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  • From: Gisle Hannemyr <gisle AT ifi.uio.no>
  • To: cc-europe AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [CC-Europe] EDRI
  • Date: Sat, 31 Mar 2012 08:40:34 +0200

On 29.03.2012 09:58, Alek Tarkowski wrote:
> I haven't seen a good "ideological" discussion on the goals of CC in a
> while, and it seems it is needed.

Until now, I thought that the goals of CC was pretty
well defined and not open for discussion.

I joined CC in the belief that the mission of CC is making CC licenses
and tools available to the public, educating the public about the
use of these licenses, and making sure the quality of those licenses and
tools hold up in court under current copyright law.

I hope this is still the case, and not something we need to
discuss.

> Because for every artist you mention,
> where CC gains (possibly) credibility through a neutral stance (though
> to be honest, why "a room full of artists" would have a problem with
> CC's involvement against ACTA?),

Sigh. I had hoped to avoid a discussion about the content on ACTA
on this list, but here goes ...

"ACTA" are apperently different things to different people. (IMHO,
most of the descriptions of "ACTA" you'll find on the Internet are
works of fiction.)

I've read carefully through the final and official text of ACTA,
which has been available online since December 3, 2010,
http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/html/147079.htm

I cannot find *anything* in ACTA that will interfere with the function
of CC's licenses and tools, or prevent them from being used.
Therefore I can't see *why* CC need to take a position on ACTA.

On the other hand, ACTA proposes (Article 23) that criminal procedures
and penalties should be used against:
"rights piracy on a commercial scale"
Now, I know a number of succesful artists who belive that rights piracy
on a commercial scale are hurting them, and that legislation that
imposes criminal procedures and penalties on such acts is a good
thing for artists. As a writer and photographer, I happen to
agree with them.

When you ask "though to be honest, why 'a room full of artists'
would have a problem with CC's involvement against ACTA?" - do
you mean to say that you really do not understand why artists
may think that an organisation that lobbies against legislation
to criminalize "rights piracy on a commercial scale" may not be
well aligned with their own interests as commercial artists?

If your answer is "yes" - I would be interested to hear your
reasoning.

> Finally, CC headquarters were involved in anti-PIPA/SOPA activities in
> the US, which again suggests, that it would be good to have a clear
> policy on this, instead of what seem to be particular decisions.

I was not aware of this.

After looking, I find that there some anti-SOPA campaigning
posted on creativecommons.org by at least one senior officer
(example: http://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/30375 )
by CC vice president Mike Linksvayer).

I would not have any problem with Mike posting this on his
personal blog (gondwanaland.com) - but I honestly think that
this posting is completely out of place on creativecommons.org.

Again. There is nothing in SOPA that will interfere with
the function of CC's licenses and tools, or prevent them from
being used, so CC should IMHO not express any opinion about
SOPA.

I hope this was just a fluke. If the CC project is going to mutate
into just another piracy advocacy group (e.g. work towards the same
goals as groups such as EFF and EDRI), I can no longer in good faith
recommend the adoption of CC licenses and tools to other creators.

If CC moves in this direction, I think CC will alinate major parts
of the creative community and only remain popular with the
pirate party/kopime crowd - whose ideology I think can be summed up
in the idea that it is copying, not creating, that is the major
component in culture. As you probably have guessed, I do not
share that ideology.
--
- gisle hannemyr [ gisle{at}hannemyr.no - http://folk.uio.no/gisle/ ]
========================================================================
"Don't follow leaders // Watch the parkin' meters" - Bob Dylan




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