the electrohippies are calling upon people around the globe to celebrate World Intellectual Privateers Day on April 26th 2009. In a concerted action across the Internet, we call upon people to select a piece of information or other creative work which should be in the public domain, but which is chained by the rules of intellectual privateering rights (IPRs), and to re-appropriate it for the people of the world to share in common by publishing it as widely as possible on-line.
WEB SITE UPLOADED TODAY --
http://www.fraw.org.uk/ehippies/action/privateers.shtml
See also the new discussion paper Q1. 'Intellectual Privateers' --
http://www.fraw.org.uk/download/ehippies/q01/q01-intellectual_privateers.pdf
** please forward!! **
the electrohippies -- communiqué 20090409 -- no embargo
the electrohippies call on people around the globe to celebrate World Intellectual Privateers Day 2009
A call to action against the inclosure of human society's creativity by "intellectual privateering rights"
Produced by the Free Range electrohippies Project, 9th April 2009.
http://www.fraw.org.uk/ehippies/ 
ehippies@fraw.org.uk
Today the electrohippies are calling upon people around the globe to celebrate World Intellectual Privateers Day on April 26th 2009. In a concerted action across the Internet, we call upon people to select a piece of information or other creative work which should be in the public domain, but which is chained by the rules of intellectual privateering rights (IPRs), and to re-appropriate it for the people of the world to share in common by publishing it as widely as possible on-line.
The World Intellectual Property Organisation[1] (WIPO) celebrates what it considers to be the achievements of intellectual property laws around the globe in its World Intellectual Property Day[2]. This year WIPO's focus is on "promoting green innovation as the key to a secure future"; clearly they fail to see the relationship between the needs of freeing up technology exchange and creativity and the counter-effect of tightening global intellectual privateering rights (or IPRs -- for privateering[3] is certainly what this process has become in the digital age). Today IPRs have become a means for large media and information organisations to extract a financial return from the public, using technological means such as digital rights management[4] or the broadcast flag[5], for the information then need to access in the modern world.
Rather than simply "protest" at the ever greater iniquities of intellectual privateering rights the electrohippies are calling on individuals around the globe to undertake an act of civil disobedience and free a chained work or publication that, for clear reasons (which they should state on its release), must be in the public domain. Also, given the "green" nature of this year's WIPO event, we're asking people to re-appropriate those works which have special relevance to environmental protection, conservation, or environmental protest rights.
We are clearly directing this action towards those uses of IPRs which seek to chain the use of information that should be freely available to the public. Participants can do this by creating a digital copy or representation of the chained work and posting it on-line. Then, given that WIPO states "organizations are encouraged to send brief reports of the events and activities organized", we suggest that those taking part email a short message to WIPO describing why they have re-appropriated the work into the public domain (WIPO's email address for reports is WorldIPDay@wipo.int).
For hundreds of years, from the early master builders and painters onwards, people have copied and borrowed from each others' work and as a result the knowledge and creativity of humankind has been enriched. Today, in the name of protecting "intellectual property rights", we are locking up knowledge using technological and legal locks to prevent not only illegitimate access, but also access which (for a paper copy) would normally be possible (e.g. photocopying, reading without payment, sharing with others, etc.). Intellectual property rights represent the last, modern-day land grab of "The Commons"[6] -- and we will all be intellectually impoverished as a result of it. As Pierre-Joseph Proudhon once said, "property is theft"; extending this principle to the modern day can't we fairly say that "all intellectual property is cultural theft", since we must not think or dream of using anyone else's ideas in case it offends their right to exclusively think it and charge others for the privilege of doing so too.
the electrohippies[7] will be marking the day with the re-appropriation of a "special work", chained by copyright, which has direct relevance to the freedoms of people to protest in Britain. We will publish it on our web site[8] on World Intellectual Privateering Day, April 26th 2009.
Notes:
1. The World Intellectual Property Organisation was established in 1967 with a mandate from its Member States to promote the protection of IP throughout the world -- it is the often ignored (compared to the World Bank/IMF) cornerstone of globalisation.
2. World Intellectual Property Day 2009 is on April 26th. For more information see the WIPO web site -- http://www.wipo.int/ip-outreach/en/ipday/2009/
3. For a historical account of privateering see Wikipedia -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privateer
4. For information on 'digital rights management' see the Electronic Frontier Foundation's web site -- http://www.eff.org/issues/drm
5. For information on the 'broadcast flag' see the Electronic Frontier Foundation's web site -- http://www.eff.org/issues/broadcast-flag
6. The concept of "The Commons" is something that is held in many cultures, although in the West it has largely been abolished by property rights. "The Commons" are those things that are essential to the maintenance of human society, and which have no specified owner, but are managed for the interests of all by society -- for example, common land, rights of common over fisheries, etc. In the "Information Age" we can extend this concept to The Information Commons (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Commons for examples and further information on this concept), where essential elements of our culture must be protected for the creative and cultural freedom of all.
7. the electrohippies are a non-aligned, informal group of campaigners and socially motivated computer users who wish to ensure that the virtual domain is protected from "inclosure" by proprietary control. This year is the electrohippies tenth anniversary -- it was formed in the run-up to the Seattle protests in 1999. We've come together to organise some new events an ideas given the threats that now exist to free expression in the digital domain.
8. For details of the action see http://www.fraw.org.uk/ehippies/action/privateers.shtml
http://www.fraw.org.uk/ehippies/action/privateers.shtml See also the new discussion paper Q1. 'Intellectual Privateers' --
http://www.fraw.org.uk/download/ehippies/q01/q01-intellectual_privateers.pdf ** please forward!! **
the electrohippies -- communiqué 20090409 -- no embargo
the electrohippies call on people around the globe to celebrate World Intellectual Privateers Day 2009
A call to action against the inclosure of human society's creativity by "intellectual privateering rights"
Produced by the Free Range electrohippies Project, 9th April 2009.
http://www.fraw.org.uk/ehippies/ ehippies@fraw.org.uk Today the electrohippies are calling upon people around the globe to celebrate World Intellectual Privateers Day on April 26th 2009. In a concerted action across the Internet, we call upon people to select a piece of information or other creative work which should be in the public domain, but which is chained by the rules of intellectual privateering rights (IPRs), and to re-appropriate it for the people of the world to share in common by publishing it as widely as possible on-line.
The World Intellectual Property Organisation[1] (WIPO) celebrates what it considers to be the achievements of intellectual property laws around the globe in its World Intellectual Property Day[2]. This year WIPO's focus is on "promoting green innovation as the key to a secure future"; clearly they fail to see the relationship between the needs of freeing up technology exchange and creativity and the counter-effect of tightening global intellectual privateering rights (or IPRs -- for privateering[3] is certainly what this process has become in the digital age). Today IPRs have become a means for large media and information organisations to extract a financial return from the public, using technological means such as digital rights management[4] or the broadcast flag[5], for the information then need to access in the modern world.
Rather than simply "protest" at the ever greater iniquities of intellectual privateering rights the electrohippies are calling on individuals around the globe to undertake an act of civil disobedience and free a chained work or publication that, for clear reasons (which they should state on its release), must be in the public domain. Also, given the "green" nature of this year's WIPO event, we're asking people to re-appropriate those works which have special relevance to environmental protection, conservation, or environmental protest rights.
We are clearly directing this action towards those uses of IPRs which seek to chain the use of information that should be freely available to the public. Participants can do this by creating a digital copy or representation of the chained work and posting it on-line. Then, given that WIPO states "organizations are encouraged to send brief reports of the events and activities organized", we suggest that those taking part email a short message to WIPO describing why they have re-appropriated the work into the public domain (WIPO's email address for reports is
WorldIPDay@wipo.int). For hundreds of years, from the early master builders and painters onwards, people have copied and borrowed from each others' work and as a result the knowledge and creativity of humankind has been enriched. Today, in the name of protecting "intellectual property rights", we are locking up knowledge using technological and legal locks to prevent not only illegitimate access, but also access which (for a paper copy) would normally be possible (e.g. photocopying, reading without payment, sharing with others, etc.). Intellectual property rights represent the last, modern-day land grab of "The Commons"[6] -- and we will all be intellectually impoverished as a result of it. As Pierre-Joseph Proudhon once said, "property is theft"; extending this principle to the modern day can't we fairly say that "all intellectual property is cultural theft", since we must not think or dream of using anyone else's ideas in case it offends their right to exclusively think it and charge others for the privilege of doing so too.
the electrohippies[7] will be marking the day with the re-appropriation of a "special work", chained by copyright, which has direct relevance to the freedoms of people to protest in Britain. We will publish it on our web site[8] on World Intellectual Privateering Day, April 26th 2009.
Notes:
1. The World Intellectual Property Organisation was established in 1967 with a mandate from its Member States to promote the protection of IP throughout the world -- it is the often ignored (compared to the World Bank/IMF) cornerstone of globalisation.
2. World Intellectual Property Day 2009 is on April 26th. For more information see the WIPO web site --
http://www.wipo.int/ip-outreach/en/ipday/2009/ 3. For a historical account of privateering see Wikipedia --
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privateer 4. For information on 'digital rights management' see the Electronic Frontier Foundation's web site --
http://www.eff.org/issues/drm 5. For information on the 'broadcast flag' see the Electronic Frontier Foundation's web site --
http://www.eff.org/issues/broadcast-flag 6. The concept of "The Commons" is something that is held in many cultures, although in the West it has largely been abolished by property rights. "The Commons" are those things that are essential to the maintenance of human society, and which have no specified owner, but are managed for the interests of all by society -- for example, common land, rights of common over fisheries, etc. In the "Information Age" we can extend this concept to The Information Commons (see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Commons for examples and further information on this concept), where essential elements of our culture must be protected for the creative and cultural freedom of all. 7. the electrohippies are a non-aligned, informal group of campaigners and socially motivated computer users who wish to ensure that the virtual domain is protected from "inclosure" by proprietary control. This year is the electrohippies tenth anniversary -- it was formed in the run-up to the Seattle protests in 1999. We've come together to organise some new events an ideas given the threats that now exist to free expression in the digital domain.
8. For details of the action see
http://www.fraw.org.uk/ehippies/action/privateers.shtml 
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