PRESENTATION

PRESENTATION

Every day, millions of digital files circulate through decentralised networks. Thousands of people cooperate freely, defying the narrow logic of cultural controllers by using digital technology to compress, distribute, and reproduce data at negligible costs. Likewise, the mass media generates large amounts of discussion and confusing or simply stereotyped images associated to buzz concepts like piracy, intellectual property, hackers, royalties, etc... There can be no doubt that we are facing a major social litigation whose significance lies in the fact that it concerns concepts as important as the circulation of ideas, the different types of copyright, and the free access to public assets and creative sources.

Back in 2003, at the squatted social centre Laboratorio 03 in Madrid, we began to bring all these questions to the fore at a key moment in the public debate, with experiences and projects, whilst advocating the right to access to culture and, equally important, participation in its construction. Thanks to the Nomadic University, we came into contact with collaborators from Creative Commons (CC)¹ (responsible for the migration to free software in Brazil), the Wu Ming literary collective (a group of writers who make their work available for copying), experts on biopiracy, university researchers who post their findings on the Internet, and many of you.

In March, as the Enduring Freedom operation buried Iraqis under its missiles, we became aware that the management organisations, big producers, and cultural proprietors, and the media, had started preparing their arsenal: they intended to impose a royalty fee on CDs and DVDs and were threatening to do the same with hard disks. They created alarm about the feared hackers and their experiments with wi-fi networks and freeware, whilst criminalising file sharing through P2P systems, and exerting pressure to push for directives to establish the patentability of software and impose a royalty fee on public libraries for doing what they do best: offering the free dissemination of culture.

We are well aware of the power and ferocity with which these organisations try to restrain knowledge and the distribution of the common wealth that lies within the culture which we share and modify on a daily basis. Few could fail to notice that their gigantism increasingly stands on feet of clay and that is precisely for that reason that they use aggressive tactics which are radically indifferent to the fatally historic impact they can have on our culture. Neither should we underestimate the increasing power of the worldwide trend that champions free culture and free public access to creative wealth: more than 8 million works have now been licensed by CC; an increasing number of centres and public administrations from across the world (including Andalusia) advocate the use of free software; film directors like Michael Moore and the creators of Hay motivo publicise the fact that they are using P2P networks to disseminate their works; publishing companies like Traficantes de Sueños, Acuarela, and Atrapasueños demonstrate that posting their books on the Net benefits both internet users and their printed published material; and today we can celebrate Brussels' rejection of the Directive on software patentability.

Evidently these positive results, which are of considerable significance, are the result of a lengthy process of discussion and collective effort generated by the daily work carried out in cultural production and association via the virtual or local networks in which we are involved, and in specific conferences (held initially in Madrid, then a year later in Barcelona and a brief presentation in Malaga, and last year in Donosti). These initiatives have provided us with an element which will be essential to any ambitious initiative: the continuity of a process that encourages mutual knowledge, the exchange of information, experience, interests and projects. It is a process that prompts discussion and the formulation of new battles (the so called P2P-fightsharing²) whilst giving us the opportunity to map the paths that we have taken so far and will continue to take in the future.

In the past few years, this journey has given us the opportunity of finding like-minded fellow travellers in institutions, cultural organisations and other entities related to social and artistic fields, such as UNIA arteypensamiento. Thus, this period has been marked by a generous symbiosis between our respective paths and origins (areas that may appear entirely different at first glance - hackers, the literary, the legal, the academic, the artistic, and the scientific worlds) which has led to many cooperation initiatives. We regard these initiatives as mutually enriching and, above all, see them as instigators of debate and culture related conflicts which we cannot ignore in our day to day activities.

In this respect, Lawrence Lessig, the founder of CC, and one of the most learned experts on the issue of the copyright on the Internet, expressed himself in forthright terms in the first edition of Barcelona's Copyfight. According to him, culture has become a battlefield in which the moguls of the entertainment industry and the media are waging an unprecedented war against new technology, creativity, and the public in general. He sees this war as being resolved in as little as five years. After that, we will either have taken a historic step back towards fossilisation and the commercial domination of culture or we will have laid the foundations for creation and open knowledge in this new era. As the Group organising the discussions in Malaga we believe that, quoting John Perry Barlow, the moment has come to act as "good forebears" and not shrink from this decisive battle to liberate culture. This is the essential purpose of this new edition of critical discussions on intellectual property which are to be held in Malaga.

"Creativity is best defended by its sharing"

____________
1.- Creative Commons: Es una organización sin ánimo de lucro que ofrece un sistema flexible de derechos de autor para el trabajo creativo. http://es.creativecommons.org/
2.- P2P-fightsharing: Juego de palabras con el rebus P2P ("entre pares")
y el filesharing (la compartición en red de archivos digitales) para designar la creciente tendencia entre los movimientos sociales a tejer redes de intercambio de conocimiento y experiencias de lucha.

PROGRAMME

PROGRAMME

Thursday 9 March 2006 

· 18:00 h.
+ Presentation of the discussions, Florencio Cabello and Eduardo Serrano
+ New intellectual restrictions and pro-common, inaugural conference by Emmanuel Rodríguez and Raúl Sánchez
Venue: Centro Cultural Provincial

· 20:00 h.
+ Free Books: alternatives in publishing, round table. Participants: Felix Martín, Chon Serrano and Emmanuel Rodríguez
Venue: Centro Cultural Provincial

· 21:30 h.
+ Presentation of BURNSTATION, workshop by the Platoniq Collective
Venue: Centro Cultural Provincial

Friday 10 March 2006

· 12:00 h.
+ Patents and scientific innovation, conference by José Fernández
Venue: Fundación Solitec

· 17:00 h.
+ Visual arts, graphic design, and intellectual property, round table with Óscar Abril Ascaso, Santiago Eraso, Aitor Méndez, Esther Regueira, Natxo Rodríguez and Yolanda Romero; coordina: Federico Guzmán
Venue: Fundación Picasso-Casa Natal

· 17:00 h.
+ No to paying for borrowing, conference by Ana Julia Salvador. Presented by María Teresa Vera Balanza
Venue: Archivo Municipal de Málaga

· 18:30 h.
+ Pharmaceutical patents and public health, round table with José María Marín Jiménez, Antonio García Ruiz and Jorge Gómez Aracena
Venue: Archivo Municipal de Málaga

· 20:00 h.
+ Control technology and intellectual property, conference by Jorge Cortell Albert
Venue: Centro Social-Casa de Iniciativas 1.5

· 21:30 h.
+ Malaga's Copyflex 1.5 film club, presentation by Carlos López
+ Zemos´98, presentation by Pedro Jiménez
Venue: Centro Social-Casa de Iniciativas 1.5

Saturday 11 March 2006

· 10:30 h.
+ Cinelerra, video editing with free software, workshop given by GA (Hacklab Metabolik)
Venue: Centro Social-Casa de Iniciativas 1.5

· 10:30 h.
+ Sharing is good, conference by Teresa Malina
Venue: Instituto de Estudios Portuarios

· 12:00 h.
+ Magnatune is a record label, but not an evil one, conference by John Buckman
Venue: Instituto de Estudios Portuarios

· 17:00 h.
+ Campaign against software patents, conference by Alberto Barrionuevo
Venue: Ateneo de Málaga

· 18:30 h.
+ Moving copyleft towards legal action, conference by Javier de la Cueva
Venue: Ateneo de Málaga

· 20:00 h.
+ Free culture and copying, conference by David Bravo Bueno
Venue: Ateneo de Málaga

· 21:30 h.
+ BORDERGAMES video game, presentation by Fiambrera Obrera (Tarik and Jordi Claramonte)
Venue: Centro Social-Casa de Iniciativas 1.5

Sunday 12 March 2006

· 10:30 h.
+ Editing music with free software, Workshop by Carlos Pino
Venue: Ateneo de Málaga

· 12:00 h.
+ Take your [musical] problems elsewhere, round table with Defunkid, Miguel López Mora, Javier Ojeda. Coordinated by Raúl Benítez
Venue: Ateneo de Málaga


*All talks are open to the public.

VENUES

Archivo Municipal de Málaga
Alameda Principal, nº 23
29001 Málaga
Tef: 952.128.851

Ateneo de Málaga
C/ Compañía, nº 2
29008 Málaga
Tef: 952.224.002
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Centro Cultural Provincial de la Diputación de Málaga
C/ Gaona, nº 6
29012 Málaga
Tef: 952.2141.29

Centro Social-Casa de Iniciativas 1.5 (CS-CI 1.5)
C/ Postigo de Arance, nº 15
29008 Málaga
Tef:: 952.229.636
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Instituto de Estudios Portuarios
Muelle Canovas, s/n.
29001 Málaga

Sede Fundación SOLITEC
Polígono Industrial El Viso C/ Marea Baja, nº 45
Málaga
Tef: 645.565.700
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Fundación Picasso-Casa Natal
Plaza de la Merced, nº 15
29012 Málaga
Tef: 952.060.215

 

PARTICIPANTS

PARTICIPANTS

GA, member of Hacklab Metabolik (Bilbao), works on audiovisual productions and the development of Cinelerra.
Fiambrera Obrera, is an open group that combine artistic methods of intervention and direct action with more conventional social and political practices.
Colectivo Platoniq, platform for the selection and production of projects linking new technology and culture.
Óscar Abril Ascaso, co-organiser of Copyfight Barcelona. (with elástico.net).
Raúl Benítez, musician, producer and teacher of IT music.
David Bravo Bueno, lawyer, author of Copia este libro (Copy this book).
John Buckman, founder of the record label Magnatune.
Florencio Cabello Fernández-Delgado, organiser of the critical discussions on intellectual property in Malaga in 2004 and 2006.
Jorge Cortell Albert, teacher for the Multimedia Master's Degree at Valencia's Universitat Politècnica; organised the Compartir es bueno y legal [Sharing is good and legal] conference.
Defunkid, musician, designer of the "lamundial.net" web site
Javier de la Cueva, lawyer, responsible for preparing and promoting the lawsuit against royalty fees on CDs and DVDs.
Santiago Eraso, director of Arteleku, member of the content design team at UNIA arteypensamiento and collaborator in the copyleft discussions held in 2004 and 2005.
José Fernández, IT engineer specialising in electronic systems, IT teacher at the University of Malaga (UMA).
Antonio García Ruiz, Clinical Pharmacology teacher at the UMA.
Jorge Gómez Aracena, teacher of Preventative Medicine and Health at the UMA.
Alberto Barrionuevo, organiser of the European Campaign against Software Patents.
Federico Guzmán, visual artist, member of the GRATIS collective.
Pedro Jiménez, works on audiovisual productions, founder of ZEMOS'98.
Carlos López, co-founder of Malaga's Copyflex 1.5 film-club and member of the group which organised Malaga's copyleft discussion in 2004 and 2006.
Miguel López Mora, producer and musician with Digital 21.
Teresa Malina, founder and leader of the Compartir es bueno movement.
José María Marín Jiménez, Mebers of Médecin Sans Frontières
Felix Martín, director of the Publications Department of Malaga County Council (CEDMA).
Aitor Méndez, graphic designer and artist.
Javier Ojeda, singer of the band Danza Invisible.
Carlos Pino, musician and expert on producing music with free software.
Esther Regueira Mauriz, curator and cultural producer.
Emmanuel Rodríguez, author, founder of the Traficantes de Sueños publishing company, member of the Nomadic University.
Natxo Rodríguez, artist and member of the group which organised the Kopyleft discussions in Donosti.
Yolanda Romero, Director of the José Guerrero Centre in Granada
Raúl Sánchez, member of the editorial team of the magazine Contrapoder and the Nomadic University.
Ana Julia Salvador, director of the Medina del Campo Library (Madrid) and coordinator of the No al prestamo de pago library movement.
Chon Serrano, Chief of Publications' Department of UMA
Eduardo Serrano, member of the group which organised the discussions on intellectual property in Malaga in 2006.
María Teresa Vera Balanza, journalism teacher at the UMA.