Hi Conley,
Let me begin by saying that I should be asleep in this hostel in
Argentina, but I found myself compelled to reply. I mean that in the best
way possible. (-:
Question: Is it better to abide by the rules until they're changed
or help speed the change by breaking them?
On Fri, 1 Aug 2008, Clifford Conley Owens III wrote:
> I hear a lot of people in this organization speak very highly of civil
> disobedience, and it seems like some of us are just waiting for an
> opportunity to justify breaking the law and sticking it to "the man." I
> suppose I could right a very long-winded article on why I think civil
> disobedience is a bad idea, but I'm not much of a writer, so I'll just
> say a few things that come to mind.
I'm glad to have that discussion.
> One example that often comes up is piracy, but I feel that that helps
> out the mpaa/riaa far more than just boycotting it all together. I
> suppose most of you don't know this, but I used to be on the far other
> side of this discussion (about copyright/culture).
Some of you who have met me know that I used to be a staunch copyright
supporter. Most of you probably don't. (Lately, as I meet a lot more
people in the Free World, I wonder what they think "makes me tick.")
Conley's exposition of a transition away from "Piracy is SO OBVIOUSLY
WRONG" to "Yay Free Softare and Free Cultural Works!" is like looking into
a mirror.
> I remember arguing about copyright and piracy with someone in a
> philosophy class in high school (and imagine me talking like a
> 16-year-old version of Dan Glickman). I thought that everyone who
> disagreed with me was being immature. How ironic that over four years
> later I became a grad student
Oh, you're a grad student! No wonder you have so much time for Free Game
playing.
Wait, what!? (-;
> and the person I was arguing with was one of my first chapter members.
> But the thing is, I *still* think that all the people in the room who
> disagreed were being immature! It wasn't until I discovered
> *constructive* solutions like the FSF and CC that I really changed my
> mind about things.
Conley, I agree with you that giving the massive media industries free
promotion is pretty problematic for a migration toward a Free Culture.
You're not alone in that regard.
One of the points I think lost in Nelson's many long and important words
about the Diebold funtime is this: the students sharing the memos could
*not* have known about issues like what came up in a different memo leak
case: Diebold illegally installing uncertified versions of their software
on California's machine
<http://importance.corante.com/archives/003325.html>.
Sharing the memos allowed searches for that sort of problem, and no
substitute for the whole archive could suffice for that.
But of course, Nelson stands by what the EFF went to court to win: the
idea that sharing these memos was not a violation of copyright. It was
always the separate "Why war?" group that called it Electronic Civil
Disobedience.
Students for Free Culture has always prided itself on being a "big tent"
organization; there has been stress between factions with more or less
radical bents, but I've always been really happy to see all the different
sides meet up here.
But to quickly summarize my perspective: In 2003 I got involved in OPG v.
Diebold, and in 2004 I saw Students for Free Culture begin. I have long
leaned on the side of being a goodie-two-shoes, often to my chagrin. But
for the most of that really important 2003-2004 year, the LILO bootloader
on my laptop would pose me this question:
Question: Is it better to abide by the rules until they're changed
or help speed the change by breaking them?
If I didn't think the question was interesting, I would have cycled
it out for another random quote.
The next year, I read Lessig's _Free Culture_, which helped teach me that
law, architecture ("technology"), and norms are part of an interesting,
mutually-interacting system. If anyone on the list hasn't given it a
read, I recommend it.
As you know, sometimes the rules aren't clear. The culture around what
constitutes illegal or bad (just to name two terms that might be used)
copying changes over time, and as people in society, we can contribute to
setting those norms. Lessig's _Free Culture_ lists a few times that
people tried to set those norms not by "civil disobedience" but just by
doing what they wanted and letting the law follow.
Anyway, I must be one of those crazy people with nothing to do but write
email. I had better stop.
-- Asheesh.
--
Call on God, but row away from the rocks.
-- Indian proverb
_______________________________________________
Discuss mailing list
[email protected]
http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss
