Kategorie: English

The Goose and the Commons

[EN below] Einige Commoners haben die schwierige deutsche Übersetzung eines Commons-Gedichts aus dem 17. Jahrhunderts gegen die Einhegungen in England ausgetüftelt. Hier das schöne Ergebnis (englische Originalfassung unten):

Das Gesetz sperrt ein Männer und Frau‘n
Die der Allmende Gänse klau‘n
Doch dem größ‘ren Schurken es erlaubt,
Dass der Gans er die Allmende raubt.

Sühne das Gesetz befiehlt,
Für den, der andern etwas stiehlt.
Doch es verschont die Herrn und Damen,
die uns allen die Allmende nahmen.

Das arme G‘sind wird eingesperrt,
wenn zum Gesetzesbruch es sich verschwört.
Dies sei so recht; doch duldet man,
die Verschwörung, die solch Gesetz ersann.

Das Gesetz sperrt ein, Männer und Frau‘n,
die der Allmende Gänse klau‘n,
Doch bleibt der Gans die Allmend gestohlen,
bis wir das Land zurück uns holen.

Engl. Autor unbekannt, 17. Jhd.

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What is »Selbstentfaltung«?

Selbstentfaltung: To use the own potential without any restrictions taking into account, that my Selbstentfaltung is the precondition for the Selbstentfaltung of others — and vice versa.

Four Freedoms of Free Culture

Simply because it’s a great post — here’s a repost from ninapaley.com:

In my endless attempt to explain what’s wrong with Creative Commons’ “non-commercial” and “no derivatives” restrictions, I came across this 2005 article by Benjamin Mako Hill: (mehr …)

Michel Bauwens on Openness in Design and Manufacturing

The following video is picked out of a big stream of skype-based interviews on open design, especially in architecture — driven by the Berlin based project opensimsim.net. The interview was done by Natalia Fentisova.

Linz as »Commons City«

[german version]

Recently, StefanMz was skeptical about the inflationary use of the word Commons, so here is a similarly ambiguous case, which to me nevertheless seems very interesting:

The Austrian city of Linz has launched an initiative to become the first »open commons region« in Europe. The initiative is designed to stimulate the use of open-access and electronic dissemination of data, software, teaching and learning materials and other so called »Open Commons« (common good) stored content. Linz had previously taken pioneering steps to bring the citizens to the Internet. In 2005 the hot spot initiative started, which has been built 118 hotspots for free access to the Internet. In addition, for each citizen, web space and a personal e-mail inbox is available on the servers of the city – as well as programs for non-commercial publication of content on the Internet.

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When Copyright Goes Bad

A nice film about some preposterous effects of copyright, however, still in the frame of finding a »balance« between profit making and consumer benefit, of seeking for a »better business«. Eva Galperin from EFF introduces:

»Consumers International has released an excellent short film, When Copyright Goes Bad, which chronicles the rise of copyright as a global consumer rights issue and the ongoing fight for fairer copyright laws. The film features interviews with EFF Senior Staff Attorney Fred von Lohmann, Professor Michael Geist from the University of Ottowa Law School, Sunil Abraham from the Centre for Internet and Society, Hank Schocklee, co-founder of Public Enemy, and more.«

[via]

Productive pigs and unproductive children

[Deutsche Version]

In our economy-driven society it is taken for granted, that it is »the economy« which produces the societally necessary goods. However, this is not the case, which can be impressively shown by looking into official statistics.

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Oops: »Piracy has always been a source of progress«

Sometimes ministers are not under well control of the media industry. The portuguese Minister of Science and Technology, Mariano Gago, stated that »piracy« increases the value for the producers due to the distribution of their content and that this is not surprising, since piracy has always been a source of progress and globalization.

Bad boy: Pressure from the media industry lobby forced the minister to publicly retract his statement. [via]