[cc-community] NC, anticapitalism and clashing visions of freedom - was: More discussion on NC

Paul Houle paul at ontology2.com
Fri Oct 15 10:11:10 EDT 2010


  On 10/15/2010 8:29 AM, j.martin.pedersen wrote:
> This turned into quite a long mail. I had the feeling that the
> conversation was too much at cross-purposes and that one of the
> sentiments behind desiring NC - namely the anti-corporate,
> anti-capitalist - with respect to ideas of freeedom and in that
> particular context in relation to Free Software and Free Culture
> conceptions of freedom, was rather unclear.
>

     I dunno,  one reason for "NC" licensing is that some people want to 
reserve the right to make money for themselves;  copyright protection,  
patents,  trademarks and similar devices are there,  primarily,  so 
people who produce something can have a (regulated) monopoly so they can 
profit from it.  Making content "NC" can be a very capitalistic thing to do.

     If I'm going to get hot and bothered,  it's over the connection 
between "NC" and academia.  Now,  maybe things are different in other 
countries,  but here in the U.S. it's becoming recognized that the 
university system is a major driver of social inequality.  Colleges 
often destroy young people's careers before they start by saddling them 
with tens of thousands,  sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars in 
debt.  Colleges also have a (nearly) exclusive license to suck from the 
public tit to do research.  I feel insulted when academics release 
materials under an NC license,  because (i) I've already paid for it 
with my taxes,  and (ii) I don't see that academic and non-profit 
organizations are any more virtuous than commercial organizations.

     To take an example,  at some point I'm going to have to make a set 
of boundary polygons for 2nd level administrative divisions for all the 
countries on Earth.  This already exists,  in a product called "GADM",  
but GADM is "NC".  I'm going to have to merge data from data sources 
that are (more or less) CC0,  CC-BY and CC-BY-SA and spend probably a 
man*week or so get something that won't be quite as good.  After putting 
me through that work,  I'm tempted to slap a "non-academic" clause on 
the license.

     I make educational resources available free on the web;  free to 
students,  teachers,  and other interested people of all levels.  It 
costs money and time to do this,  so I feel it's perfectly fair to make 
a little cash with advertising.  Contrast that to private unis that 
charge $40k a year and admit kids that are barely housebroken if their 
parents are rich.



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