Thinker Matrix Utopia

Symposium Archives

May 21-23, 2007
University of Maryland University College
Inn and Conference Center
Adelphi, MD

The three-day symposium held May 21-23, 2007, focused on the current state of copyright nationally and internationally and asked how the future of copyright -- and diverse ideas about that future -- might impact higher education. Consistent with the centuries-long question of what constitutes a perfect society, the question at the heart of this symposium is certainly pertinent in our digital, information-driven society.

"What would your copyright utopia look like?" We posed that question to a number of individuals. Listen to their responses below in these short videos that introduced symposium sessions.

Learn more about the winners of the "Copyright Utopia" contest

What would copyright utopia look like?
(Will the future of copyright be Orwellian,
living within the copyright Matrix, or be a Brave New World?)

As colleges and universities make decisions managing third party copyrighted works, symposium participants discussed difficult questions created by our legal structure and human needs:

What methods and policies will best serve students, faculty, publishers, and the academic enterprise?
Will the efforts of organizations like Creative Commons create a more effective and efficient method for managing copyrighted works?
Is licensing the only alternative to copyright?
Should alternative methods work within the legal structure already in place?
How might we envision and experience copyright utopia in years to come: Is every piece of data or content freely and fully available--no restrictions, no fees, and no questions asked? Or is everything under lock and key with access granted only to a paying membership and those who abide by the rules? Is copyright a Pandora’s Box to be kept closed, or is it simply a necessary mechanism for managing the use of creative content?

DAY ONE: The Afternoon offered an opportunity to participate in one of two intensive pre-conference seminars: "Copyright 101" or "Fair Use and E-Reserves." The Evening featured a keynote address by Fred von Lohmann, Senior Intellectual Property Attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation -- "U.S. Copyright Law: A Broken System Needing Repair?".

DAY TWO: The agenda framed some of the pertinent issues and included a keynote address by William Fisher, Director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University Law School, on the topic "Utopian Visions of Copyright: Tweak, Transform, or Opt Out." Dr. Fisher's keynote was followed by a response panel and then lively discussions on such issues as open access initiatives and international approaches to copyright.

DAY THREE: The agenda focused on presenting and discussing possible solutions to some of the issues raised by legislation, licensing and the commons, and technological alternatives. William Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland and co-chair of the Joint Committee of the Higher Education and Entertainment Communities Technology Task Force, provided a special luncheon address.

The conference binder, containing selected presentations and relevant articles, from this three day symposium is available for $45 (Resource Order Form 2007).

Please fax the completed order form to 240-582-2961. For further information, contact Jack Boeve at 240-582-2965 or jboeve@umuc.edu. Below are selected PowerPoint presentations (in PDF format) from the keynotes and panel discussions.

KEYNOTE:: U.S. Copyright Law: A Broken System Needing Repair?; Fred von Lohmann, Electronic Frontier Foundation; (Video Archive [01:29:52]) (PPT in PDF); To replay the video archive, you will need to connect to an Adobe Connect server. You may wish to run the Adobe Connect diagnostic test for your computer and connection to make sure you will be able to access the archive. You may be asked to click to load the "Macromedia Breeze Meeting Add-in". Please click OK to accept. The screen will take a moment to load, but it will load shortly.

KEYNOTE:: Utopian Visions of Copyright: Tweak, Transform, or Opt Out; William Fisher, Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University Law School; * For his presentation, Dr. Fisher used a mind mapping software called FreeMind, and thus we are not able to provide a PDF of any slides; however, we are able to reproduce for download his mind map as two separate images (jpg): Copyright Reform image one, Copyright Reform image two. Or you may download a copy of Dr. Fisher's mind map in PDF (2 pages) or view it in outline form in HTML.

PANEL 1:

Keynote Response Panel:

Moderator: Kimberly Kelley, University of Maryland University College

Panelists:

Patricia Aufderheide, Center for Social Media, American University;
Alec French, NBC Universal;
James Gibson, Intellectual Property Institute, University of Richmond School of Law;
Tracy Mitrano, Cornell University

PANEL 2:

Closed is Not Necessarily the Other Side of Open: Open Access Initiatives

Moderator: Paul Jaeger, University of Maryland

Panelists:

Ann Bartow, University of South Carolina (PPT in PDF);
Brian Crawford, American Chemical Society Publications (PPT in PDF);
Heather Joseph, Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (PPT in PDF);
Denise Troll Covey, Carnegie Mellon University Libraries (PPT in PDF)

PANEL 3:

International Approaches

Moderator: Kimberly Bonner, University of Maryland University College

Panelists:

Susan Anthony, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office;
Olufunmilayo Arewa, Northwestern University School of Law (PPT in PDF);
Matthew Skelton, U.S. Copyright Office

PANEL 4:

Tweaking Copyright: Legislative Alternatives

Moderator: Kimberly Bonner, University of Maryland University College

Panelists:

Miriam Nisbet, American Library Assocation;
Robert Samors, National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges;
Gigi Sohn, Public Knowledge

PANEL 5:

Licensing and the Commons as Copyright Alternatives

Moderator: Kimberly Bonner, University of Maryland University College

Panelists:

Michael Carroll (PPT in PDF);
Solveig Singleton, Progress & Freedom Foundation;
Elizabeth Winston, Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law

PANEL 6:

Transforming Copyright: Technological Alternatives

Moderator: Kimberly Kelley, University of Maryland University College

Panelists:

Karen Coyle, Digital Libraries Consultant;
Robert Schumann, Cinea, Inc. (PPT in PDF);
David Sohn, Center for Democracy and Technology (PPT in PDF)