Art and Design, Digitisation and Intellectual Property Symposium

Date: Thursday 12 November 2009
Venue: National College of Art and Design, 100 Thomas Street, Dublin 8

NIVAL event in association with

show on map

  ^& 

Presenters: Prof. Robert Clarke (UCD), Ms Louise Crowley (UCC), Dr K Faith Lawrence (DHO), Ms Linda Scales (IVARO), Ms Carola Streul (EVA)

Introduction

The aims of this one day seminar are to clarify issues surrounding the acquisition, retention and dissemination of art and design digital content, which is within the copyright term, by archives, libraries and repositories, and its use in teaching, learning and research. This digital content may include documentation of art and design objects or events (images, moving images, audio) or born-digital works.

By bringing together a group of experts in the field of intellectual property as it applies to the Irish context NCAD/NIVAL wishes to provide a forum wherein the practical requirements of artists and designers and the wider research community may be considered.

Registration

To register for this event fill in the short form here. Attendence is free but places are limited so prompt registration is recommended.

Timetable

Presentations

Don Gourley will provide an introduction to intellectual property issues in the digital arts and humanities. The Digital Humanities Observatory was established to manage and co-ordinate the increasingly complex e-resources created in the arts and humanities. Its remit includes advising partners on IP issues and developing an IP policy and license agreements for materials deposited the DHO digital repository, striving for an appropriate balance between the rights of copyright owners and the interests of other researchers. [PPT Slides]

Linda Scales’ presentation will analyse artist's rights in the digital environment under Irish law. She will also look at the different approaches that might be taken in relation to protection of those rights in relation to digitisation, archival and curatorial uses, and in education. [PPT Slides]

Carola Streul is the Secretary General of European Visual Artists (EVA) which represents the interests of authors' collective management societies for the visual arts. 24 European collecting societies are members or observers of EVA. Together they manage the rights of over 50 000 creators of works of fine art, illustration, photography, design, architecture and other visual works. Since its foundation in 1997 EVA has regularly participated in all hearings and consultations which are organised by the EU institutions in the field of concern for the visual authors. Carola will provide an insight into the challenges and opportunities regarding artists’ digital content arising from recent or proposed initiatives at EU level.

Following a consideration of the capacity of modern copyright law to both protect the rights of artists and facilitate the entitlements of users, Louise Crowley will assess the role of Creative Commons as a possible solution to the balancing of these co-existing rights whilst allowing the rights owner to retain his/her desired level of control over the use and dissemination of his/her works. [PPT Slides]

K Faith Lawrence's lecture is entitled 'You Know When You Have Arrived: Subverting Culture and the Not-Public Domain': These days the term "mash-up artist" is becoming well known and refers to someone who creates a new work by sampling and/or combining existing works. To some people this is a vibrant creative process which allows new interpretation and commentary on the original works, to others this is nothing more than blatant theft and copyright infringement, and an insult to the artist's vision. This presentation will address some of the challenges and opportunities that the new generation of web technologies brings to the artist (professional and amateur) as commercial and sharing ethos' clash. [PPT Slides]

Robert Clark will explain when the personal use of copyright material and databases will fall into fair dealing and educational use exceptions to copyright, as well as the copying and 'making available' rules for libraries and archives. It will be evident that these rules are not very 'digital friendly’.

Sue Gollifer asks the question “How can artists retain the copyright of their work in an increasing digital and global marketplace?” Artists are now facing a dilemma as their work is increasingly being digitised, either in its original artistic form, or as a means of distribution and communication. Their work is also saved in multiple locations, in different files, formats, and outputs. It is often produced through partnership and collaboration. Which raises issues concerning the nature of authenticity and who ‘owns’ the work? Sue will provide examples and possible solutions to these questions.

Speakers

Don Gourley - Digital Humanities Observatory

Don Gourley is the Information Technology Manager and is currently Acting Director for the DHO, a project of the Royal Irish Academy. Don has been providing IT support for the management of electronic resources at research libraries, higher education institutions and museums for over 15 years.  He is co-author of 'Creating Digital Collections: A Practical Guide' (Chandos, 2008) and has written and presented on various topics related to digital libraries and digital asset management.

Prof. Robert Clarke - University College Dublin

Professor Robert Clark, BA, BL, LLM, PHD is an Associate Professor of Law at UCD, a consultant with Arthur Cox and a leading light in the field of Intellectual Property law in Ireland. He has lectured and written widely on the subject and is co-author with Shane Smyth of the seminal text in the field. “Intellectual Property law in Ireland” (TOTTEL), 2nd edition 2005. 

Ms Louise Crowley - University College Cork

Louise Crowley is a qualified and fulltime lecturer in law at University College Cork. Louise was responsible for the introduction of the Intellectual Property law module to the postgraduate LL.M at UCC. This module forms a key element of the specialised LL.M in e-law offered by the Law Faculty. In addition Louise is a lecturer and co-director of the annual E law summer institute offered jointly by UCC and Franklin Pierce University and hosted by UCC.  In presenting a forum for the comparative study of EU and US elaw issues, the institute aim to facilitate student discussion and to develop an understanding of pertinent cross-jurisdictional elaw, including IP issues. For the last number of years Louise has worked with her UCC colleague, Dr Darius Whelan to develop and produce the Irish Creative Commons Licenses.

Ms Sue Gollifer - University of Brighton

Sue Gollifer is a Principal Lecturer in Fine Art, in the School of Arts and Communication and the Course Leader for the MA in Digital Media Arts (DMA), and the Director of the ISEA International Headquarters. She has been a professional artist/printmaker for over 30 years, exhibiting work regularly throughout the world and her work is held in major national and international public collections. She has been a curator of a number of International Digital Art Exhibitions including,  ArCade I-V, and the SIGGRAPH Art Gallery'04 - Synaesthesia.
 
Gollifer is on a number of national and international committees, including the Director of the Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS), the Computer Arts Society, (CAS) and the College Arts Association, (CAA), USA, and is Vice President for Annual Conference, a member of CAA’s International Committee and the New Media Caucus, an affiliated society.

Dr K Faith Lawrence - Digital Humanities Obseratory

Faith Lawrence is a digital humanities specialist with the Digital Humanities Observatory. She did her first degree in ancient history with a special interest in comparative mythology. Progressing sideways she completed a masters in archaeological science (computing) before finding herself in a computer science department researching online communities, narrative and the semantic web. Her doctorate looked at emergent semantic and web 2.0 technologies through the case study of online (fan) fiction archives and creative fan communities.

Her post-doctoral projects include Electronic Visualisation of C19 French literary-scientific texts: Flaubert's Tentation de saint Antoine.

Ms Linda Scales - Irish Visual Artists Rights Organisation

Linda Scales is a solicitor and a copyright specialist. She advises a number of publicly-funded arts bodies and institutions. She also lectures in media law topics in the School of Art History and Cultural Policy at UCD. She is the author of a number of articles on arts-related legal issues, including the Guidelines for Board Members of Arts Boards, published by the Arts Council in 2006. Linda is a co-founder and board member of the Copyright Association of Ireland, and the Irish Visual Artists Rights Organisation.

Ms Carola Streul - Exhibition of Visual Arts

European Visual Artists (EVA) represents the interests of authors' collective management societies for the visual arts. 25 European collecting societies for visual creators are gathered under this roof as members or observers. They manage collectively authors' rights of over 50 000 creators of works of fine art, illustration, photography, design, architecture and other visual works.

Since its foundation in 1997 EVA has regulary participated in all hearings and consultations which are organised by the EU institutions in the field of concern for the visual authors. As EVA represents a highly specialised field the constant information of the EU institutions is most important to make aware of the legal and economic situation of artists. The goals of EVA and the information on its members' activities are expressed in many submissions adressed to the EU institutions.