The Age of Intellectual Property
When did you last download or torrent something? Was it an MP3, movie or TV program not shown in Australia? Maybe it wasn’t “pirated content”?. You may have pretended you live in another country, so you can have access to buy the content you desire. Perhaps found the perfect picture via Google images for a blog post; or a strange artistic font that perfectly suited your needs. Perchance a concept or idea gleaned from a book or website you happened to stumble across.
Welcome to the international world of Intellectual Property.
It is easy to say the globe is hyper-connected. Bits and Bytes flow at an increasing pace, transporting with them the thoughts and ideas of the world. However, as that speed increases, so does our increasing desire to have the content we want to have… NOW.
Socialised and trained to consume whatever is available, we used to happily pay the gatekeepers of the limited supply chains of the world, to get access to the vast array of content generated by its creators. These supply chains trained us through the mediums of TV, radio, the internet and community to desire and seek out new content when it was made available. We learned our lessons well and became the ever hungry, time poor, consumers of today. Now, with the floodgates of data burst wider and the limited supply chain of content opening up to various means by which content is now shared, the models of the past are breaking down under the weight of our manufactured desire.
Scared by the ingenuity of consumers and loss of control, rather than accepting change and creating a new form of distribution, these former content supply chain gatekeepers are doing what they can to stem the flow and put us back in the box. However, the reality is that the tighter the gatekeepers squeeze, the more content seems to slip through their fingers. What are we to do?
On Tuesday 28th at the Shelbourne Hotel in Sydney (from 6:30pm), Digital Citizens is gathering a panel to look at this world of content, and decipher a way forward. Intellectual property represents the property of your mind or intellect. The issue is not only the copyright of music and videos, but includes inventions, trademarks, confidential information, original designs and the practical application of good ideas. Intellectual property is everywhere, and it is about time it was discussed a little more openly.
If this discussion does not take place now then we will lose our opportunity to be involved with the regulatory rules and limitations that are being built up around us. In the USA legislation is moving forward to impact the legal use of content, and in Australia the coming months will see the filtering of online content through a few major Internet providers. In this developing world where everyone is potentially a content creator, it is about time we voiced our concerns so that we do not get left in the dark.
So if you are interested in “Fair Use”, “Creative Commons”, “Copyright”, or the future of the content you will have access to consume, then this will be a great night to get involved in the discussion.
We hope a good gathering of people (including content creators, consumers and business people) at this event can prompt a much-needed broader discussion of these issues from an Australian perspective. While we are certainly not the only group having this discussion, and we are not looking for “the” answer, we hope this event may take a few steps towards it.
We hope to see you there.
The Digicitz Crew
@ecitizens
PANELLISTS:
• Mark Pesce (@mpesce) who is an inventor, writer, entrepreneur, educator and broadcaster
• Megan Macgregor (@Gabfran) who is a shoe obsessive, yogi, educator, lawyer, writer, and Scottish person
• Keir Winesmith (@drkeir) who is currently a development manager and technical lead for SBS, with a diverse background in media and technology
• Matt Moore (@engin_eer) who spent over a decade guiding corporates, government and NGOs on better management of their intellectual capital
• Julian Peterson (@JulianFPeterson), former TimeOut marketing boss, a committed litigator with IP experience with the firm view that unless music and film industries get tough right now, music will get worse and film is about to hit a wall that it will never recover from...
RSVP
Event Link: Tickets available here...
http://www.stickytickets.com.au/5941
P.S. Want to attend #digicitz but are not in Sydney, the event will be (fingers xed) live-streamed on ustream
http://frid.co/fVPDq3
