[Upd-discuss] Ethical Public Domain: Debate of Questionable
Practices
Michael Hart
Michael S. Hart" <hart@pobox.com
Tue, 25 Mar 2008 00:28:23 -0700 (PDT)
On Tue, 25 Mar 2008, Andrius Kulikauskas wrote:
> 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.
Please keep me posted, I will try to help with the one pager.
Michael
>
> 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
>
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