[Reader-list] FW: [boell] [lab] copy adorno, go to jail?textz.com doesn't think so (fwd)

[Britta Ohm]

----------
>Von: "Britta Ohm" <ohm at zedat.fu-berlin.de>
>An: Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck at transmediale.de>
>Betreff: Re: [Reader-list] FW: [boell] [lab] copy adorno, go to jail?textz.com
doesn't think so (fwd)
>Datum: Mit, 25. Feb 2004 15:51 Uhr
>

> Dear Monica, dear Andreas,
> you're not a party-booper, Andreas, as I also think that a blind support of
> copy culture would just amount to being the opposite of what it proposes to
> be: rather narrow-minded. But this comes especially into play when it
> concerns the 'only artists' as it is particularly them who are on a smaller
> scale dependent on royalties and recognition. Just to give a small example
> that concerns actually you and me, Monica: a photograph of mine was printed
> in your name in Melissa's book that's just come out. It sucks, but it is,
> well, a mistake, can happen, and I know that you declared that not to be
> your picture when you saw the book. Yet it gets you thinking: if it becomes
> obvious that the property right of the photo is with somebody else (even if
> we might not know yet who it is), wouldn't that be enough to do something
> about it rather than let it go (I know, all difficult, book is printed, what
> to do?). But in principle, isn't that rapidly becoming integral part of a
> hailed-as-democratic copy-culture as well: not just the cheap dissemination
> of high-capital outpout, but the simple ignorance of or laissez-faire
> attitude towards somebody else's work, time, investments and efforts? I
> meanwhile have come across a number of cases in books as well as on the web
> where my work or material - which I generally have made available quite
> generously - suddenly appears without name or in somebody else's. As much as
> I have seen our films being copied without me seeing any royalties for it.
> This is still slightly different as at least the 'property holder'
> definitely shows in the credits, but should I be happy that more people get
> to see it that way, or should I get angry as I barely know how to finance my
> next project? Don't you guard your property rights as a photographer,
> Monica? Doesn't sarai? I think the whole matter of copy culture walks a
> tightrope which asks us to learn to very clearly differ between enabling
> access, creative freedom as well as cash-flow away from 'big capital' and
> arrogance and ignorance towards rightful property holders, particularly
> 'only artists'. In this sense, I think, Monica is right in saying that this
> might change the very way we think and conduct ourselves in this world, even
> though it seems to only reflect a hope that might have come with our
> experiences gained from earlier avatars of supposedly anti-capitalist
> movements (the dictatorship of the proletariat was mainly a dictatorship in
> the end...).
> The case of Reemtsma and textz.org seems pretty blatant in this context:
> Reemtsma is not the author of the texts, he simply owns them as he owns a
> hell of a lot of other texts without having written them, and Sebastian is
> not an artist but a mere distributor who does not gain profit from his
> activities. His move effectively undermined Reemtsma's authority to decide
> about the dissemination of knowledge and is particularly interesting as he
> did not even intend to do so: he took it for granted, rightfully so (at the
> same time, he always responded to claims from authors and publishing houses
> earlier). Reemtsma, who refuses to deal with the web and even e-mail, missed
> out on a chance to live up to the image he seeks to create of himself in
> public and the very name of his institute; the whole matter could have been
> settled between the two of them over a cup of tea. But whilst this
> represents a particular case of stone-faced ivory tower-attitude, the next
> case could be completely different...
> Cheers -- Britta
>
> ----------
>>Von: Andreas Broeckmann <abroeck at transmediale.de>
>>An: Monica Narula <monica at sarai.net>
>>Betreff: Re: [Reader-list] FW: [boell] [lab] copy adorno, go to jail?textz.com
> doesn't think so (fwd)
>>Datum: Mit, 25. Feb 2004 10:04 Uhr
>>
>
>> dear monica,
>>
>>> Have been following IP enforcement raids and cases. We are at the
>>> beginning of a sharp social conflict that is going to affect the very
>>> way we think and conduct ourselves in this world. The Culture of the
>>> Copy will proliferate and so will the mad property regimes will seek
>>> massive enforcement regime. Where are we heading towards...?
>>
>> while i share your concern about coming cultural clashes around these issues,
>> and while i sympathise with sebastian's cause, i believe that it has to be
>> admitted that in this case the law is staying pretty much the same, while
>> people 'like us' are demanding new, more laissez-fair laws for their 'digital
>> life-style'. Isn't it 'us', not 'them', who is moving the goal-posts? those
>> property regimes are as 'mad' as bourgeois capitalism has been in the last
>> centuries, and i find it a matter of course that capital will defend itself
in
>> courts as long as they can. and so long as the digital avantgarde has to play
>> the 'I'm only an artist' card, rather than offering a tenable political
> economy
>> of copy culture, i doubt whether those property regimes will go away so soon.
>> not if they see real and symbolical capital being, what they would call,
>> mis-appropriated.
>>
>> what you call 'the very way we think and conduct ourselves in this world' is,
>> from a legalistic point of view, marginal.
>>
>> i don't want to spoil the party, but i think it is necessary to see where the
>> lines of conflict are. if this will be a matter of legal hegemony, we will
> have
>> to muster a lot more political power than what will be necessary to save
>> sebastian that EUR 3.000 bill.
>>
>> greetings,
>> -a
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