8-11 July 2014
Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung, Universität Bielefeld, Methoden 1, D-33615 Bielefeld, Germany
Many copyright holders think that the restrictions on permissible copying – which differ from state to state – should be more severe. At the same time, many people worldwide make use of the technical means of copying without any sense of guilt, even though they are breaking the law. Some even call for a liberalisation or even abolition of the copyright and related rights. This major discrepancy between the legal assessment of many acts of copying and the general lack of any sense of guilt indicates a normative deficit: we are in dire need of an ethics of copying. The task of an ethics of copying would be to find just arrangements between all parties affected by copying, to influence legal developments, and to support the development of intersubjective moral standards that allow for distinguishing between legitimate and illegitimate copy processes. The workshop aims at examining the possibility and the perspectives of an ethics of copying. Speakers include Mark Alfino, Jan Bäcklund, Amrei Bahr, Lionel Bently, Dieter Birnbacher, Christoph Brumann, Massimiliano Carrara, Thomas Dreier, Charles Ess, Darren Hudson Hick, Wybo Houkes, Hans Nieswandt, David Oels, Alexander Peukert, Aram Sinnreich, Philipp Theisohn. There are no conference fees. Since participation requires an invitation by the ZiF, anyone who wishes to participate is kindly requested to contact the organizer of the conference, Reinold Schmücker (res@wwu.de). Free accommodation is available for 5 PhD students or postdocs.
