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

[Monica Narula]

Dear Britta, (dear andreas)

I am not sure i understood your arguments but i would think that one 
needs to consider the argument that copyright protects the author a 
little seriously.

Lets look into this carefully:

Most scientific research is funded by public money. Research 
publications are controlled by a handful of publishers and i think 
that almost nothing goes out as royalties to the writers of these 
articles. If a library needs all the journals to be updated in its 
area of research, that institution requires literally millions in its 
library budget. Obviously, it will produce a further unequal social 
arrangement globally - ie in areas where libraries would have few 
resources, and do have increasingly dwindling resources. How does one 
understand this situation.?

As far as i have seen, the royalties from academic publications do 
not account for the research that goes into the book. The research is 
usually funded through public resource arrangements (grants, 
fellowships etc). The author, in this case, will benefit from a 
global circulation with a vibrant copy culture, and so will the 
institution that makes the research possible. I do not see how it 
will produce a worse society. Take the example of E.J.Brill 
Publishers; they price books at nothing less than $200 with with 
rights vested with them for 60 years. And Brill publishes critical 
studies on religion that are crucial today (than ever before, 
considering how much is happening in the name of religion). If 
someone makes unauthorised copies of these books and circulates, they 
will do a world of good.

You refer to 'protecting my or sarai's property right'.....all of 
what we publish is open to circulation and and freely available in 
our website. You can download all of it and republish. Since we 
publish many different authors, we request them for this practice and 
till today nobody has objected. We print pdfs because it is Sarai's 
design version. People are free to contact authors for printing in 
other publications or circulation requirements directly.

Most of what i have written (with colleagues) is also open to this 
ethos. About my photographs, i put into circulation things that i 
like to share and publish. Some i keep to myself and for friends as 
shared moments. Non-commisioned stuff i have not protected. With 
commissioned work, we get into a more difficult ground and try out 
options.

You have been to Sarai and consulted our archives of audio recordings 
of workshops, talks. We do not ask people to sign any document to 
protect our rights. We expect researchers to be fair and acknowledge 
the author/speaker. And, a large volume of our audio recording is on 
the web and none of our speakers have objected to this.

Our argument is simple. Since we are a public funded body, our output 
should be openly available. That does not make it that everyone is 
reading or copying, or jumping with happiness!! And frankly our print 
version does well and gets us decent returns, but is unfortunately 
yet to be pirated!

I am not sure about the invocation of art by Andreas. Most 
unauthorised copying is way outside this context and one would expect 
art contexts to at least reflect on this reality. Everyday many raids 
are being carried out and court cases are being filed for 
unauthorised copying and faking. This is a reality we are living in - 
we need to think about it with some seriousness. We have few 
intellectual resources at present to understand this experience. And 
as we read Foucault today, and wonder about the making of 'abnormals' 
and 'delinquents/criminals' two hundred years ago, people too will 
read about this time a 100 years on, and wonder...

best
Monica


At 15:58 +0100 25/02/04, Britta Ohm wrote:
>----------
>>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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-- 
Monica Narula [Raqs Media Collective]
Sarai:The New Media Initiative
29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054
www.sarai.net