This week’s symposium (and it was a symposium) consisted of discussion on copyright, and basically what we can get away with. I felt that this symposium was just alright, but at times it felt as though it could have simply been a lecture, as there didn’t really seem to be a great amount of opinionated discussion. Granted the content didn’t exactly lend itself to a great deal of opinion, so I look forward to some more divisive and interesting discussions in the coming weeks. Despite not being too enthused, I definitely appreciated some of the clarification of copyright laws, if it wasn’t a little depressing – I ultimately left thinking ‘why can’t people see that there’s more to life than suing someone for a million dollars for using your lyrics in a short film?’, but I guess that’s just the reality.
Also, as far as the discussion of defamation goes, I was slightly dissatisfied with the conclusion of just being nice in our blogs. I agree, there are lots of nice things in the world, but there are also many negative things, and ignoring them isn’t exactly a great way of dealing with them. Sure, they’re just student blogs, and I’ll probably largely write about nice things anyway, but I guess I’d like to see criticism and debate encouraged more, not just on things that we’re experts on.
For all my slight negativity, my engagement with this symposium is far more apparent than most other lectures, which I generally leave with an overwhelming sense of indifference, thinking ‘yeah, probably could’ve skipped that’. So I’m looking forward to some more symposiums.