permaculture

["Lee Flier" <lflier@mindspring.com>]

Akiva wrote:

>People were placing swales on contour and growing banana
>circles before Bill was born. Is each individual concept touched upon by
>permaculture (and often shared by other uncopywrited ecological design
>practices) to be only contained within a legally restricted, copyrighted
>label? This seems conterpurpose to permaculture ethics and natural
patterns,
>smacking of inefficient centralized monopoly.

I think this is a really common misunderstanding.  Mollison and Holmgren
don't claim copyrights on swaling or banana circles; rather, Permaculture is
a system of design principles, and a method of communicating that system.
Swaling and banana circles are simply techniques used to illustrate these
principles, and students are supposed to develop and teach their own
techniques.  Specifics will be different according to the locality and lots
of other factors, but Permaculture as a *system* and a teaching curriculum
is, the way I understand it, what Bill has copyrighted.  IMO this is a
terrific idea because it allows for nearly infinite growth and contributions
from everyone involved - BUT it still places a burden on teachers to
maintain consistency in the basic principles.  Obviously, a lot of people
don't do that, and they think that's OK for whatever reason - like: Bill has
no monopoly on swales so he has no right to "monopolize" permaculture, or:
Bill has a lot of great ideas but some of them are "outdated", or: Bill says
it's OK because once you get your design certificate, Permaculture is
whatever you think it is.  Sorry, but it ain't.

--Lee

***********************************
Lee A. Flier
lflier@mindspring.com
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
http://lflier.home.mindspring.com