[Upd-discuss] Ethical Public Domain: Debate of Questionable Practices

[Andrius Kulikauskas]

Seth, Michael, Richard and all,

Sasha Mrkailo wrote about a COMMUNIA workshop that I and our Minciu 
Sodas laboratory are organizing in Vilnius, Lithuania but also with help 
from online participants.  Please find more information below.  I 
appreciate our responses and I also invite us to join us at 
http://www.ethicalpublicdomain.org

Michael Hart, Thank you for your letter to me.  I discussed briefly with 
Sasha Mrkailo and he is interested to write a one-page statement and 
include ideas from some of your papers.

Andrius Kulikauskas
Minciu Sodas
http://www.ms.lt
ms@ms.lt
+370 699 30003
Vilnius, Lithuania


COMMUNIA Workshop: "Ethical Public Domain: Debate of Questionable 
Practices" March 31, 2008, Vilnius, Lithuania

The European Commission is funding the COMMUNIA thematic network for the 
Public Domain.  A vibrant network may inspire European Union directives 
to the member states that they amend their constitutions so that the 
Public Domain has primacy over copyright.  Imagine a world where 
creative works enter the Public Domain by default unless their authors 
explicitly mark them as copyrighted; where the creator of a derivative 
work can copyright only their own modifications and not the entire work; 
where the owner of a derivative work must make available any Public 
Domain works they use or their own work falls into the Public Domain; 
and where non-humans (such as corporations) are prohibited from owning 
creative works unless they are capable of creating them, and prohibited 
from managing creative works unless they show a moral sense of fair use 
that allows for more gray than black or white.

We can create a world that favors the Public Domain if we engage each 
other as concerned citizens in thoughtful discourse.  Our workshop is a 
series of friendly debates by which we engage those whose practices we 
question.  How can Google scrape so many websites and yet have Terms of 
Services which prevent others from scraping its own website?  Why is 
there no market for used Microsoft software?  Why is Flickr set up for 
use with Creative Commons licenses but not the Public Domain?  Why does 
Wikipedia use the eight-page GNU FDL license which must be included in 
any excerpt?  Why does Creative Commons define Public Domain as "no 
rights reserved" rather than "all use encouraged"?  Why is the European 
Commission ready to extend the term of protection for related rights in 
sound recordings from 50 years to 95 years?  Why does the COMMUNIA 
website use a Share Alike license which clashes with the Public Domain?  
Why is Minciu Sodas inviting corporations to sponsor debates like thes
 e?  We welcome all questions that help us explore how we might share 
creative works as co-creators and support a vibrant commons.
 
Ten half-hour debates will take place from 10:00 to 15:00 at the ELTA 
news agency press conference center, Gedimino 21/2, Vilnius, Lithuania.  
Each debate will include:
* a 5 minute critique of a practice that hurts the Public Domain
* a 5 minute defense of that practice
* 10 minutes of contributions from the audience
* 5 minutes of mediation.
Debaters can present their arguments themselves in Vilnius, or ask 
somebody to present on their behalf, especially if they are not able to 
attend.  Remote participants will also be included by video bridge.

Participate in the debates by signing up at 
http://www.ethicalpublicdomain.org and joining or creating groups as 
explained by the Call For Participation at the website.  The debates are 
meant to unfold as a work-in-progress.  All content enters the Public 
Domain unless it explicitly states otherwise.

The debates will be followed by a press conference at 15:00 and then an 
evening at the Neringa Restaurant, Gedimino 23 for discussion, dinner 
and creative works, including (if all goes well with visas!) the Nafsi 
Afrika Acrobats and drummers from Kenya who coach the youths in the 
slums and build human pyramids as peacemakers.

Admission is free and open to the public, but pre-registration at 
http://www.ethicalpublicdomain.org is required to guarantee admission.  
The website contains information about the program, location, travel and 
accomodation.

This workshop is organized by the Minciu Sodas laboratory 
http://www.ms.lt for serving and organizing independent thinkers around 
the world.  Contact Andrius Kulikauskas, +370 699 30003, ms@ms.lt or 
Thomas Chepaitis +370 690 46073, uzupis.fafministry@gmail.com  The 
Scandic Hotel Neringa is offering a special rate of 81 EUR for those 
attending the workshop.  If you stay an extra day in Vilnius, note that 
April 1, is Uzupis Day in the imaginatively independent Uzupis Republic.


=========

About COMMUNIA

The COMMUNIA Thematic Network aims at becoming a European point of 
reference for theoretical analysis and strategic policy discussion of 
existing and emerging issues concerning the public domain in the digital 
environment - as well as related topics, including, but not limited to, 
alternative forms of licensing for creative material; open access to 
scientific publications and research results; management of works whose 
authors are unknown (i.e. orphan works).

Funded by the European Commission within the eContentplus framework, the 
3-years long project expects to provide policy guidelines that will help 
each stakeholder involved - public and private, from the local to the 
European and global level.

COMMUNIA also plans to build strategic relationships with other 
non-European countries (starting with the United States and Brazil, 
where two COMMUNIA members are located) in which similar policy 
discussions are currently underway.

Website: http://www.communia-project.eu
Media contact: press@communia-project.eu