Stingy's Spain Part 3: Copyfight

You may have heard about the Copyfight conference last July in Barcelona. Many distinguished speakers – including Cory Doctorow, Lawrence Lessig and Jimmy Wales – presented analyses on the effect of dysfunctional copyright law on culture and society.

Tomorrow and Friday, Copyfight will be continuing this theme with discussions on literature, software, music and culture. Also on display will be Crime Scene (pictured below), an art piece consisting of two computers that are programmed to share copyrighted files via P2P in a closed system. The observer must ask himself if a crime has been committed. Holland says yes - the piece has been declared illegal (link in English). The next Copyfight event will be a symposium on Illegal Art this February 1, 2, and 3.

Through March5, the CASM Centre d'Art at Santa Monica will house Copyfight’s Punto de Consulta (consultation point). The consultation point displays a cornicopia of copyright-free art and information including a documentation stand with details on how to use legal licenses such as Creative Commons and Art Livre for more flexible author rights.

Whether or not you'll be in Barcelona, the Copyfight online library is a valuable resource for everyone. It contains a great selection of academic texts, open software, videogames, and audiovisual materials. The majority of these materials are in English.

If you are looking for more scholarly information on the movement to reform intellectual property, check out this Rollyo, which searches through several massive archives of writings and discussions (click on list of sites at the bottom of the screen to explore them one by one). Also check out the Copyright Journal, a new web publication devoted exclusively to this topic.