Re: Press Action Hero of the Week

On Sat, 7 Feb 2004, dvanhorn wrote:

> Aaron S. Hawley wrote:
> > [Also, the current issue, "RESISTANCE: In The Eye Of The American
> > Hegemon", of Swans<www.swans.com> looks really good.]
>
> Yeah, the material looks good, but d'Aymery seems strongly committed to the
> idea of idea ownership, given the following:
>
>    No part of this material may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
>    transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
>    photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission
>    of the publisher.
>
>    Quite specifically, none of the essays included in this Special Issue may
>    be reposted or republished on the World Wide Web, whether on Web sites,
>    mailing lists, personal distribution lists, "blogs", and the like.
>    Interested parties are welcome to place a link to the URL of the front page
>    of the issue or to any essay within.
>
> > "Are you about yourself or are you about an idea?"
>
> Calling ideas property and owning them as such is theft.  I have trouble
> thinking of anything more selfish.

Indeed ideas as property is theft.  And I don't like his copying policy
either, but I do enjoy the material at Swans Commentary.

But I think you may be inferring too much by combining this quote of
d'Amyery and his web site's copying policy.  I believe he is exercising
the original motives of Copyright law: that which aids authors and their
work.  He's not trying to patent anything.

Like d'Aymery, I'm pretty sure I use Copyright law when I use the GNU Free
Documentation License[1] (FDL) when I consequently make copying,
publishing, and redistribution demands of my own work.

I can't speak for the man, but these seem to be his motives.
/a

"... Kindly understand that none of the contributors is financially
compensated for his or her work. But it is nonetheless his or her work.
Each contributor has spent time and creativity to produce the columns that
are published on this site. Therefore, beside the legal obligation you
have to contact the author if you are interested in reproducing a
commentary, to ask permission to use a material is a simple matter of
courtesy and intellectual decency. It's a way to acknowledge someone's
work and sweat. Thank you. ..."[2]

"Our focus: Social and political commentaries, poetry and humor. We focus
on original Work -- that is, Work not already published elsewhere on the
World Wild Web, even on one's own personal Web site -- and we do not
accept multi-posting. If you wish to have your work published on more than
one Web publication, or Web site, including your own site, or that of
"scavengers" like Indymedia or Commondreams, please do not submit it to us
in the first place. ..."[3]

References

1. "GNU Free Documentation License". http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html

2. "[Swan's] Copyright And Disclaimer". http://swans.com/misc/rights.html

3. "[Swan's] Submission Guidelines". http://swans.com/contrib/want.html
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