Workshop: Redefining Access--Issues of Access, Archives and Copyright in Japan

Announcement from H-Net:

Recent decades have seen an extraordinary increase in channels of access to materials in print, sound and image. Intense struggles about the conditions and forms that access should take are ongoing.

Momentous changes in how we produce, circulate and store materials new and old directly affect everyday life, the public sphere, and legal frameworks and practices. The meaning of access is changing to include editing, remixing and re-circulation. While a new kind of economy forms around access, struggles ensue that involve states, corporations, activists and public institutions.

The context of Japan presents a unique set of challenges. The situation in Japan is particularly restrictive and difficult to navigate for anyone with the goal of gaining access to media materials, or of providing wider access to them.

The attempts to speed up the passing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and its possible consequences renew the sense of urgency about these issues. Japan is at the center of the TPP negotiations, and will exert considerable influence on its outcomes. TPP is only one factor in what is an ongoing, fundamental transformation, but it is an influential one.

This workshop aims to bring together different groups directly involved with dealing with the challenges of these struggles and their considerable consequences. It assembles researchers, librarians, legal experts and industry representatives. Each of these groups speak about the issue of access with a slightly different language. This workshop provides a platform for finding common concerns and locating spaces for interventions.

The workshop looks at three aspects of this complex situation:

First, the concrete problems and issues concerning archiving and access of materials in Japan.

Second, the ways we can understand and theoretically frame this situation and the possibilities it harbors.

And third, what kind of concrete visions and expectations we might have for the further development of the situation concerning media materials in Japan.

*No pre-registration is necessary, anyone is free to attend the event.*

*Location: Meiji Gakuin University, Shirokanedai Campus, Building #2, B1 Floor, Room 2102*
*Date: June 13, 2015, 10:00 - 17:10*
*Organizers: Alexander Zahlten (Harvard University), Roland Domenig (Meiji Gakuin University)*

*Campus Map*: http://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/en/campus/shirokane/*