?

• Readings:
  • Sinnreich, The Piracy Crusade, Ch. 8-9
  • Hyde, Common As Air, Ch. 9
  • Ray Kurzweil interview: http://j.mp/X8zaAD
• Debate: Association for Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics: http://j.mp/VKHVoM

INET NY Copyright Panel (video)

Two weeks ago, I sat on a panel at INET New York about the "six strikes" Copyright Alert System, the bargain struck between Hollywood and America's major broadband ISPs to identify people suspected of illegally infringing copyrighted content and slowly cut off their bandwidth.

The event was very informative. For the first hour, corporate stakeholders (e.g. RIAA, MPAA, Verizon, Comcast) discussed the specifics of their plan. For the second hour, a bunch of us critics and consumer advocates (e.g. Gigi Sohn, Jeff Jarvis) responded to the plan, raising several questions and concerns.

Then there was a final mega-panel in which both groups got to address each other directly. I don't think any of us had our minds changed 180 degrees, but I'm pretty sure we all gained some deeper insight into what's at stake here. The full video of the event is below. Surprisingly riveting for a wonkfest.

 

p.s. As of today, the CAS launch has been postponed till next year (ostensibly due to Hurricane Sandy)

Aram interviewed at iMinds in Belgium (video)

Last week, I went to Ghent, Belgium, to speak at the iMinds conference about creativity and copyright in the digital age. Here's a quick video interview I recorded there:

And here's a copy of the presentation I gave:

Moscow Panel: "Culture: Create or Copy" [video]

Last month, I returned to Moscow to speak at Google's Big Tent Event. My panel, which was entitled "Culture: Create or Copy," was focused on the question of whether configurable cultural practices like memes, mashups and remixes are legitimate and socially valuable, and therefore whether communications and cultural policy should provide a degree of support for them. Obviously, I was there to bang the "yes" drum. This was not an idle "academic" topic; the panel's moderator was Ekatrina Chukovskaya, Deputy Minister of Culture for the Russian Federation.

Here's the video of the panel:

My new book project: PiracyCrusade.com

My new book project, loosely based on my LimeWire expert testimony, is called "The Piracy Crusade." Although it will be published as a paper book next year by University of Massachusetts Press, I'm also publishing draft chapters as I write them on an open, Creative Commons-licensed, comments-enabled platform hosted by the MediaCommons project.

This kind of prepublication is increasingly being used as "peer-to-peer review," a crowdsourced alternative to the traditional academic "peer review" process, in which 2-3 anonymous readers with unclear motives and levels of interest weigh in on your work after 6-12 months of waiting. Obviously, when you're covering something fast-moving like law, technology, culture, or all three, that kind of a waiting process can be deadly.

If you have any interest, experience, or opinions regarding music, intellectual property law, new technologies, or the digital media industry, I encourage you to take a look, and leave a comment. All constructive commenters will get a shout-out in the final version of the book's Acknowledgments section.

The first two chapters are already up, and Chapter 3 is in process. Check it out on PiracyCrusade.com!

p.s. I'm also looking for some cover art -- if you're interested in creating something (I can't pay you, but I'll give you a credit on the cover), let me know.

Breaded Newt

Someone needed to do this, and for once, I seem to have beaten the internet to the punch...

Aram's Keynote on Remix Ethics at DMY Berlin [video + slides]

A few days ago, I gave a keynote speech at DMY Berlin's Copy/Culture Symposium. The subject was the ethics of configurable culture, and the ways in which our cultural norms and expectations are increasingly more complex than -- and in conflict with -- our intellectual property laws.

Although the presentation drew on themes I've discussed in previously published work and presentations, it featured brand new qualitative and quantitative data from a survey I recently fielded with Mark Latonero and Marissa Gluck. My audience was largely design professionals, so I tried to keep the academic jargon to a minimum.

Here's a link to the video:

(Unfortunately, the engineer screwed up and for a few minutes, this video relies on the room microphone instead of my direct mic).

If you'd like to follow along at home, here's a link to my PowerPoint presentation:

Aram to Russian Gov: Ease Up On the Capitalism, OK? [audio + slides]

A few weeks ago, I had the honor and pleasure to give a talk in Moscow for the Russian Government, who are in the process of assessing their Intellectual Property policy, as well as Google, who co-organized the event.

While most of the other speakers (record and movie execs, WIPO officials, IP attorneys, think tankers, etc) focused on specific IP policy items, I chose instead to focus on creative communities themselves, in whose name intellectual property law is enacted and enforced. Specifically, I focused on six creative communities (three traditional, three emerging) that have thrived in the absence of copyright control or enforcement, both in terms of cultural innovation and economic benefit. (For more in-depth analysis, see the book chapter about music and fashion I co-authored with Marissa Gluck a few years back).

The specific creative communities I discussed included quilting, food, fashion, mashups, doujinshi, fansubbing, and Filipino cover bands.

The talk went over well, but whether I swayed the Russians away from potential copyright maximalism remains to be seen. Below are audio from my talk, as well as my PowerPoint slides.

You can listen to the audio here: http://bit.ly/sinnrussia2011

And here are the slides: http://slidesha.re/jKSMJM

UPDATE:

A few weeks after my talk, President Medvedev addressed the G8 summit, and expressed his doubts about the strategic value of copyright maximalism. In his words:

"The declaration reflects an absolutely conservative position that intellectual property rights should be protected according to the existing conventions. No one questions that, but I have repeatedly stated that, unfortunately, those conventions were written 50 or almost 100 years ago, and they are unable to regulate the whole complex of relations between the copyright owner and users. . . Unfortunately, this was not included in the declaration because, in my opinion, my colleagues have a more conservative opinion than is necessary at the moment. Or maybe they just don't use the Internet and have little understanding of it."

I'm sure I can't take full credit for this, but I'd like to think I played a small role.