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****************************************************** * http://www.anthropologymatters.com * * A postgraduate project comprising online journal, * * online discussions, teaching and research resources * * and international contacts directory. * ****************************************************** > > > >> Please circulate >> >> Call for Papers / Proposed Session >> Annual Meeting, American Anthropological Association >> San Francisco, CA, November 19-23, 2008 >> >> "Social Movements and Intellectual Property Rights: Building a New >> Intellectual Commons" >> >> This panel features research on social movements and Intellectual >> Property Rights (IPR) to examine how movements resist or utilize >> IPR while creating alternatives to private control over intangible >> goods. Recent years have seen the extension of legal monopolies to >> areas of life once considered beyond the private property system, >> ranging from software codes to genetic codes. These monopolies >> seek to "protect" intellectual property by granting the "right" to >> exclude others from using, exchanging, transforming, improving, or >> at times even understanding the intellectual property in question. >> Such "enclosures of the mind" occur through copyright, patents, >> trademarks, and industrial designs, for example, all of which fall >> under the rubric of IPR. These rights to exclude are secured >> through a growing web of national laws, free trade accords, >> international treaties, and supranational institutions. >> >> The underlying processes of privatization, commodification, and >> monopolization that accompany the expansion of intellectual >> property rights, however, have not gone uncontested. Examples >> could include such diverse movements and collective experiments as >> the Free Software Movement; the Creative Commons licensing >> project; the Wikipedia collective; music and file sharing >> collectives; pirated CD/DVD vendors' movements; campaigns for >> affordable, generic pharmaceuticals; opposition to bioprospecting; >> movements against patents over seeds, biodiversity, genetically >> modified and synthetic organisms; and struggles against corporate >> control over genetic information. Some of these movements seek to >> carve out a space to promote the exchange and development of >> knowledge, often utilizing IPR mechanisms such as copyright in the >> process, while others seek to fundamentally challenge the logic of >> intellectual property altogether, perhaps struggling to keep "life >> itself" beyond the reach of commodity exchange. Still others, such >> as informal vendors of pirated DVD movies, sometimes organize to >> confront the enforcement of IPR laws. >> >> This panel brings together research that on the surface may appear >> to treat different topics, but which ultimately address similar >> underlying processes. What insights do we gain into the >> privatization and monopolization of knowledge, for instance, by >> studying the diverse array of movements that challenge IPR? Under >> what circumstances do social movements take shape to reject, >> utilize, or change IPR in the construction of a new intellectual >> commons? In what ways do social movements challenge not only IPR >> but concepts such as "rights," "property," and "protection"? What >> new languages and strategies are being developed to resist >> dominant IPR regimes or to design less restrictive mechanisms for >> exercising claims over intangible goods? Does anthropology >> contribute to such movements, or is the discipline limited by >> increasingly corporate academic settings that encourage IPR and >> advance enclosures of the mind? >> >> Please send proposed abstracts of up to 250 words to Tom Pearson >> at [log in to unmask] by March 17th. >> >> Thomas Pearson >> Doctoral Candidate >> Department of Anthropology >> State University of New York, Binghamton >> [log in to unmask] / [log in to unmask] > > _______________________________________________ > aarg mailing list > [log in to unmask] > http://mailman.creighton.edu/mailman/listinfo/aarg ************************************************************* * Anthropology-Matters Mailing List * * To join this list or to look at the archived previous * * messages visit: * * http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/Anthropology-Matters.HTML * * If you have ALREADY subscribed: to send a message to all * * those currently subscribed to the list,just send mail to: * * [log in to unmask] * * * * Enjoyed the mailing list? Why not join the new * * CONTACTS SECTION @ www.anthropologymatters.com * * an international directory of anthropology researchers * ***************************************************************