IAMGONNACOPY

“In 2001 I started iamgonnacopy.com In that page you could vote FOR or AGAINST intellectual property and copyright. Back then I wrote this text: The Coca Cola logo. A little poem. A well known painting by Picasso, a Pokemon picture, an article published in a website, a scientific discovery about DNA, a Beatles song, a piece of computer software. Think of your perception as a piece of land. Once you will access any of the above, something is built over it. What you've seen, heard or learned becomes part of your self, literally your property. There is no way to undo that information. You will have to work to put it in order, accept it or modify it in a way that fits your mental scheme. The more intelligent you are, the more you will have to work. You are now a vehicle, a subway train wall and a cultural slave. You cannot go back in time and become a person who doesn't know how to write FedEx, but if you will actually decide to write it over your paintings, FedEx may sue you: that company holds a copyright and apparently owns that part of your head Where the FedEx logo is located. There is a company based in Amsterdam which produces screen recognition software. Its' clients, can use their technology to help their newest systems communicate with their older computers. A New York based company sued them on the basis that they keep a pattern on screen recognition. Content (what the case above, what the old computers are saying), becomes a valuable for whoever will register a way to read it! It promises double profits. A painter may become famous because the public saw his images. He will sell the physical object-the canvasses but he will still demand control over the public's imagination, through his copyright. One of the most beautiful aspects of contemporary life is emulation. It makes from life an open project, a work in progress. But our freedom to emulate is limited. This page is naive: it will not attempt to be scientific* because I didn't' study law. But I know that what I mostly enjoy do is copying, even more than creating or even consuming. I also know that none of the people who's work I respect, could live without copy. Miltos Manetas, 2001…