When sharing moves beyond the world of software

DELHI, INDIA -- A report from Prayas Abhinav, an associate of the BytesForAll Team, from "Beware ! freedom ahead...", a conference on free culture - supported by the Indian Social Action Forum. The perspectives discussed in this report discuss copyright, free software, mobile filming and other culturally significant publishing initiatives.

Report - Summary of discussions

The conference sought to be a forum for creative labour. A platform through which new practices in creation, publication, distribution can be identified, and networked with. It was initiated with a keen urge to associate and allign with other like-minded initiators. This was the first such event and we had participants from Delhi, Hydrabad, Trivandrum and many from Ahmedabad. The participants found the interaction quite intense and focused. We had been planning for more students to be a part of the event - especially students who are keen to pursue the creative arts in the future, but only a few could attend. The forum was attended by more than 25 young artists, filmmakers, students, activists etc.

Many participants suggested that the forum be developed into an annual national event. We are keen to pursue this suggestion. The next few possible venues could be either New Delhi, Hydrabad or Bangalore.

Forum - 11:30 to 5:00 p.m.

1 "Opening up": A talk by by Stalin K, filmmaker/human rights activist

In 1991 he co-founded Drishti Media Collective. Drishti is a group of media professionals working on issues of gender, justice, human rights and development, with a firm faith in the ability of video, theater, radio, other media and the arts to contribute to struggles for a just, humane and peaceful society. Whenever possible, Drishti works in partnership with the people whose lives, stories and experiences make the subject of its work.

Stalin's talk revolved around a range of interlinked issues - he chose to interpret "copyright" from the perspective of "right" to "copy" and the "right" to "copyright". He used the cases of folk music, documentary film making to illustrate his ideas.

In the case of folk music - he said that traditionally communities and individuals have not had any right to "copyright". Urban and western musicians have been freely taking from the vast pool of folk music without any attribution or benefit given to the community. With respect to using the word "community", he commented on how the use of the word is usually in the context, "the others, excluding me". So we have "community-based organizations" who are not part of the "community".

Second, he mentioned that documentary filmmakers routinely make documentaries about individuals or groups, from whom they freely ask for time, help and recommendation to produce their film. When the films are completed, they are rarely shown to the community they seem to represent. Also when they win awards, these are not shared with the other partners in production.

He described how with his film, "Lesser humans" they had setup a separate fund - into which they had put all the returns from the film, after the cost was covered. Through this fund they attempted to raise support and awareness about the issues they talked about.

He mentioned his "community radio" initiative in Kutch, which was yet to take off as a radio station as permission from the Government was pending.

He concluded with a comment that how the talk had become a small gathering of 25 was another issue, which needs to be pondered on.

2 "Free Software & Free Culture" - Arun M, Free Software Foundation, India

Arun M. is part of The Free Software Foundation, India. He works for advocating broader use of "Free Software". With the advent of experiments in the realm of "free culture" - the production and distribution of creative content without the complex "all rights reserved" restrictions - he will draw interrelations, similarities and differences between the two.

Arun explained and clarified the concepts of Free Software. His friend Jerome stressed that the model of free software might eventually turn out to be relevant only to software and not be applicable to art & culture. He said that many artists have to survive on their work and cannot afford to give it away for free. Jerome also commented on the discussion at Sarai in January which had convinced him of the face that piracy is part of the monopoly market's strategy to exercise control.

3 "The Pamphlet Project" ; Himanshu Verma, Director, Red Earth

The pamphlets published as part of the project center on issues of popular culture, urban life, and the arts and culture in India. A main contention is to offer resistance to the ideological tendencies of popular culture, and create spaces of resistance, and free expression, which are often not allowed in the mainstream media.

Himanshu introduced the form of the pamphlet, the roots of its history in the European Coffee Houses. He spoke of the "print and run" publishing traditions. He spoke of pamphlets as an easy way for young people to publish and reach out. He said that in India the "coffee houses" were very commercial. They practically asked him for money to keep his pamphlets in their outlets. He also talked about the difficulty he experienced in finding a distributor to accept his pamphlet. He is not attempting to distribute the magazines through a network of cultural institutions and venues. He wants to organize events around the theme of the pamphlet. The theme for his first pamphlet was, "Metrosexuality".

Pamphleteering has been a cheap and "low quality" approach to publishing. But, Himanshu has priced his pamphlets at Rs. 40 and is pursuing excellent production values.

4 "The2Project.com" - Abhay Adhikari, Dhyan Design

Th e2Project.com was conceived and implemented online. The only time we required a music studio was when Shubha had to record vocals. Hygge composed the instrumental electronic track, Shubha heard it and responded by recording vocals. All this while I did not allow the two musicians to contact each other in any way to keep the response to each others music spontaneous and uninhibited.

Abhay is a multimedia designer and has a firm called, Dhyan Design. He introduced us to the way he had produced the Cd of 2project.com online. He had made a concise handout in which he introduced the tools and methods which other musicians / bands can utilize to promote their work on the internet.

He also spoke about ways to produce small-run CDs affordably.

He spoke jokingly of how the lack of availability of "really good" music in India forced him to write "charity letters" to music companies and singers - leading to his having a collection of more than 500 free CDs.

5 "Free Music / Free Software" - Sunayana Basu Mallik, 3rd year, National Academy of Legal Studies and Research

Sunanya expalined the legal concepts of copyright. She spoke of how copyrighted tools are part of the development of practices "violating" copyright. She mentioned that piracy might emerge as a nationalistic sentiment one day. She voiced her concerns about the status of folk music and folk artists in India. She felt creating space in the "cyberspace" for these artists would enable them to be part of new "networked culture".

She wants to initiate a forum exploring the relation between creativity and law at her college. We will also be partnering for the next forum.

6 "Crossing Boundaries" - Koumudi Patil, artist The Ahmedabad Encounters Project

Koumudi talked about the public spaces and ways to use them more creatively, more constructively. They have taken the permission of the AMC to use quite a few public spaces. They are inviting many artists to engage with these spaces / by executing art installations there. It will be happening in end February'05.

7 "Mobile Filming" - Ajit Pal Singh, filmmaker

Ajit and his group made films on the mobile phone. One of the films they made was selected in the Berlin Film Festival. Ajit will talk about this effort, which he initiated, its potential - his ideas about distributing them etc.

He made a presentation about his and his friends' experience of making films on the mobile. He talked of the difficulties of independent filming. He is now exploring the possibility of distributing the mobile films with Hutch.

8 "Ghonsla - a free public library system" - Prayas Abhinav, coordinator, recut.org + editor, Crimsonfeet.org

I will introduce the "Ghonsla - free public library system" - its needs, the motivations behind initiating it, model and future course.

Prayas introduced the free Public Library System that he has designed. Abhay pointed the Manana library project - suggesting the similarities.

Source: http://crimsonfeet.recut.org/article293.html

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