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ASIAN EDITION
A Conference on
Media Piracy and
Intellectual Property in South East Asia
Sponsored by the
Goethe Institut, Manila, and the UP Film
Institute
Date:
November 24, 2006, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, UP Film
Institute, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Metro
Manila, CMC Auditorium, Plaridel Hall
9:00 – 9:30
Welcome remarks
Anne De Guzman,
Director, UP Film Institute
Volker Avenmarg,
Director, Goethe Institute, Manila
9:30 –
10:15
Keynote
and Introduction
-
The United States of Piracy – Introduction and Keynote
Dr. Tilman
Baumgärtel, UP Film Institute
In this introduction
to the
conference, I will discuss piracy as one of the most prominent issues
of the “digital millennium”. In an age, where all
information that has been stored in digital form, can be transmitted
globally and reproduced indefinitely, the pirates are taking this
genuine property of digital data to its extreme. Global entertainment
piracy is a complex issue with important economic, political, cultural
and theoretical consequences. In my talk I will look at piracy as a
social, cultural and economic phenomenon. And I will discuss piracy in
relation to new concepts of addressing ownership of Intellectual
Property, such as Creative Commons and Open Source.
10:15 –
12:00
Piracy
and IP matters in the Philippines
-
A Clash of IP Cultures
Roberto Verzola,
programmer and political activist, Manila
The copying of
copyrighted or
patented material without permission is often described in moral terms
as an act of "stealing", "theft", "piracy", etc., implying that such
act violates the accepted norms of morality of a society. The author
argues that in many societies, those who copy without permission are
simply acting according to the accepted norms of their own culture. The
pressure, mostly from U.S. and Europe, on these societies to adopted
strict IPR rules therefore an imposition of one culture over another.
The author further suggests that cultures which considering copying a
moral act are still widespread in many countries, including the United
States. The nature of information, the author concludes, is in closer
harmony with these cultures than cultures that impose strict IPR
protection.
- Piracy and Collective
Creativity: Creative Commons Philippines
JJ Disini, UP Law
School
Digital issues on
the Internet
abound. Copyright owners fear that massive piracy on the Internet will
erode their business and spell the end for the entertainment
industry. On the other hand, there is an explosion of
creativity
on the Net from blogs to folksonomy to software production.
In
the face of these developments copyright law has had to compensate but
whether it will be successful remains to be seen. In the
meantime, the focus on stemming the tide of piracy has kept
policymakers from focusing on the Net's ability to solve some of
copyrights more pressing problems.
Open Forum
Repondent: Raul
Pertiera, Asian Center, UP Diliman/ Ateneo, Manila
12:00 –
1:00
Lunch Break
1:00 –
2:30
Piracy and
globalization
-
Free Culture!
Dr. Volker
Grassmuck, Humboldt Universität, Berlin
Economics
teaches that
information is a public good. This theoretical fact comes to full
bearing when information is set free from its physical carriers. The
digital revolution has put the means of distribution of information
goods into the reach of virtually everyone. Published digital
information is ubiquitous and abundant.
Looking at it from a
public goods
perspective, it is clear that in the digital age control and
restriction are not feasible, at least not at a reasonable price to
privacy and media-autonomy. The challenge then becomes to encourage
creativity and foster solutions to the million Peso question: how to
make money with free bits.
The talk will focus
on different
approaches to this challenge. From the primary model inspiring the free
culture movement that of free software, to the classical solution in
economics literature and statistic practice, taxes. It will look at the
rise of Nigerian
Nollywood, now the
third largest
film industry after Hollywood and Bollywood, without any IP law
enforcement, and at the grey economics of Baile Funk in Rio de Janeiro.
It will retell how in France file sharing nearly became legal in
exchange for a copyright flatrate
and how Swedish
Pirates on the high seas of the Internet are reclaiming the right to
share.
-
Piracy and Its Regulation: Filipino’s Historical
Response to Globalization
Dr. Rolando B.
Tolentino, National University Singapore/ University of the Philippines
Film Institute
Power Point of this presentation
The
Philippines’ entry to
globalization historically has always prefigured the pirates and its
activity, piracy, as inimical to legitimate claims of participation in
the world capitalism. This paper traces the historical
response
of Filipinos, specifically Muslims, in piracy. By being
designated as pirates, Moros were emplaced in orientalist racial
profiling of the “bad” colonial subject.
The
state’s creation of the image of the Moro-as-pirate remains
integral in the marginalization of this religious ethnic group or the
exacerbation of the “Moro/Mindanao” problem as
integral in
official nation-building. In more recent times, however, by pioneering
media piracy in key cities in the country, Filipino Muslims were also
excelling in their stereotypical role as their niche participation in
Philippine capitalism. The attempt to regulate piracy,
therefore,
is also the nation-state’s attempt to regulate Moro identity
and
to expound on Filipino Muslim citizenship. My contention is
that
media piracy is a creative and critical response of Filipino Muslims
that allow them to maneuver into the homogenizing cultural politics of
the Philippine nation-state and neoliberal globalization.
Respondent: Tilman
Baumgärtel
Open Forum
2:30 - 5:00
Piracy and the Arts
-
Piracy and digital arts
Cornelia Sollfrank,
artist, Hamburg
Collecting societies
as well as
commercial owners of intellectual property rights often argue with
artists being the victims of piracy. But it is time to rethink this
image. A growing number of artists themselves uses pre-existing digital
material to create new works, and the invention of new techniques of
reworking and artistic appropriation constantly produces new
aesthetics. And this puts artists in a different kind of trouble:
Instead of suffering from piracy, they suffer from the copyright
regime. Cornelia Sollfrank investigates the very diverse systems art
and law and produces work right at the often absurd - interface of
both: copyright law.
-
Intellectual Property/Media Piracy and It's Permutations in the Arts
Raymond Red,
film-maker, Manila
As an artist and
filmmaker, the
passion in creating is as intense as the need to protect our creation.
We value and respect intellectual property rights, and yet it has been
a long tradition in the arts itself to engage in a kind of "piracy" or
re-use of artistic elements that one either "borrows", "appropriates",
"revives", or even pay "homage" to. From traditional visual arts to
print advertising, from experimental filmmaking to music videos and
television commercials, purists and commercial artists practice the use
and re-use of previous creations, the act of which borders on
plagiarism, and yet defies the thin line that separates it as
“appropriation" or even creating an "homage" to the original
artists of the said borrowed creations. By presenting some examples of
motion pictures and graphic works, I would attempt to define the true
ideals behind such practices and to try to clarify the true intent of
artists which would set them apart from the true pirates and thieves.
-
This is not a found footage film by Khavn
Khavn de la Cruz,
film-maker, Manila
Khavn de la Cruz
will present a brief found footage film made especially for this
conference.
Respondent:
Fátima Lasay, artist, Manila
Open Forum