permaculture

[1earth permaculture <permaculture1@start.com.au>]

Due to Bill not being available for immediate comment, perhaps we can
look to his last statement on the subject for clues as to what is
going on in the current debate on trademarking the "Permaculture" and
"Permaculture Design Course" terminologies.

This is what he wrote in PIJ Sept-Nov 1999:

"Periodically it is necessary to reassert my ownership of the original
permaculture curriculum, which is also legally asserted by publication
of the PERMACULTURE MANUAL in 1988 of which the contents of the book
and the word permaculture are copyrighted to the author and that any
said curriculum must be by application to the author, that is not to
secretaries or other directors, but to the author only."

"The Permaculture Design Course handbook issued by the Permaculture
Institute to students for many years now is simply a concise outline
of said curriculum and subject to the same laws".

"If any person writes a text book, in particular a foundation text
book for a subject, no other person can assert ownership of that text,
lay out or illustrations nor can any group of people substantially
alter or assert ownership of the text".

"We have always specifically guarded ownership of the permaculture
curriculum so that all students have much the same experience in
common no matter what their cultural or financial backgrounds, they
would have a common and equal education experience".

"Both this Institute and our Amercian Institute in Sante Fe,
Permaculture Institute Incorporated, are attempting to establish an
academy that will be legally able to issue higher degrees.  This is a
long process and will not be running smoothly for some time to come.
The Permaculture Institute began issuing diplomas to students after
two years' practical work following their certificate course in about
1988.  It is and shall remain the registrar of all diploma holders
globally.  This diploma is widely recognised through other
institutions and some universities, like Humbolt State University and
Slippery Rock University."

"In the past re-assertions of copyright have appeared in the ACADEMY
YEARBOOK, page 17, and have been reproduced in the 1998 AMERCIAN
PERMACULTURE DIRECTORY, page 6.  Students publishng curriculum which
often contains word for word copies of copyrighted material from the
manual and course handbook cannot sell that curriculum nor can
insitutions purchase said curriculum nor teach it, even if it is
presented under different names, such as Sustainable Agriculture or
Sustainable Designs.  All such people need to write their own
curriculum and textbooks and not plagiarise my work nor my
illustrations.  It would be refreshing if people wanting to publish
would create their own material and did not plagiarise mine."

"This note is to restate the current position so there can be no
misunderstanding about ownership of the material"

Bill Mollison, Director, Permaculture Institute.


Don't shoot me, I'm only the messenger,
Marcus Webb,
www.permacult.com.au


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