For those interested in intellectual property.

CopyNight DC
6:20 PM, Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
Teaism - 400 8th St. NW (Chinatown or Archives Metro)

CopyNight is a monthly social gathering of people interested in restoring
balance in copyright law. We meet over drinks once a month in many cities to
discuss new developments and build social ties between artists, engineers,
filmmakers, academics, lawyers, and many others.

Shannon Simmons, a doctoral student at UMD's College of Information Studies,
will lead a conversation on negative spaces in copyright. 

>From Shannon:

Over the past couple of years scholarly interest in negative spaces in
intellectual property such as fashion, cuisine, comedy and magic has been
growing. Each of these groups do fairly well despite the fact that they
receive little to no copyright protection, having established their own
community enforced protection mechanisms. While copyright is intended to
help promote the progress of creative works, it has been argued that in some
low ip-regimes such as the fashion industry copying actually helps to
promote the swift cycle of innovation. What lessons, if any, can be taken
from these negative spaces and applied to areas currently receiving
copyright protection?

Links:

>From the Boston Globe: Creative Vigilantes, Daniel Smith
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2007/12/23/creative_vigilantes/?page=full

University of Chicago Moblog on Negative Spaces:
http://uchicagolaw.typepad.com/faculty/2006/11/the_negative_sp.html

>From Boing Boing: Magicians Innovate Without IP Law, David Pescovitz
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/12/magicians-innovate-w.html

Cheers,
Justin

-- 
Justin Grimes
Research Associate
Center for Information Policy and E-Government
College of Information Studies, University of Maryland
[log in to unmask]
301-538-5812