Re: <nettime> opencontent.org dissolves and stalls its licenses

[auskadi <auskadi@tvcabo.co.mz>]

Florian, Francis, Tim, Heiko and everyone else

When I first read this series of postings the lawyer (Heiko read "common
law lawyer") in me asked himself why does someone have to maintain a
licence?. All that is needed is that you use it. For this it just needs to
be available. Simply because someone shuts down a web site (or stops
updating it) doesn't seem to invalidate a form of licence if you choose to
use it.

After scanning the Open Content (OC) site I see that the down sides of
Wiley's move are probaly two fold: the licence won't be promoted
vigourously as an alternative and it will not be revised and updated.
Having said this I am still trying to come to grips with this world of OP,
CC, GPL, SD etc etc. But for me in the first place they all proceed
wrongly in terms of where some of us want to go from modernist notions of
property (anyone who read the paper I posted recently on the thread
relating to Linux Strikes back sees that I have a feeling that we can
couch things in terms that are beyond property...not matter how first
blush that paper was I am continuing to think in these broad terms even
afte reading more onthe topic....).

But maybe this tendency is something that can be developed in the first
place through the revision of a licence as so many people still regard or
understand things in these terms.

Anyway, Francis has suggested that Florian take up the maintenance of
OC.... I share a feeling with Tim that the CC/Boyle conglomeration are
doing some interesting work but there is something missing for me in their
political analysis (if I can put it in those terms). There seems to be a
preoccpuation in some ways with fitting the commons into capital (if I may
be so blunt) rather than grasping the significance of these things as (to
borrow from Stefan Merten) a milestone on a road to a new way of doing
things/society. My initial feeling is that (excuse this for those friends
in the States) is that CC is too hung up on North American ideas of
liberty and the "founding fathers". It is one thing I have trouble with
when I read Lessig, Boyle et al...this preoccupation with the values of
the US or their version of what they are. To say this is not to dismiss
the importance of the US Constitutional moment and its effect on the road
to a new global society (I am alluding to Toni Negri and Michael Hardt in
this regard). So please nobody pick up on this particular comment in this
posting and call me out as being not with them, well feel free too but I
am just making an observation about the UScentric view of things like CC,
Lessig et al).


Back to suggestion of Francis. Something like this I feel is better taken
up by a network , with a coorddinator of sorts yes, but being a
collaborative thing. Some legal kicking around would help (but ther are
enough of us here or in other places to do that) some political kicking
around would help of course as well (no shortage of that). Thus I am keen
to suggest that if there is a feeling that CC is not for some of us we
establish a mechanism (some server space please) to take this task on.
who, where, label etc etc all should be up for grabs ...soemhow I have a
feeling that this is worthwile.... thats my 24,000 Mozambiqan metacais
worth. I am happy to discuss options to get it up and running. Martin



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