If Value, Then Copy

50x64 cm 

First conceived as a slogan for the work Copyshop, If Value Then Copy questions the idea of rights to immaterial works and ideas. 

Within the copyright regime, every commodity and concept is assigned ownership and thus becomes incorporated within a global system that functions to protect and defend its perceived value. The dictum “if value then right” is used by copyright advocates to suggest that anything that could be valuable should therefore be copyrighted, and that all unauthorised copying should be considered theft and be punishable by law.  

The slogan challenges the very idea of originality, authorship and value. Is any idea truly original? Can one claim ownership of immaterial goods? How do we evolve if not by mimicking and copying what is already surrounding us?

If Value Then Copy was developed within the context of Copyshop, 2005, a collaboration between Copenhagen Brains and SUPERFLEX.