On 23 June 2011 08:47, Alec Conroy <[email protected]> wrote: >>> Such works belong to our global knowledge. >> You can't copyright knowledge. The usual term used there is culture. > > Clearly, you can copyright knowledge, for a time. True, you can't > copyright facts or scientific laws (yet)-- but some forms of knowledge > absolutely get copyrighted, and they're lobbying for even greater > powers over what people can read, write, and share. In the past, for > example, some entities have even claimed 'copyright' to try to limit > distribution of knowledge of the specific 'special whole numbers-- > since those numbers were the ones they picked as "keys" when setting > up their content encryption system.
Thats not copyright but a weird case of IP law that isn't very well classified at the moment. > To bring things full circle, I think what we, collectively, are > asserting is that culture is, in fact, a very essential type of > educational knowledge. Not within any useful definition of knowledge. Knowing how to build a Dinosaur costume is knowledge. Barney & Friends is merely an unfortunate application of that knowledge. > There are two big myths I wish I could debunk: One is "The Myth of > Non-Educational Knowledge"-- all information is educational, but > some sets of information are certainly more educational than others; > it's a spectrum, not a dichotomy. > > The secomd myth is what I'd call 'The Myth of the Superiority of High > Culture"-- basically the idea that operas and classical music are > somehow a 'more important' culture to document than, say, anime or > jazz. In practice, 'high culture' usually means 'the culture of the > most affluent'. All culture, whether scientific, encyclopedic, high > art, low art, pop culture, kitsch, criminal, idiosyncratic, or even > literally hunter-gather tribal culture-- all cultures are important to > document so we can understand our fellow humans. Science is not a culture it is a method. Ultimately knowledge can be protected at all it is covered by patent not copyright. -- geni _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
