Out now!
In bookshops, distributed by: Antenne Books (UK, IRL, FR and Scandinavia), D.A.P. (U.S. & CA), Perimeter (AU & NZ), Vice Versa (DE, CH, AT), Centraal Boekhuis (NL & BE).
Copy this Book is an artist’s guide to copyright, written for makers. Both practical and critical, this book will guide you through the concepts underlying copyright and how they apply in your practice.
How do you get copyright? For what work? And for how long? How does copyright move across mediums, and how can you go about integrating the work of others? Because they get copyright too!
Copy this Book will detail the concepts of authorship and original creation that underlie our legal system. This way, it will equip you with the conceptual keys to participate in the debate on intellectual property today.
Read an (adapted) excerpt on Elephant.art — What Artists Need to Know about Copyright (NSFW).
This sharp and useful book shines a light on the rights of all artists to protect—and share—their work. Eric Schrijver has produced an essential guide for navigating the new Commons and the old laws of copyright control.
— Ellen Lupton, curator and critic
| Table of contents |
| 1. | Introduction | |
| 2. | Copyright, the Basics | |
| 2.1. | The Rights to Your Expressions: The Basics of Copyright | |
| 2.2. | No Ordinary Labour: Why Copyright | |
| 2.3. | The Artist’s Honour: Moral Rights | |
| 3. | Copyright, the Business | |
| 3.1. | No Easy Love Affair: Copyright and Money | |
| 3.2. | Mutual Dependency: Publishers | |
| 3.3. | Setting the Conditions of Copying: Licenses | |
| 4. | Copyright, Enforcement | |
| 4.1. | This Coin Has Two Sides: Suing and Getting Sued | |
| 4.2. | An Ongoing Arms Race: Protecting Through Technology | |
| 5. | Copyright, the Disciplines | |
| 5.1. | In Love With the Copy: Visual Arts | |
| 5.2. | The Protypical Author: Writing | |
| 5.3. | Mixed Authorship is the Norm: Graphic Design | |
| 5.4. | For Humans and Computers to Read: Software | |
| 5.5. | Too Useful to Protect: Typefaces | |
| 5.6. | A Copy of Reality: Photographs | |
| 5.7. | People have Rights too: Personalities | |
| 6. | Copyright, the Community | |
| 6.1. | No Known Restrictions: the Public Domain | |
| 6.2. | Some Copies are Better than Others: Copying and Ethics | |
| 7. | Bibliography |
Malmö University (SE)
As part of Emilia Bergmark’s fanzine-workshop on copyright, “copyright mashup”.
Sint Lucas Antwerpen (BE)
As part of Zeynep Kubat’s course, “Sociology of Creative Industries”.
Malmö University (SE)
As part of Emilia Bergmark’s fanzine-workshop on copyright, “copyright mashup”.
HFBK Hamburg
Lerchenfeld 2
22081 Hamburg (DE)
Printed Matter, Inc.
231 11th Avenue
New York, NY 10001 (US)
Printed Matter hosts the publication’s first U.S. presentation, where a panel of author- designer-advocates including Loraine Furter, Ellen Lupton, and Celine Semaan will meet with Copy This Book’s author Eric Schrijver to chart and challenge the developing norms on copying both legally and artistically.
La Gaîté Lyrique
3 bis rue Papin
75003 Paris (FR)
Part of a Copy Party organised by La Gaîté Lyrique, Mediapart and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS). “Eric Schrijver se demande ce qu'est la création artistique. Dessinant à la fois avec des traits vectoriels et des boucles de rythmes, il raconte les mythes à l’origine des oeuvres d’esprits incarnées dans les lois occidentales de la propriété intellectuelle.”
Centre National du Graphisme
1 Place Émile Goguenheim
52000 Chaumont (FR)
An updated version of the lecture “L’impact du contrôle algorithmique du droit d’auteur sur l’édition post-numérique”.
Trondheim Academy of Fine Art (NO)
On invitation of Alexandra Murray Leslie, an intervention in the ‘Artistic Entrepreneurship’ module for the students of the MA Fine Arts. A cyberspace collaboration through the gaming platform twitch.tv.
Hacktiris
Boulevard Anspachlaan 65
1000 Brussels (BE)
On invitation of Catelijne van Middelkoop, with the students of the MA Man and Communication of the Design Academy, Eindhoven.
After 8 Books
31 Passage du Ponceau
75002 Paris (FR)
Designer and author Eric Schrijver invites you to meet and discuss your copyright cases—both those related to copying and to getting copied!
Printroom
Schietbaanstraat 17
3014ZV Rotterdam (NL)
The audio-visual performance Copy This Book as part of “Copie Machine: Temporary Photocopy Zone”, a DIY copy and print party featuring Antoine Lefebvre, Laura Morsch-Kihn and Sara MacKillop.
Bon Jour
Scepterstraat 57C
1050 Brussels (BE)
The audio-visual performance Copy This Book followed by a discussion on the intracies of licensing and getting licensed for photographers, illustrators, designers and journalists.
Antwerp Art Pavillion
Hanzestedenplaats 15
2000 Antwerpen (BE)
A double bill with ooooo / bolwerK, an event part of the festival There is a Storm Copy That, an investigation into the links between sound and print; the audio-visual performance Copy This Book with extra emphasis on the different ways in which rhytms, words and melodies are treated by copyright.
Royal Academy of Art (KABK)
Prinsessegracht 4
2514 AN Den Haag (NL)
A discussion on the intracies of licensing and getting licensed in the context of graphic design for the fourth year Graphic Design students, as an invited speaker in Vanessa Lambrecht’s “professional practice” course, followed by an audio-visual lunch lecture.
ÉSAD Orléans
Rue Dupanloup 14
45000 Orléans (FR)
“L’impact du contrôle algorithmique du droit d’auteur sur l’édition post-numérique”, a lecture as a contribution to the symposium, followed by the audio-visual performance Copy This Book.
École de Recherche Graphique
Rue du Page 87
1050 Brussels (BE)
An audio-visual performance, followed by a discussion of the practical aspects of copyright with the students as well as the possible impact of the new EU regulations. Invitation by Maxime Lambrecht for his law class.
Beursschouwburg
Auguste Ortsstraat 20-28
1000 Brussels (BE)
An audio-visual performance, followed by a round-table discussion with law scholar Julien Cabay, artist Eleanor Ivory Weber, and publisher/curator Freek Lomme (Onomatopee). Moderator: Julie Van Elslande.
Caveat is a collective research project reflecting and acting on the ecology of artistic practice.
Onomatopee
Willemstraat 27
5611 HB Eindhoven (NL)
How do you create an original expression? That’s not simply an artistic question, it’s a legal question. In an audio-visual performance, Eric Schrijver will show artistic creation as it happens in from the perspective of the law, charting exactly the threshold of originality, where ideas become expressions; and, on the other hand, where incidental reproduction and abstract inspiration become infringements of the rights of others.
Made possible thanks to
the Creative Industries Fund NL
Layout and graphics made with a mix of software including Inkscape, Scribus and html2print, a free layout software developed by OSP — thanks Alexandre Leray, Ludivine Loiseau and Sarah Magnan for your advice!