Re: nettime Benjamin Mako Hill on Creative Commons
here is my argument in a nutshell: a.) you are using the rhetoric of freedom for the sake of persuasion. I find this rhetoric to be incredibly hollow and needless. b.) you think the CC is not free enough, and therefore detrimental to your cause, becuase it doesn't emit the same attitude or, as you say, ethic of freedom. I'm not crazy about them, but I think the CC lics offer some needed options. c.) I don't think the right to distribute something at will is a necessary prerequisite of freedom? Let's say I make something, a song or a piece of software. I grant you the permission to use it or play it, to sample it or modify it. Let's say I even give you the right to copy it for a friend. Why should I give you complete rights to copy it verbatim and distribute it for money? Or, the better question in your case is, why would that be less free? (please don't answer, because that is what Stallman says, and those are the definitions of free software. also, please don't answer because information wants to be free) d.) the free software definition only addresses the use and distribution of software. it doesn't take the fact of production into account, demanding that a producer give up all his/her rights. the CC license, on the other hand, offers a real choice to a producer of something. Why should someone who has spent their creative energy immediatly release ALL control over their outcomes, especially in a world of totalitarian capitalism where the scales are tipped in the favor of obvious parties? e.) just because there has been some consensus here on nettime, doesn't mean that non-commercial clauses would be immpossible. the CC licenses have some interesting flavors and I am curious to know if any of them will ever be contended. I'm not a lawyer, but I do see fuzzy definitions in other parts of society - like in some tax definitions, where if you can claim something as art, then it has special cultural status and recieves a different tax percentage. f.) I see a lot of cultural funding and support for art in some parts of the western world. Stallman, himself, suggests a Software Tax in the GNU manifesto. There has even been some concesus here on nettime that software is social. So where is the non-commercial support for FLOSS production? Why are few activists focused on finding ways of getting software produced and programmers fed? I'm not just talking about conceptual, retinal or acoustic art ware, but real utilitarian software. g.) the free software definition, as professed by you and many others (and even by myself to some extent) is incredibly efficient, simple, complete and probably bullet-proof. It's also isolated in its own world of bits and bytes, taking little consideration for the world of flesh and desire around it. I'm curious to know what your definition of free culture is. For me it has more to do with having the freedom not to have to work 40+ hours a week, and more to do with having free time to develop the things I am interested in. While I see the point in arguing for a code of conduct or ethics, I find the entire argument to be much larger than your definition of freedom. best -august. # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and info nettime-l in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net
RE: nettime My Sixty-Five Failures
Very recognisable. However: ...when you choose to write or author a work, you're being read because you fail to write it, how splendidly you fail, that is. Failing to write the Divine Comedy, like Dante did, now that's something... That's something i wrote, (failing) on the NkdeE blog (http://nkdee.blogspot.com/2005/03/on-hacking-vaihinger-programming.html) some time ago. I think you're doing a splendid job and are an inspiration to all of us, perhaps lacking in the artistic courage you show constantly. greetings, dv @ Neue Kathedrale des erotischen Elends http://www.vilt.net/nkdee -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Alan Sondheim Sent: zondag 31 juli 2005 16:07 To: nettime-l@bbs.thing.net Subject: nettime My Sixty-Five Failures My Sixty-Five Failures ... # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and info nettime-l in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net
nettime Anthracite Casualties
Anthracite Casualties The estimates of the number of men and boys dying in the anthracite minefields of Pennsylvania from the mid 1800s through the first few decades of the 20th century seem to vary a great deal. The particular volume illustrated below lists 1622 deaths for the three years 1910-1912. The fields covered a very small area, including Scranton and Wilkes-Barre, my home town. I believe the total deaths during this period reached 50,000. The 11 images are from an illustrated booklet, used to teach miners safety measures, as well as limited English. Most of the miners were from Eastern Europe. The images are from the Report of the Department of Mines in Pennsylvania. http://www.asondheim.org/nine mine jpgs _ # distributed via nettime: no commercial use without permission # nettime is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [EMAIL PROTECTED] and info nettime-l in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net
nettime Marcos: A penguin in the Selva Lacandona, Part 1
Marcos: A penguin in the Selva Lacandona, Part 1 Originally published in Spanish by the EZLN * Translated by irlandesa A Penguin in the Selva Lacandona I/II (The zapatista is just a little house, perhaps the smallest, on a street called Mexico, in a barrio called Latin America, in a city called the World.) You're not going to believe me, but there's a penguin in the Ezeta Headquarters. You'll say Hey, Sup, what's up? You already blew the fuses with the Red Alert, but it's true. In fact, while I'm writing this to you, he (the penguin) is right here next to me, eating the same hard, stale bread (it has so much mold that it's just one degree away from being penicillin), which, along with coffee, were my rations for today. Yes, a penguin. But I'll tell you more about this later, because first we must talk a bit about the Sixth Declaration. We have carefully read some of your doubts, criticism, advice and debates about what we posited in the Sixth. Not all of them, it's true, but you can chalk that up, not to laziness, but to the rain and mud that's lengthening the roads even more in the mountains of the Mexican Southeast. Although there are many points, I'm only going to refer to some of them in this text. Some of the primary points of criticism refer to the so-called new intercontinental, to the national Mexican nature of the Sixth, and, along with this, to the proposal (it's still just that, a proposal) of joining the indigenous struggle with that of other social sectors, notably with workers in the countryside and the city. Others refer to the definition of the anti-capitalist left and to the Sixth's dealing with old issues or using worn out concepts. A few others warn of dangers: the displacement of the indigenous issue by others and, consequently, the Indian peoples being excluded as the subjects of transformation. The vanguardism and centralism that could arise in the politics of alliances with organizations of the left. The replacement of social leadership by political leadership. That the right would use zapatismo in order to strike a blow at López Obrador, in other words, at the political center (I know that those observations speak of AMLO's being on the left, but he says he's in the center, so here we're going to take what he says, not what they say about him). The majority of these observations are well intended, and they seek to help, rightly warning of obstacles in the path, or rightly providing opinions as to how the movement which the Sixth is trying to arouse might grow. Concerning cutting and pasting I will leave aside those who are lamenting that the Red Alert didn't end with the renewal of offensive combat by the EZLN. We are sorry that we didn't fulfill your expectations of blood, death and destruction. No way, we're sorry. Perhaps another time...We will also leave aside the dishonest criticisms. Like those who edit the text of the Sixth Declaration so that it says what they want it to say. This is what Señor Victor M. Toledo did in his article Overweening Zapatismo. Sustainability, indigenous resistances and neoliberalism, published in the Mexican newspaper La Jornada (July 18, 2005). I believe one can debate the aims and methods posited by the Sixth Declaration without needing to be dishonest. Because Señor Toledo, utilizing the cut and paste method, has edited the Sixth in order to note that it lacks...what he cut. Toledo said: It is surprising that (the EZLN in the Sixth Declaration) decided to join forces with campesinos, workers, laborers, students, women, young people, homosexuals, lesbians, transsexuals, priests, nuns and social activists, and that it does not make one single reference to the thousands of indigenous communities devoted to the search for sustainability. Well, the parts which Señor Toledo edited out of the Sixth stated the opposite. For example, in the part which recognizes the existence of resistances and alternatives to neoliberalism in Mexico, and in first place in the enumeration of them, it notes: And so we learned that there are indigenous, whose lands are far away from here in Chiapas, and they are building their autonomy and defending their culture and caring for the land, the forests, the water. Perhaps Señor Toledo was expecting a detailed account of those indigenous struggles, but that is one thing, and it's another very different and dishonest thing to say that there was not one single reference. In the account made by Señor Toledo of the efforts of those with which the EZLN decided to join, he has cut out the first social group to which the Sixth refers, which says, verbatim: And then, according to the agreement of the majority of those people to whom we are going to listen, we will make a struggle with everyone, with indigenous, workers, campesinos, etcetera. In addition, the first point of the Sixth precisely states: 1. We are going to continue to fight for the Indian peoples
