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The Anarchist in the Library
Some take-outs from Siva's book - The Anarchist in the Library. These little fragments get to the heart of some of the critical, little-discussed issues in the file-sharing debate.
"Property talk is a closed rhetorical system, a specific cultural instrument that extends a specific agenda or value. Such ideological proclamations accomplish what many closed-system ideologies hope to: They shut down conversation. You can't argue for theft."
How hard it is to have a conversation...
"Both democracy and creative culture work best when the raw materials are cheap and easily distributed. Any cultural development that has made a difference in the world - reggae, blues, needlepoint - is really about communities sharing, moving ideas between and among people, revising, playing with theme and variation, and ultimately forging consensus about what is good and what should stay around. This is how culture grows."
This is the great unspoken problem of the current vector. When I was a practising professional artist the food that sustained my craft was the constant inspiration from other artists. I listened to hours of music, read libraries of books, devoured art books and relished in gallery visits. All this I did as best I could with a a salary that was $12K (AUD) in the lofty heights of my final year at KAOS Theatre. How will artists survive and grow if every morcel of creativity that inspires them will cost them? This is why Creative Commons is so important as it allows artists the choice to license their works to allow for this creative cycle.
"The real question is, What methods do we use to attack bad things such as child pornography, white supremacy, terrorism? Do we build new machines that block these flows of information? Is that good in the long term, and, just importantly, is that harmful to those of us who want to use those systems for good? These real problems are complex and have deep roots in history, and confronting them effectively is going to take decades or centuries. However, we have been trying to confront them technologically and shallowly."
Blocking flows of information in a way that knows good vs evil, moral vs immoral, legal vs illegal is going to be one of the great challenges of the internet. Perhaps there are limits to what software can accomplish?
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Some take-outs from Siva's book - The Anarchist in the Library. These little fragments get to the heart of some of the critical, little-discussed issues in the file-sharing debate.
"Property talk is a closed rhetorical system, a specific cultural instrument that extends a specific agenda or value. Such ideological proclamations accomplish what many closed-system ideologies hope to: They shut down conversation. You can't argue for theft."
How hard it is to have a conversation...
"Both democracy and creative culture work best when the raw materials are cheap and easily distributed. Any cultural development that has made a difference in the world - reggae, blues, needlepoint - is really about communities sharing, moving ideas between and among people, revising, playing with theme and variation, and ultimately forging consensus about what is good and what should stay around. This is how culture grows."
This is the great unspoken problem of the current vector. When I was a practising professional artist the food that sustained my craft was the constant inspiration from other artists. I listened to hours of music, read libraries of books, devoured art books and relished in gallery visits. All this I did as best I could with a a salary that was $12K (AUD) in the lofty heights of my final year at KAOS Theatre. How will artists survive and grow if every morcel of creativity that inspires them will cost them? This is why Creative Commons is so important as it allows artists the choice to license their works to allow for this creative cycle.
"The real question is, What methods do we use to attack bad things such as child pornography, white supremacy, terrorism? Do we build new machines that block these flows of information? Is that good in the long term, and, just importantly, is that harmful to those of us who want to use those systems for good? These real problems are complex and have deep roots in history, and confronting them effectively is going to take decades or centuries. However, we have been trying to confront them technologically and shallowly."
Blocking flows of information in a way that knows good vs evil, moral vs immoral, legal vs illegal is going to be one of the great challenges of the internet. Perhaps there are limits to what software can accomplish?
Like what you're reading? Subscribe to my feed.
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Movable Type 4.0 Everything here is my personal opinion.