Trivandrum, Kerala, December 2008. Trevor Batten,  Manila  January 2009

I'd like to construct myself a beautiful house -but how should I build it?

Where should I put the walls, the stairs, the doors and the windows? With how many rooms on how many floors? What shape should the roof have -and what materials should I use?  What should the furniture look like -and where should I place it all? I'm not even sure if I want a special, unique, kind of house that attracts attention -or if I want it to be like everybody else's house.

At present, my house is an unwritten book, an empty canvas waiting to be painted -rather like a computer without a programme.

It seems I need a "story" to provide the enviroment which will supply the conceptual materials that I need to build my house: Because if it will be shaped by these materials then I won't have to make so many difficult decisions myself. Luckily, there are many stories to be found: mystical, mythical and factual historical stories told by family and friends, remembered stories told out of my own experience, economic stories told by my wallet, stories of life and death, physical weakness and endurance -also of materials and nests told by the plants and animals that live around me -and of course the stories told by the other houses I see around me.

These "stories" are all complex "systems" of moving parts involving interactions between various players with different characters and characteristics, with different skiils and different aims, intentions, loves and lives.

Without these stories -how would I have any idea how to build my house?

If we all had the same stories -how could I recognise my own house?
If I had to pay for all these stories how could I ever pay for my house?

Perhaps the question is not is copyright "good" or "bad" -but what are the limits of its validity?

So am I free to choose or reject copyright (or any of its variations or alternatives)?

So a basic "problem" is the question of "freedom":

-How does one define freedom and how can one realise it on a global scale?

A second basic problem is more practical:

-How can one discover the undiscovered, imagine the unimagined and think the thought that has not yet been thought of?

Economic activity is firmly rooted in the concept of "ownership". How can one trade that which one does not own -unless it is stolen? Even a service economy must assume that an individual "owns" his own time and is free to sell it in terms of physical and/or mental labour.

The copyright system is based on the concept of the "creator" owning their creative work,-putting them in a position to exploit this ownership directly -or by selling it to others who might exploit it more profitably.

• -Who is the real inventor?
• -Who is the author when the interpetation is by the reader?
• -Who is the author when multiple authors colaborate?

• Who is responsible for preserving social rituals that are the last remains of complex cultural interactions?
• Who is responsible for preserving cultural performances that illustrate the cultural roots of many different communities?
• Who has the right to economicaly exploit such traditions?
• How are these traditions to be kept alive, if they cost time and money to present?
• Is there any point in preserving traditions that no longer have any social or economic function?
• Why did these traditions develop and why did they survive for as long as they did?
• Does the recognition of "communal rights" encourage entry into the copyright system?
• Does entry into the copyright system enforce the commodification of culture?
• Do copyright payments enforce entry into the existing global economy?
• How do economic changes affect social and cultural changes?

-What happens when cultural practices becomes problematic?
-Who or what defines a "Community" -and on which grounds?

-How does the populace relate to their (regional or nationa) government?

-As "mass" to be controlled?
-As community to be supported?
-As group to be economically exploited?
-As group to be ignored?

-A medium for simulating and exploring social conditions?
-A medium for determining social identity?
-A tool for social conditioning?
-A commodity for commercial exploitation?

Defining "difference" and how to deal with it

Does everybody
Do people have different strategies for thinking and learning?
Do people have different "roles" to play in society?
How does one communicate (without bias or distortion)

Possible problem of "over conceptualisation" by intellectuals with a highly mediated (and politicised) world-view -when faced with the pressing practical problems of "other"countries and cultures.

There is an acute danger of the cultural theories and cultural statistics of those who need to study culture undermining the cultural existance of those who need live their culture.

An Interest in "preservation" is a danger signaling potential exploitation and perhaps extinction

Do communities really need outside "experts" to explain their problems, histories and their way of life?

Commercial Systems: Symbiotic or Preditory?

(Giving according ot one's abilities, recieving according to one's greed?)

If an Economy is a game of action and reaction between supply and demand.
Then, like any game, the outcome is dependant on the rules of the game.

So, do the rules of the game favour an outcome
that is consistant with the needs of the comminity

 -or does the game only favour certain players?

There is a huge difference globally between the cost of products in terms of "time worked" to buy any specific product.

When very young or very old -one is unable to earn ones cost of living -but the costs remain the same, independant of ones ability to pay.

Tangable labour (physical work) is paid just once -but intangible labour Conceptualy creative work) is paid multiple times

Like any game, the rules are defined by:

Perhaps the Financial Crisis is a window of oportunity for changing the rules

A (considerable) source of income for those who buy and exploit creative products.

• Copyright emerged out of system of censorship and control of ideas.
• However there is the enlightenment discourse of encouraging ideas as well.
• Fundamentally about protecting publishing industry.
  
• The term was originally 14 years with a possible additional 14 year extension.
• Once one could "opt-in" to the system -but now it is getting increasingly difficult to "opt-out"
  
  (The problem of global "connectivity")

Who owns and controls the "information" flow? (who makes a profit from it?)

• emerging "information landlords" (who own the infromation)
• cyber lords (who own the communcation networks -sometimes both network and "content")
• now people producing own "content" (for free) via blogs and social networking sites.

If copyright is a form of "income distribution" -then in which directions is the income distributed?


 The "publisher" usually owns the copyright.

patents and copyright protecting commercial brand names promote interests of global companies
Various local conditions in different countries are being undermined through global exploitation

(Can one copyright a political system -and charge people for using it?)

Difficult to discuss without adopting the language and concepts pre-defined in the discourse established by the  proponents of "Intellual Property".

• Does "illegality" have a valuable role in testing the validity and limits of socially accepted norms?
• Do pirates (literally and metaphorically) have a social value?

Problem of interfacing different conceptual/cultural systems

Difficulty in finding the language to express the various problems in a way that permits a coordinated understanding and approach -without forcing everything into a potentially innapropriate pre-concieved ideological framework

• index
  
• SECTION 2.  Political Economic Contexts
• SECTION 3.  Technological and Social Networks
• SECTION 4.  Transending Doctrine
• SECTION 5.  The Search for new Language

• CopySouth Website
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