Conventional intellectual property law binds authors and their hybrid contemporary practices in a framework of assumed ownership and individualism. It conceives creations as original works, making collective, networked practices difficult to fit. Within that legal and ideological framework, Copyleft, Open Content Licenses or Free Culture Licensing introduced a different view of authorship, opening up the possibility for a re-imagining of authorship as a collective, feminist, webbed practice. But over time, some of the initial spark and potentiality of Free Culture licensing has been normalized and its problems and omissions have become increasingly apparent. This study day is therefore meant to see if we can start re-imagining copyleft together.

Can we invent licences that are based on collective creative practices, in which cooperation between machine and biological authors, need not be an exception? How could attribution be a form of situated genealogy, rather than accounting for heritage through listing names of contributing individuals? In what way can we limit predatory practices without blocking the generative potential of Free Culture? What would a decolonial and feminist license look like, and in what way could we propose entangled notions of authorship? Or perhaps we should think of very different strategies?

With contributions from amongst others:

• Severine Dusollier (SciencesPo, Paris): Inclusive Copyright
• Aymeric Mansoux (XPUB, Rotterdam): Free Only-if
• Eva Weinmayr (Pirate Library/And-And Publishing, London): Situated collective authorship
• Daniel Blanga Gubbay (KFDA, Brussels): Potential authorship

→ Preparatory materials (extended introduction, reader, programme)

This studyday is organised in dialogue with Cinema Sauvages and Severine Dusollier and hosted by ISELP. Please let us know if you are interested in participating: femke@constantvzw.org