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Toronto gallery hangs show of art in opposition to the Canadian DMCA

July 6, 2008 on 10:40 pm | Toronto's Edward Day Gallery has a wonderful response to Canada's proposed new copyright law, Bill C-61, which mirrors (and exceeds) the American DMCA. They've hung a show called Appropos featuring art that the new bill criminalises.

The locks will prevent artistic, legitimate and legal uses of media. The Appropriation Art Coalition, a coalition of art professionals across Canada oppose Bill C-61, advocating that if the new legislation is passed, it will make it "illegal to access existing material, modify it, comment on it and/or publicly display it. Criticism, parody and satire, under Bill C-61 become criminal acts." A National Post comments reader, GeofG, suggests that since the Bill prohibits circumventing digital locks, "taking a clip from DVD for purposes of parody or political criticism is outlawed; unlocking your cell phone is banned…as is watching overseas DVD’s". Another response to the Bill from Dala concludes that "A future with digital locks is one where works go into the Disney vault and never come out again".

The Appropos group exhibition is based on the work of artists whose use of imagery integrates existing popular culture products/icons. One of the purposes of the exhibition is to emphasize the crucial relevance of appropriation to contemporary visual artists and their studio practice. As revisions to Copyright Act legislation, known as the Act to Amend the Copyright Act, are currently underway by the Canadian government, there are valid concerns that the elements of contemporary artistic practice such as appropriation and "quoting" could potentially be outlawed by draconian legislation.

Link (via Geist)