Mission Statement

From iA wiki

See Homepage and iA Wiki for more information about this wiki. This page is intended for formulating a mission statement for the copyright term reform / intellectual progress project.

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Contents 1 Suggested mission statement 2 Brainstorming 2.1 The Inception Of Information 2.2 The Creation Of Information 2.3 The Ownership Of Information 2.4 The Distribution Of Information 2.5 The International World 2.6 The Value Of Information 2.7 Current Solutions 2.8 Future Solutions

Suggested mission statement

• Intellectual progress comes from building upon a strong intellectual commons. A strong public domain is a vital part of that commons.
• Everyone is a copyright holder.
• Everyone is a copyright consumer.
• Thanks to advances in technology, a lot of people are creators of publishable works who previously did not have this chance.
• Thanks to the Internet, a lot of people are publishers who previously did not have this chance.
• It follows that in any discussion of what copyright law should be.
• Copyright is a balance between the rights of the copyright holder and the copyright consumer. It has historically been a good thing for the promotion of the useful arts and sciences, by allowing authors to temporarily benefit from a monopoly on their creative works.
• Copyright law is currently not in balance.

Here's a possible reformulation of the above list. I'm not happy with the jump from public domain to the internet, perhaps these should be separated, or better merged.

• The creative act does not happen in a vaccum; it requires the consumption of intellectual works.
• Everyone, to some degree or another, is creative. We all create intellectual works, whether for work or pleasure.
• Thus we all consume intellectual works, often in proportion to what we create. The more we need to create the more readily we consume the creative works of others.
• The "public domain" is a body of creative works that are freely available for the consumption (and consequent creation) of others.
• A strong and vibrant public domain is the key to a creative society and intellectual progress.
• With the internet and digital technology we can directly stimulate creativity by encouraging "amateur" publishing and nich markets.
• With the internet and digital technology we can indirectly stimulate creativity by strengthening and extending the availability of the public domain.
• A proper balance of copyright, which includes both a strong public domain and addequate renumeration for the creative act, is the key to both direct and indirect promotion of creativity and intellectual progress.
• Copyright law is not in balance.

Some suggestions as to what we stand for:

• Our position on copyright terms is that, at a minimum, the CTEA must be repealed.
• Our position on the WIPO is that it is a non-democratic institution where the overwhelming majority of both copyright holders and copyright consumers are not represented.
• Our position on fair use is that recent restrictions necessitate a number of rights, some existing and some new, to be codified in law.

In summary, our mission is to to promote intellectual progress by:

• Restoring the traditional balance of copyright law.
• Reducing copyright terms to a sane level.
• Promoting fair use rights for consumers and creators of derivative works.
• Preserving cultural heritage and returning it to the public.
• Protecting small copyright holders.

These are fairly general and they're just to start a discussion with something semi-concrete.

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Brainstorming

The Inception Of Information

• Ideas and innovation.

The Creation Of Information

• Tools
• (perhaps discuss information "formats" (like file formats) and their legal concerns. (such as with gif)

The Ownership Of Information

• Rights to control one's ideas
• Profit from the efforts of innovation
• Licenses and their philosophies and goals.
• (perhaps discuss how only original and succesful ideas are perpetually rewarded with current systems)

The Distribution Of Information

• Constraints: Licenses, enforcement of licensing.
• Tools for distribution, such as file sharing or various internet issues.

The International World

• Existant international laws
• International law interpretations
• international enforcement
• Law and the internet

The Value Of Information

• The Lifespan Of Ownership - perpetual reward?
• Public-Domain - perpetual reward!
• The value of information - free use is valuable for free innovation.

Current Solutions

• Interpreting the law to protect one's intellectual property rights

Future Solutions

• Open collaboration for free innovation.
• Using traditional concepts, like laws, to protect or enforce newer ideas.
• Unprotecting ideas and their future-use for future-innovation.
• Current ideas
• Existant righteous activism