[Upd-discuss] Re: Ethical Public Domain: Debate of Questionable
Practices
Michael Hart
Michael S. Hart" <hart@pobox.com
Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:39:42 -0700 (PDT)
I agree completely with Mr. Stallman on this issue.
I don't mind putting my career's work in the public domain,
particularly when it is derived from the public domain in large,
even though some think I should have copylefted it to prevent so
many others from making a profit from work I hardly get paid for.
However, I think it is MORE important to get all kinds of eBooks
into the world, even if from expensive items such as Amazon Kindle,
Sony Reader, Rocketbook, Netlibrary, etc. that are really from the
the public domain in large part, as well.
Doubly however, I think a DISCUSSION should include EXACT QUOTES,
and this is not guaranteed by the public domain, so I just give
permission to reprint, requiring that I see the context so I can
give my approval.
I was recently quoted by the Wall St. Journal as saying:
"eBooks will never make it."
Now you know why I insist on an email quotation being used.
Obviously The Wall St. Journal interviewer either had an agenda
and/or didn't have any idea what my career is all about.
Therefore, I am happy for you to quote my various papers in the
discussions, but I want to see the quotes and approve them in a
period before they go out.
It's simply that I've been misquoted quite often in my career.
Thanks!!!
Michael S. Hart
Founder, 1971
Project Gutenberg
Inventor of eBooks
On Fri, 28 Mar 2008, Andrius Kulikauskas wrote:
> Richard Stallman wrote:
>> Also, please, could your one-page statement be in the Public
>> Domain?
>>
>> Why do you prefer that?
>>
>> I don't like to permit modified versions of my statements of
>> opinion.
>> So I generally release them under something like the CC Noderivs
>> license.
>> (I recommend the same practice to others.)
>>
>
> Richard,
>
> Thank you for your question. I will share my response more
> broadly. This will encourage our debates!
>
> My own interest in the Public Domain is as a foundation for online
> social networking. I founded the Minciu Sodas laboratory
> http://www.ms.lt in 1998 for serving and organizing independent
> thinkers. All of our venues have been "Public Domain except as
> noted otherwise". We have had about 1,000 authors participate.
> http://www.ms.lt/authors.php
> We have written some 30,000 letters http://www.ms.lt/news.php
> 4,000 wiki pages http://www.worknets.org and have an active online
> chat room with an archive http://www.worknets.org/archive/ all in
> the Public Domain. In a similar spirit, this year in Kenya we
> organized a Pyramid of Peace http://www.pyramidofpeace.net with
> more than 100 peacemakers on-the-ground to whom we distribute
> thousands of dollars worth of phone credit under condition that
> they let us publicly post their telephone numbers on the Internet.
>
> I provide free services to our participants who "work for free" by
> working openly in the Public Domain on their endeavors. The
> result is that we filter in for sharing, self-directed people and
> we filter out for those who are selfish and destructive. This for
> me is the real value of the Public Domain, it is a litmus test for
> those who wish to contribute to a commons and care for it. In
> this way we have network of self-directed people who have grown to
> work together and are ready for mobilization to help a client who
> provides direction and funding and wants momentum and is willing
> that we meet them halfway as we each pursue our own projects. An
> example is the 2,000 stories that we collected for My Food Story
> http://www.myfoodstory.com for Greg Wolff of Unamesa Assocation
> http://www.unamesa.org
>
> Code likes to clump, but content likes to crumble. Richard, if
> you write a one-page statement, there is likely a sentence or
> paragraph that may stand out that I or others may like to use. Or
> your work may provide the basis for a wiki page that evolves
> further. By placing your work in the Public Domain you agree to
> participate in such a culture. Your decision either way shows
> your aptitude for such collective work. Is it worth investing
> energy to reach out to you? Or should I devote myself to working
> with Fred Kayiwa in Uganda who is willing to work in the Public
> Domain? For me the answer is clear and lets me reach out to
> include all based on their aptitude for giving, which is to say,
> give to the givers. If he has energy, then he can reach out to
> you. At some point we hope to include you, but the ones who are
> most giving are the ones who are most central. I myself have
> given thousands of letters to the Public Domain and all of my
> creative work.
>
> We are organizing an Ethical Public Domain which fosters a culture
> that is ethical rather than legal. Code is happy to clump and
> have thousands of programs in one distribution. But content likes
> to crumble and wishes for a free trade zone of ideas. The basic
> requirements of copyright and copyleft hinder the use of one's own
> best judgement. Any license requires a work to be delineated, the
> license to be specified and tracked, the steward of that work to
> be identified, and then permissions to be requested! This is an
> impractical burden for an organizer like me who is fostering a
> new culture. And it is a failure to encourage a free give and
> take of each other's ideas that allows us to play out the culture
> that we would like to share. Rather than depend on the force of
> the legal system and a justice system which I have no interest or
> opportunity to participate in, I wish to engage others in an
> ethical system and culture system that we can create together.
>
> Richard, Micheal and all, I would be happy to share your own
> positions on this question, under whatever license, at our
> workshop Ethical Public Domain. This would make for a great
> debate and discussion.
>
> Andrius
>
> Andrius Kulikauskas
> Minciu Sodas
> http://www.ms.lt
> ms@ms.lt
> +370 699 30003
> Vilnius, Lithuania
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