[NetBehaviour] Copyfarleft and Copyjustright.

[rob at robmyers.org]

Quoting marc garrett <marc.garrett at furtherfield.org>:

> http://www.metamute.org/en/Copyfarleft-and-Copyjustright

Mute have been excellent at publishing articles that constructively  
question received wisdom from free software, free culture and their  
opponents but I found that this article wasn't based on a good  
understanding of the issues.

Like Lessig on a bad day, it accepts the starving artist lone genius  
mythology peddled by the RIAA and tries to protect artists from  
economic loss in the face of copyleft. This is a pre-Napster,  
pre-MySpace worldview that doesn't understand the economics of the  
music industry or the sociology of creativity. This is compounded by a  
failure to see the economic irony of copyleft, or how copyleft  
prevents alienation of labour value. And by ignoring other authors  
writings on the property question and IP; notably Stallman's "Why  
Software Should Not Have Owners" which would undermine its opening  
claims, and Lessig's writing on rent-seeking which would make some of  
its claims seem less novel.

It's an interesting read but deeply flawed.

I recommend the following books:

"Free Software, Free Society" - Richard Stallman
"Free Culture" - Lawrence Lessig
"A Hacker Manifesto" Mackenzie Wark

And the Mute issue "Beneath The Knowledge Commons".

All are available in print or online.

- Rob.