[cc-community] Benjamin Mako Hill on Creative Commons

drew Roberts zotz at 100jamz.com
Mon Aug 1 22:26:13 EDT 2005


Sorry to get drawn back in instead of letting it rest.

On Monday 01 August 2005 09:26 pm, Greg London wrote:
> > I am not saying I would like that. Just that Free Market thinkers sould
> > be able to come up with a better system than the granting of government
> > monopolies. Unless we are to accept that there are some situations where
> > the
> > Free Market is sub-optimal.
> >
> > Again, surely the Free Market will find a solution that is better
> > than the government meddling in the markets that we have now. Just
> > because I can't see what the solution would be from where I sit,
> > and you don't see it either, does not mean that it does not exist.
>
> from wikipedia:
>
> During Nixon's election campaign in 1967,
> Nixon promised "peace with honor," and without claiming to be able
> to win the war, Nixon claimed that "new leadership will end the war
> and win the peace in the Pacific". When a reporter pressed Nixon
> for specifics, he did not reveal any details. Because of this,
> Nixon's opponents criticized him for not revealing his secret plan
> to end the Vietnam War, although Nixon had not used this famous
> phrase. Still, many voters supported Nixon because they believed
> he would end the war.
> </snip>
>
> All during the campaign, Nixon never said how he was going
> to do it, only that he was going to do it.
>
> Once elected, Nixon revealed his marvelous plan was...
> Vietnamization.
>
> The problem with "the free market should be able to
> find a solution that's better than government intervention"
> is, well, it's impossible to disprove. I'd prefer to
> have a workable, if somewhat imperfect sytem of copyright,
> that is at least based in some sense of fairness, than
> to consider tossing it for some as yet undefined system
> that may or may not materialize.

Oh, I couldn't agree more. I was just putting that out to see what reaction I 
might get from the Free Market above all set. (Not htat I think you are in 
it.)
>
> > It is not irrelevant as I am not out to replace the current system
> > whole hog. I will be happy if you can fix it in the ways you imagine.
> > I want something  to operate alongside (or actually inside) the system
> > you propose that will benefit a different set of players in a
> > different way.
>
> But this system is yet undefined.

It does not need to be defined yet as te current system with your intended 
fixes will be operating all along giving this otehr system time to develop.
>
> > The concept of a gift economy does not enter my thinking when I think
> > in this area. I have read ESR's work, but am not convinced.
>
> Eric Raymond didn't invent the term "gift economy".

I did not so assert. (Another straw man.) He did apply the term to the Free 
Software world in his writing though if my memory serves.
>
> > Hey, even in the century just passed, the track record was not
> > all that great. I would not discount so easily the achievements
> > of societies before the dark ages however.
>
> Uhm, in 1905, most people were riding horses in a mostly agricultural
> world. Electricity was mostly limited to being used for light bulbs in
> cities, telephones used handcranks to generate a ring. radios were
> rare and used vacuum tubes.
>
> The Wright brothers flew at Kittyhawk in 1903.
> Ford build his mass production automobile plant in 1910.
> The Lusitania took several days to cross the atlantic, torpedoed in 1915.
> Charles Lindbergh was the first to fly across the atlantic in 1927.
> The Hindenburg, one of teh first attempts at transatlantic passenger
> travel by air, exploded in 1937.
> the Transistor was invented in 1947.
> Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in 1947.
> Polaroid camaras reached the market in 1948.
> The word "Xerox" was trademarked for the first photocopiers in 1948.
> Watson and Crick described DNA in 1953.
> Sputnik went into orbit in 1957.
> The first integrated circuit was build in 1959.
> The first successful weather satelite was launched in 1960.
> The first man landed on the moon in 1969.
> The first message was sent over ARPANET in 1969
> The first single chip microprocessor was built in 1970.
> The Mark-8 computer kit was sold in 1974.
> Mobile phones became available in the 1980's.
> The IBM PC-XT was introduced in 1981
> Microsoft introduced Windows in 1985
> The first GPS satellites were launched in 1989.
> First linux kernel released 1991.
> The first MP3 software encoder was released 1993
> the Ipod was released in 2001
> Spaceship One made the first privately-funded human spaceflight in 2004.
>
> Not too friggen shabby for a hundred years.

Not too shabby at all. If that is what you are concerned with measuring. What 
is shabby is the record of killings in wars and other events. Of hunger and 
starvation and disease. Don't get me wrong. I am happy to be alive in my own 
time. I do think we need to work on some of those corrections you see are 
needed though or things could easily get a lot worse.

all the best,

drew
-- 
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22drew%20Roberts%22



More information about the cc-community mailing list