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

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:28:50 +0100 (CET)

It is nice to have approval of quotes but the one thing you have no right
to demand is that. A short quote is so clearly in the public domain
(unless you've written a haiku) that it is fair use with or without
permission, and with or without attribution. But it's nice to try....

Mickey Davis

>
> 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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Mickey Davis
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