[Lac] Creative Commons Licensing for Developing Countries.

[Taran Rampersad]

Haroldo Stenger wrote:

>On Wed, 15 Sep 2004 11:52:04 -0500, Taran Rampersad <cnd at knowprose.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>Con código, no discreparé. Pero con la escritura - que no es un trabajo
>>funcional - discreparé.
>>
>>Bear in mind that I write for a living. I give as many rights as I can
>>to readers while balancing my ability to eat. Eating is somewhat important.
>>    
>>
>
>I've come accross this excerpt from one of the greatest writers and
>thinkers of our time:
>
>'I would like my books to be a kind of tool-box which others can
>rummage through to find a tool which they can use however they wish in
>their own area... I would like the little volume that I want to write
>on disciplinary systems to be useful to an educator, a warden, a
>magistrate, a conscientious objector. I don't write for an audience,
>*I write for users*, not readers.'  (*emphasis* is mine)
>
>Michel Foucault, (1974) 'Prisons et asiles dans le mécanisme du
>pouvoir' in Dits et Ecrits, t. II. Paris: Gallimard, 1994, pp. 523-4.
>  
>
Excellent quote. Of course, Foucalt is talking about people who would
use his work - but you'd be hard pressed to make the argument that
writing is a functional work in the sense that software or a recipe is.
If it were seen as a functional work, it certainly would explain all the
different sects of religions, philosophies, and so on - but the writing,
the original writing, remains unchanged.

Being somewhat of a romantic myself, I respect the romanticism of the
quote that is attributed...

But in the case of Foucalt, we must take things into context. First, he
came from a wealthy family. He then became a professor, and a 'cultural
delegate'. This man was not poor, so instead he could focus on the work
- something I appreciate, because some of my best writing (or what I
consider to be my best) is done at no cost. But I must pay the bills. I
am no different than many other writers out there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault

At least I get to choose my topics. If everyone had the same
circumstances of Foucalt, I doubt we would be having this discussion.
Context is important when a writer writes of him or herself.

"The coming of the printing press must have seemed as if it would turn
the world upside down in the way it spread and, above all, democratized
knowledge. Provide you could pay and read, what was on the shelves in
the new bookshops was yours for the taking. The speed with which
printing presses and their operators fanned out across Europe is
extraordinary. From the single Mainz press of 1457, it took only
twenty-three years to establish presses in 110 towns: 50 in Italy in
Germany, 9 in France, 8 in Spain, 8 in Holland, 4 in England, and so on."
— James E. Burke

Now Burke hits the nail on the head, and does so in the way that the
Creative Commons license in question does. As someone who writes FDL
articles now and then, I can tell you it's not easy to get paid for FDL
articles. But I might be able to swing a Creative Commons license at a
publisher to be able to fund the next article - for that is the economy
of writing.

But after all of this debate - how many people who are against the
Creative Commons license actually write? It's actually a nice step in
the right direction, and by making the step appear to be wrong- a step
towards more liberty in licensing - you may well be diminishing the
effort of yourself! Applaud it for what it is, say it is a nice step,
and then talk about Free licensing.

Write for your users, not your agenda. The people must always be the
focus... and if we speak of Freedom, perhaps we should realize that
Freedom sometimes means people not agreeing with you. ;-)

-- 
Taran Rampersad

cnd at knowprose.com

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" No public interest is anything other or nobler than a massed accumulation of private interests."— Mark Twain, Spelling And Pictures