Kopimism
Today, information is ownable. This entails a complex/costly system of statutory regulations that attempt to prohibit the transmission of information and limit our powers of free speech in order to protect the financial interests of "content owners".
There is a fundamentally different way, hereafter referred to as Kopimism, that is at odds with today's complex and self-defeating system of intellectual property. Kopimism is simpler, more efficient, and arguably better for everybody in the long run.
Kopimism is so good because it is in harmony with (and better exploits) the natural laws of reality. Information -- a dual of matter -- is intangible, inexhaustible, and illuminating. As matter wants to fall, information wants to be free. Kopimism takes advantage of these sacred (God given) properties of reality for the benefit of humanity.
We have an opportunity to introduce Kopimism to the mainstream by propagating this normative way and understanding of Kopimism that arrises from our understanding of reality. Our mission is to unite the factions and transition the world towards a society of complete information freedom through the transformation of our own way of being.
News
- Meeting Every Sunday at 1pm at Sudo Room [These are now defunct, rescheduling]
- Creation of ritual SudoRoom group chants and prayers in possible collaboration with the Public School Poetry Group
- Question for Dec 30th: What does Kopimism have to say about evesdropping secret channels? Why?
Ritual Chants
We are in serious need of revival. We will go through all the crazy American cult movements of the 20th century, "kopimist" what we can, and regroup by fusing with the Public School Poetry group and coming up with group ritual chants and prayers.
The Experimental Music group that meets will provide us with a variety of high-pitched 2400 baud modem sounds, and we will go from there.
Kopimism Hardware
We are currently kopimistically kopying the Scientologist e-meter. We are a the first phase of iterative agile modification. The process will be a lean, mean 3d printed additive manufacturing machine. Be aware that they are litigous, so this will be an opportunity to act with agility.
General Info
- IRC: ##kopimism (not #kopimism)
- URL: http://kopimism.org (not up yet)
- Meeting: At SudoRoom, Sunday afternoons at 1:00pm
Kopimist Credo
- I do not copyright my work nor patent my inventions, but publish them in the public domain unless I wish to keep them private
- I encourage others to copy/modify/publish/implement my work
- I give credit where it is due to the best of my ability
- I demand the right to copy/modify/publish/implement any information presented to me for anyone who wants it
- I respect the privacy of others
Discussion Points
- Copyright, Patents, and Trademarks
- DRM encoding/decoding
- Ethics, or what is not allowed
- California Pirate Party
- Radio wave regulations
Copyright and Licensing
Kopimists can use strategies to indicate when content is published under kopimist principles, but what options are there for dealing with existing copyright and licensing schemes? Should dual-licensing be used? Or CC-0 to approximate the public domain?
Suggestions for Background Readings (to select from)
- John Perry Barlow, The Economy of Ideas
- Pam Samuelson, The Copyright Grab
- Yochai Benkler, The Wealth of Networks
- Madhavi Sunder, IP3
- Margaret Chon, Intellectual Property and the Development Divide
- James Boyle, A Politics of Intellectual Property: Environmentalism For the Net?
- Amy Kapczynski, The Access to Knowledge Mobilization and the New Politics of Intellectual Property
Other semi-topical readings
Especially to help produce a book, The Case for Kopimism.
Inspiration in Form
- (Originally published) anonymous works of social, cultural, philosophical, and political significance
- Nature (essay) written by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Federalist Papers author was Publius, written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay.
- Common Sense (pamphlet) written by Thomas Paine.
Related Information Society Declarations
Internet Rights & Principles Charter
Free Culture Forum Charter for Innovation, Creativity, & Access to Knowledge
Berlin Declaration on Open Access
The Cape Town Open Education Declaration
Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue -- Paris Accord
Geneva Declaration on the Future of WIPO
UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression Internet Report
World Summit on the Information Society Tunis Agenda
Links
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missionary_Church_of_Kopimism
- http://www.reddit.com/r/Kopimism/ (we might want to lead the discussion on Reddit)
- http://craphound.com/content/download/
- http://www.techdirt.com/blog/casestudies/articles/20121209/07431921317/psy-makes-81-million-ignoring-copyright-infringements-gangnam-style.shtml (interesting reading)
- http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/fiction/accelerando/accelerando.html (a novel related to issues of patents)
- http://kopimistsamfundet.se/english/ (Swedish Church of Kopimism)
- http://movingtofreedom.org/2006/10/06/thomas-jefferson-on-patents-and-freedom-of-ideas/ (Thomas Jefferson on patents)
- http://sudoroom.org/wiki/Sudo_room/Compact (The Sudo Room Compact)
- http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57559890-93/instagram-apologizes-to-users-we-wont-sell-your-photos/ (talking point: how would Instagram's proposed - and now retracted - right to use your photos for commercial purpose be interpreted from a Kopimist perspective?)