Lawrence Liang in Belgrade: Intellectual Property and the Disenchantment of Curiosity

Magacin, Kraljevića Marka 4 Saturday, 4th of October, 19:00

The lecture by Lawrence Liang * a part of Informal Networks Belgrade project **

"Debates on copyright tend to be overdetermined by issues of legality and economic efficiency. This is particularly true when we speak of piracy,
with an excessive focus on imagined harms and losses, a discourse that
loses sight of the enchantment with which we encounter the world of
texts, images and sound. (...)

The passion/ enthusiasm that people display for the moving
image or for music, the ways in which we remember films, words or sound
have to be accounted for philosophically and not just legally or
economically."

From the introduction to the lecture

"Intellectual Property and the Disenchantment of Curiosity"

observing the problematics of intelectual property trough the notions
of curiosity, passion and enthusiasm.

After the talk there will be an open discussion with the audience.

Welcome!

* Lawrence Liang is an Indian legal researcher and lawyer of Chinese
descent, based in the city of Bangalore, who is known for his legal
campaigns on issues of public concern. He is a founder of the
Alternative Law Forum, and, as of 2006, has emerged as a prominent
spokesperson against concepts like "intellectual property".

Liang's key areas of interest are law, popular culture and piracy. He
has been working closely with Sarai, New Delhi on a joint research
project Intellectual Property and the Knowledge/Culture Commons. Liang
is a "keen follower of the open source movement in software", Lawrence
Liang has been working on ways of translating the open source ideas
into the cultural domain. Segments of an interview with Liang
commenting extensively on copyright and culture are featured in Steal
This Film (Two).

Intro and moderation: Vladimir Jeric Vlidi
production: Vladan Jeremic

Realized in partnership with Multimedia Institute, Zagreb.

** "Informal Networks Belgrade" is the project of Dom omladine
cultural center from Belgrade, in collaboration with self-organized
network slobodnakultura.org. The project is examining the contemporary
art production in the framework of digital and other cultural and
social networks and the position of contemporaryt cultural production
within the socio-political context, trough the series of meetings and
discussions with international guests interested in the issues. The
project is supported by the Ministry of Culture, Republic of Serbia.