Fair (Ab)use

Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association

National Conference

St. Louis, MO

March 31-April 3, 2010

The Communication and Digital Culture Area of the Popular Culture Association is soliciting proposals for panels and individual papers that explore questions of fair use, appropriation, and intellectual property in a network society.

From the undergraduate classroom to the Supreme Court of the United States, issues of appropriate and inappropriate use of intellectual property have become highly visible matters of legal and cultural concern. How does one distinguish misappropriation from fair use? What has become of a shared public domain in an era of increasingly pervasive claims on proprietary material? What tactical interventions are available to consumer and activist alike in this highly litigious environment?

Possible topics include:

Fair Use and the Academy

Open Archives Initiative

Free Culture

Public Sphere/Public Domain

Parody and Appropriation

Piracy and the "IP Police"

Tactical Media

Creative Commons

Marx & the Hybrid Economy

Fan vs. Franchise

Submit a 250 word maximum proposal to:

Mark Nunes, Chair

Department of English, Technical Communication, and Media Arts

Southern Polytechnic State University

Marietta, GA 30060-2896

mnunes@spsu.edu

Deadline for Submissions: December 15, 2009

Note: Communication and Digital Culture is a themed area. Submissions off-theme should be submitted to:

Internet Culture Area Chair, Montana Miller, montanm@bgnet.bgsu.edu

Game Studies Area Co-Chairs, digitalgames.pcaaca@gmail.com