permaculture

[grifenhope@gmail.com]

Hola from Chile, what's the deal with copyright and translation? If we 
translate without permission are we in breach of the rules? The Instituto 
chileno de permacultura has translated and subtitled bills global gnardener 
series...by necessity. We lend it and sell it at cost. Gracias, Grifen
-----Original Message-----
From: Juergen Botz <jurgen@botz.org>
Date: Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:00:19 
To: permaculture<permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [permaculture] Information monopoly (was: Intellectual property)

On 11/14/2009 09:39 AM, Dieter Brand wrote:
> I have the impression that you don’t understand the function of the
> Intellectual Property system.

Your impression is incorrect, my friend.  I am quite intimately
familiar with it.  But I have the impression that you are not
very familiar with the current debate about the state of this
system.  I also have the impression that you didn't actually
pay much attention to what I wrote before or you might have
noticed that I know a little of what I'm talking about.

> The system is subject to change
> according to changes occurring in customs and society and there are
> some differences between different countries.  But basically its
> function is to propagate information and not to monopolize it.

Yes, of course.  It is meant to benefit society.  In the United
States constitution for example it explicitly states that the
government shall grant monopolies to authors and inventors for
limited amounts of time to promote science and the useful arts.
The problem is not the INTENDED FUNCTION of the system, but rather
that it doesn't fulfill this intended function very well, i.e.
that if fails to benefit society.  It is doubtful that it ever
did, and it certainly does not do so today.  Rather than changing
according to the changes in customs and society it changes
according to the interests of the rich and powerful (i.e.
corporations) as should be obvious by the fact that copyright
keeps being extended to cover longer times even though far more
creative works are being produced and by the fact that patents
are still valid for the same period of time as 200 years ago
even though technology moves far faster today.

I will not take the time here to recount all the arguments for
and against information monopolies, except to reiterate, as I
said in my original message, that the majority of serious studies
of this question today show it is doubtful information monopolies
actually promote innovation or that they are necessary for
production of creative works.  A good place to start reading
about this is the book "Against intellectual monopoly" which is
freely available on-line here:
   http://www.dklevine.com/general/intellectual/againstfinal.htm

> Today, no industrial country can survive
> without an Intellectual Property

This is just dogma, same as the dogma that the free market
capitalism is the only economic system that can work or that
only industrial agriculture can feed the world.  There is no
actual scientific basis for this statement.

:j

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