Documentation and archiving the performing arts
Issues of Intellectual Property Rights and Intangible Cultural Heritage

Workshop report for Documentation and archiving the performing arts: Issues of Intellectual Property Rights and Intangible Cultural Heritage

Monday 4th May 2009

10:00 AM Inauguration and introduction of Participants

The workshop participants were from a broad range of disciplines within performing art, and varied from performers and directors to archivists and researcher's. Also represented were individuals from recording industry and institutions dealing specifically with intellectual property rights.

11:30AM–1:00 PM Keynote address by Anthony Seeger

Anthony Seeger is an anthropologist, ethnomusicologist, archivist, and musician. He is currently Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and Director of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive. He has worked at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro , Indiana University (and at the Smithsonian Institution  where he curated the Folkways Collection and established Smithsonian Folkways Recordings.

Beginning with the song “Aint you got a right”, Tony presented an historical overview of the conditions that led to copyright law gaining center-stage in today's performing arts and traditional knowledge area. Tony also gave us three interesting case studies which highlighted some of the major issues researchers face when working with communities and archives.

2:00-3:00PM--Case Studies

Case Study One
Jayachandarn Palazhy from the Attakkalari Centre for Movement Arts presented his work on Indian classical dances thru an amazing and highly technical interactive DVD. Jayachandarn gave the group much food for thought, as he discussed issues that had arisen through the production of his work.

Case Study Two
Rayson K. Alex from the National Folklore Support Centre presented NFSC’s initiatives in Community Digital Archives in a presentation called 'Civil contract between the documented, the documenter, the user of the document and technology' which was followed by a lively discussion on IPR issues, representation and identity.

3:30-5:00--Group session

Participants divided themselves into three clusters, each role-playing ‘Performers’, ‘Archivists’ and ‘Researchers’. From these vantage points, each cluster was asked to come up with a list of principal concerns on Intellectual Property Rights. When the groups reconvened, each voiced their concerns by almost unequivocally ‘blaming’ the others for the IPR issues confronting them.

Tuesday 5th May 2009

9:30AM-11:00AM--Researchers, Performers and Archivists

Day two resumed with the three groups- Researchers, Performers and Archivists putting forth their concerns within their spheres of activity.

Researchers presented their queries on the kinds of rights issues involved in the process of documentation, given the spectrum of source material they gather, and their inability to foresee the kinds of consents to be sought from informants. Seeing themselves as an ‘awkward interlocutor’ between informants and archives, they proposed formulating a database of archives in India so as to better enable them, or others, to deposit/access material, and expressed the need to be better informed about copyright, i.e. ‘what we own and what we do not want to own’.

The group represented by performers pondered over issues of adaptation and improvisation when undertaking commercial production. They also discussed the precarious situations that arise between performers and the industry in relation to various kinds of IPRs. Discussions over usage, access, authenticity, recognition of artists, and most importantly, difficulty of categorization dominated the session.

Archivists expressed their problems vis a vis both, performers and researchers regarding the materials submitted. Verification of materials was a major concern, as archives have to place a large amount of trust in depositor’s information. Questions of dissemination arose and the role of archives as curators of collections.

11:30AM-1:00PM--Jane Anderson, International perspectives of WIPO

After the morning tea break we were addressed by Jane Anderson, representing WIPO, who spoke on some of her work in Australia with AIATSIS. Jane presented a Case Study from Australia, based on a collection of sacred performances, and how heirs of the performers where facing Intellectual property rights from the researchers. Jane also gave us an international perspective from WIPO and talked on WIPO's structure as a international body, and gave us a insight into WIPO's Cultural Heritage Project.

(Insert podcast JANE ANDERSON, Photos)

 2:00-3:00PM--Case Studies

Case Study: PUKAR

Anita Deshmukh, representing PUKAR narrated their experience of longitudinal documentation of social change in Dharavi and Giragaon. Anita also illustrated the way in which PUKAR was  giving intensive training in Anthropology to  local community members,  who could then take part, and even lead research in their own communities.

Case Study: Dalit Resource Centre

Badri Narayan Tiwari, elaborated on the projects of the GB Pant Institute, Illustrating a Case Study of the Dalit Resource Centre, which had set about documenting the traditional forms arising out of migrations from Bihar. Badri also discussed other projects including the collection of booklets, magazines and small publications inorder to assemble a social biography of Dalit writers.

Both their presentations laid out important copyright issues faced while working with the different communities, specifically ownership and use of material being used in exhibitions, also performances of singers, musicians and accompanists in documentaries. There were also IP concerns when researchers were community-based as opposed to being external academics. Both case studies led everyone to jump into the discussion over complex issues of digitisation (especially written materials) and different ways of attribution.

Case Study: ARCE 

Shubha Chaudhuri’s presented on the Archive and Research Center for Ethnomusicology’s institutional journey of engaging with copyright both, during fieldwork and within its archives. Shubha ran through the ARCE processes and forms used when depositors want to donate a collection. Shubha also discussed some of the pitfalls when making agreements with depositors, and also touched on the need for engagement between archives and communities.

3:30-4:00PM--Panel Discussion

Anthony Seeger, Shubha Chaudhuri and Marc Pearlman addressed issues of Fieldwork, Research and Documentation  (Podcast and Photos)

4:00-5:30PM Music, Folklore, Theatre/Dance

The participants re-divided themselves into another set of three groups Music, Folklore, Theater/Dance to compile a list of concerns from these vantage points.

Wednesday 6th May 2009

9:30AM –11:00AM-- 'Music', 'Folklore' and 'Theater and Dance'

The previous day's breakaway groups- 'Music', 'Folklore' and 'Theater/Dance' presented their thoughts at the beginning of Day 3 proceedings. The three documents when presented brought forth some pertinent issues faced in the three fields, especially issues of Folklore and the lack of protections, and also issues relating to the ambiguities between performances by communities and individuals.

Group Presentations, licensing agreements

11:00AM-1:00PM-- Nirmita Narasimhan : Legal and Alternative Licensing Models.

Nirmita Narasimhan from the Center for Internet and Society, gave a very informative session on Legal and Alternative Licensing Models. Pressing on the need to find newer ways of dealing with issues of piracy, sharing and dissatisfaction with copyright, which do not always infringe, she presented a thorough survey of models available for licensing purposes for artwork, music and documentation and informed the house about various software options under GPL. She also discussed Copyleft, Copysouth, Creative Commons and the concept of Share Alike, among other licenses like Free Art, Open Content and Common Documentation License. Her premise was to encourage models which allow freedom to use, share, study and publicly perform without restrictions, as long as the work is in the public domain.

2:00-3:00PM-- Breakaway group sessions: Access, Contract  and Acquisitions

The participants broke away into groups for the 'Working it Out' exercise of formulating forms and agreements where the groups would attempt to cover the essential concerns raised in the previous group sessions. This time, the participants were divided into three groups called 'Access, 'Contract' and 'Acquisition'. To witness the outcome, please visit the Day 4 page.

(Insert forms here)

3:30-5:30PM-- Panel Discussion: Copyright and Legal Angle  chaired by Jane Anderson, Nirmita Narasimhan and S.L. Saha

Post tea Panel Discussion based on Copyright and Legal Angle was chaired by our resource people Jane Anderson, Nirmita Narasimhan and S.L. Saha who not only led the discussion demystifying the Copyright Law, but also gave advise while answering queries on ways in which the participants could negotiate between community rights, publishing and the legal angle

Thursday 7th May 2009

9:30AM-11:00AM-- Acquisition, Access and Contracts (Creating Forms)

The fourth day of the workshop saw enthusiastic presenters from the three groups - Acquisition, Access and Contracts putting forward their array of newly created agreement forms.

11:00AM-1:00PM-- Presentation The Music Industry and Copyright: S.L. Saha

S.L Saha gave a brilliant overview of the Recording Industry in India, beginning with a brief history of the Music Industry with its boom through the role of some big players. He traced it through the industry changing shape with technological development in the previous century and the contemporary distress the industry faces due to piracy. He also narrated his personal association and the lessons learnt over the years of dealing with the changing demands of the market along with the copyright laws influencing distribution.

2:00-3:00--Case Studies

-Gargi Sen of Magic Lantern Foundation

In her overview of Copyright history, Gargi Sen of Magic Lantern Foundation emphasized the increased duration of copyright protection over the years, and how the issue of copyright has moved from a legal right to a natural right. Observing that artists are not familiar with legal and economic language of/around copyright, she finds that the emergent anxieties & fears among them are of recent origins. Striving to find model of distribution that rejects issues of ownership yet entails a revenue model.

-Aditya Thakur, Tempostand, a distribution platform

The next presentation was by Aditya Thakur, co founder of Tempostand. As a distribution platform, Tempostand began with the aim to capture the ‘long-tail’ of music industry---the multitude of small musicians/groups---entailing ‘independents’ i.e. those who own their copyright. Rather than simply selling downloads, they chose to raise revenues thru online listening, online competitions, scouting for musicians in college festivals, merchandising, compilation CDs from repertoire. All these activities were also used as an avenue to spread awareness on Creative Commons among their constituency. Most significant was the way in which various online p2p networks of Artist and their Fans were deployed to market the whole initiative.

Friday 8th May 2009

10:00AM-1:00PM-- Interaction session with musicians and concluding session

The morning session began with members the Langa and Manganiyar musician communities of Rajasthan joining the workshop to lay out the issues of copyrights faced by them. While narrating numerous personal experiences and those faced by the communities, the musicians discussed at length their frustrations and helplessness in cases of copyright infringement, lack of attribution and unfair use of their compositions. Making the 'nimbuda' song the central case, the Langas and Manganiyars shared with the participants the lessons they have learnt and the mechanisms they are adopting to negotiate their benefits and securing rights with concert sponsors and researchers. The musicians appealed to the participating representatives to stand in solidarity in safeguarding musicians' rights and play a sensitizing role as researchers working with communities.

3:30-5:00PM-- Visit to Archives and Research Centre Ethnomusicology and AIIS Campus

After a very intense discussion with musicians and lunch, the participants moved to visit the host, Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusiciology, Indian Institute of Indian Studies in Gurgaon, Haryana. Following a brief presentation and tour of Center for Art and Archaeology and its various projects, the participants spent time studying the work flow and agreement forms used by Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusicology.

5:30-6:30PM--Concert

The workshop concluded with a scintillating performance by the Langa and Manganiyar musicians who demonstrated their exclusive performance styles and also made the evening memorable by singing 'nimbuda' together among others from their rich repertoire.