Re: [tlug] You are Not a Gadget, by Jaron Lanier

[Charles Muller <cmuller-lst@example.com>]

Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

>  > My central project during the past fifteen years has been that of
>  > the creation of an online (TEI-based) reference work, the Digital
>  > Dictionary of Buddhism. This is a scholarly collaborative project,
>  > wherein all users must contribute some way or another, and all
>  > entry nodes are fully accredited with <sense resp="author's name">.
>
>  > Unfortunately, since the development of Wikipedia, we continually
>  > find content from our work being anonymously aggregated into
>  > Wikipedia without citation, and thus a continual battle of
>  > vigilance must be waged
>
> All TEI stuff is published under a free or nearly free license, no?

Huh? TEI is an XML markup application. What has that got to do with 
licensing of content that uses it?

> That's what free licenses are for.  If you don't want the masses to
> use it, use a restrictive license.  And no, you *don't* get any
> respect for the fine distinctions in your nearly-free license; "I
> don't think we're in Eden anymore, Eve."  *shrug*
>
> This is not Wikipedia's fault.  It's inevitable when you give the
> peasantry cheap communications, just like Shizuka Kamei is the
> inevitable result of giving them the vote.  

This is exactly the point. Nothing can legally be done about the 
problem of Jimmy Wales' drones copying material from one's own web 
resources into Wikipedia. In theory, of course, yes, they have a 
copyright department that will investigate your claims. But by the 
time anything has been done about it, the material has proliferated 
all over the web into Wikipedia copycat sites, so it is too late.

So the point is that the technology for "making knowledge free" has 
ended up bringing about unforeseen consequences, but unfortunately, 
the only people who are really concerned and suffering over it are the 
people who are actually producing online intellectual and artistic 
content. For everyone else in the "end user" category (contentwise), 
the attitude seems to be that anything that goes up on the web is fair 
game.

Chuck


--
-------------------

A. Charles Muller

University of Tokyo
Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Faculty of Letters
Center for Evolving Humanities
Akamon kenkyū tō #722
7-3-1 Hongō, Bunkyō-ku
Tokyo 113-0033, Japan

Web Site: Resources for East Asian Language and Thought
http://www.acmuller.net

<acmuller[at]jj.em-net.ne.jp>

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