The Free Culture Conference is an annual gathering of students, activists, thinkers, and innovators who are dedicated to advancing discussions on technology, law, and public policy and advocating for a more free, open, and participatory digital environment. Through panels, keynote speakers, and workshops, FCX 2013 will focus on current issues in intellectual property law, open access to educational resources, maker culture, digital rights, and technology policy.

For more information about the conference, visit the conference website: http://fcx2013.org

If you have any questions, feel free to email board@freeculture.org. Program details are below. After party details to follow.

Through the generosity of our sponsors, SFC is once again able to offset students' and activists' travel costs for this year’s conference in NYC. If you can’t afford the cost of traveling to NYC, please do not hesitate to fill out the form to request travel funding. We have some money and we want to give it to you. Here is the form: http://bit.ly/fcx2013_travelfunding

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Day 1 (April 20, 2013)

 

08:30 a.m. – 09:30 a.m.

Registration

 

09:30 a.m. – 09:45 a.m.

Opening Remarks

 

09:45 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

A.M. Keynote: Benjamin Mako Hill (Berkman Center for Internet and Society)

 

10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. 

Getting Past Gridlock: What does Tangible Copyright Reform Look Like?

How can copyleft advocates and copyright reformists make progress in effectuating change in United States copyright laws? This panel considers what smaller, achievable reform looks like, how it can be accomplished, and what next steps for the immediate future will be. Panelists will discuss: Are the objectives of the Copyright Act being met in practice today? How can reform, even at a small scale, benefit content owners, creators, and users?

Moderator: 

· Parker Higgins (Electronic Frontier Foundation)

Panelists:

· Patricia Aufderheide (Center for Social Media, American University)

· Karen Sandler (QuestionCopyright.org, GNOME)

· Sherwin Siy (Public Knowledge)

 

11:45 a.m. – 01:00 p.m. 

The Future of Open Access Advocacy

Open Access has been of great interest and importance to SFC for several years. This panel focuses on what open access means and what kind of advocacy work is being done in this area, as well as clarifying misconceptions of what open access is really about. Panelists will talk about their experiences with and perspectives on open access advocacy and discuss: What is the impact of OA on academic research and publishing? What are the core principles behind OA? How can people effectively advocate for open access causes?

Moderator: 

· Adi Kamdar (Electronic Frontier Foundation)

Panelists:

· Nicole Allen (Student PIRGs/Make Textbooks Affordable)

· Nick Shockey (SPARC/Right to Research Coalition)

· Timothy Vollmer (Creative Commons)

 

01:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. 

Lunch

 

02:00 p.m. – 02:45 p.m.

P.M. Keynote: James Vasile (Open Internet Tools Project, New America Foundation)

 

02:45 p.m. – 04:00 p.m.

Makers, Hackers, and the World They Build

Maker and hacker culture, highly collaboratory and extremely prolific, both adopt free cultural ideals, such as sharing, open source, collaboration, and remix. This panel explores how maker and hacker culture puts into practice these free culture ideals, as well as how makers and hackers build community and work towards social good.

Moderator: 

· Trystram Spiro-Costello (Rutgers University)

Panelists:

· Catarina Mota (NYU ITP/openMaterials)

· Alicia Gibb (NYCResistor/Open Source Hardware Association)

· Daniel Reetz (DIYBookScanner.org)

 

 

04:00 p.m. – 05:15 p.m. 

The Changing Landscape of Online Speech and its Regulation

Free speech is held as one of the central tenets of many online communities, but what is meant by it? In many online communities, censorship, freedom of speech, pornography, harassment, and hate speech are often conflated without consideration of who is given the power to speak. This panel will consider if, how, and when speech online should be regulated, and by whom. Panelists will also discuss whether Internet service providers should be held liable for user-generated content, and what such liability would mean for free expression online.

Moderator:  

· Jennifer Baek (New York Law School)

Panelists:

· Molly Land (New York Law School)

· Gabriel Rottman (American Civil Liberties Union)

· Ari Waldman (New York Law School)

 

05:15 p.m. – 05:30 p.m.

 Closing Remarks for Day 1

 

 

 

Day 2 (April 21, 2013)

 

09:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.

Registration

 

10:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Unconference Welcome

 

10:30 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Workshops Session I

·       Open Access Advocacy

·       Wikipedia & Education

12:00 p.m. – 01:30 p.m.

Workshops Session II

· Free Culture & Civic Engagement   

· The Future of the Org.   

 

01:30 p.m. – 02:30 p.m.                      

Lunch

 

02:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.                      

Lightning Talks/Presentations

 

3:30 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

SFC General Body Meeting