permaculture

[Toby Hemenway <toby@patternliteracy.com>]

On 9/10/04 4:50 AM, "neotern-1@yahoo.com" <neotern-1@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I agree that one should not loose money passing the
> information (costs must be shared by everyone), but
> can't see why one should gain money either in this
> way.

How can you pass information without there being some cost? And why is it so
bad if some of that cost is money, or if the information passer decides they
would like to be paid in money? If the "passer" sets too high a price, no
one will buy, and they'll learn to be reasonable. If they're just
photocopying easily available work, they can't charge much, although even
the work involved in copying and posting on a web site is worth something,
yes? It's not free.
 
Stewart Brand says he regrets ever having said "information wants to be
free," since it's become the justification for piracy and theft. Basic
physics (information theory) says information is not free: there is an
energetic cost for assembling a coherent message, a cost for preserving it
from corruption, plus transmission and equipment costs. Cost decline with
more users, but they never go away.

To put that in human terms: Writing and posting an article on my web site,
even if I'm just rehashing someone else's ideas, takes my time and energy,
the cost of my years of experience, plus a bit of cash to my web host, some
of my computer's cost, ISP, phone co., etc. So it's not free. I do it
because I want the information to be out there, but also because I hope
someone might notice my book or go to one of my workshops, which in turn
will give me the cash to pay my mortgage so I can then write more articles
in my home office. I could, I realize, live further down the food
chain--live in a squat and do my writing at the library, etc, but who's
funding the library? Why should the other taxpayers support me? I'd rather
live in a way that allows me to see and pay for as much of the true cost of
my own lifestyle, rather than sucking resources out others as though they
owed me; they don't. A resource is like right-of-way: it is offered, not
forced out of someone. That would be called theft, yes?

If someone wants to Xerox part of my book, it's illegal but it's fine with
me. I want the info out there (but please credit me; that's how you can pay
me back). If someone can't afford the book, go ahead and Xerox the whole
thing (though if you are stealing your employer's photocopier, where are the
ethics in that?). But if wholesale piracy meant that I didn't receive much
compensation for the 6 months of research, year of writing, months of
editing and design, and weeks of book tours, I would never write another
book again--I couldn't afford to. So there'd be a lot less information out
there if too many people regarded it as "free," meaning they just take it
without offering a quid pro quo. Most creators can't afford to create
without some sort of return. (Copyright law was enacted to give creators a
monopoly on their work so they would be rewarded and go on creating; read
the legal decisions.)

Why would anyone ever think they don't need to pay for something they
receive? What entitles them to freeload? Where is the possible logic or
social justice in "I think X should be free"? Will someone explain that one
to me?

Alternative rant: Miekel referred to "yuppies from the city" taking those
expensive design courses. Let's watch our prejudices here. Yuppies don't
take design courses; I don't see them there. Farmers, students, non-profit
staff, hippies, new college grads--they take design courses, getting money
from parents, loans, jobs, wherever. I've had maybe 3 yuppies in my hundreds
of students, and they all wanted out of yuppiedom (real yuppies take $2500
shamanism workshops, if I may let my own prejudices show).

I'm grateful to all the many contributors to this thread who have shown how
many different ways there are to learn permaculture. My one addition is that
it's best if you learn or practice it with other people--it's not "culture"
if it cannot stand up to social interaction. Otherwise it's just sandcastle
building.

Toby
www.patternliteracy.com