From mako at atdot.cc  Thu Jan  4 02:50:08 2007
From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous)
Date: Thu Jan  4 02:50:10 2007
Subject: [copyrighteous] Reflecting on the Definition of Definition
Message-ID: <20070104025008.EDADA412B8@volo.yukidoke.org>

Lawrence Lessig's [latest talk][1] is extremely critical of my projects
to advance a standard for freedom in cultural works. He criticized both
my [freedom definition][2] and my [call for any definition at all][3].
As usual, his criticism has made me think a lot about what it is that
I'm trying to do.

I've been thinking about a conversation I had with [Aaron Swartz][4]
recently where he was also criticizing me for focusing too much on
definitions. He was skeptical about my assertion that social movements
and freedom movements needed "definitions." I thought about it and told
him then that I thought I'd been making a mistake by saying I want free
culture movements to have _definitions_. More accurately, what I want
are _goals_, _standards_, or _ideals_. I want to be able to say, "_music
when will be free when every producer can do_ **A**, **B**, _and_ **C**
_and every listener can do_ **X**, **Y**, _and_ **Z**." I want the
possibility of a shared utopianism.

I want these kinds of goals because I believe that these images of what
_what things might be like if we win_ is what motivates us to win in the
first place. I believe that the idea that, "things might be better" is
simply never as powerful as a strong, perhaps even unattainable, ideal
that challenges people and gives them something to strive for. The
leaders of other successful social movements I know can tell you exactly
what they are trying to achieve -- although few of them ever will
realize it completely. No free culture movement leader can do this with
any authority. For [reasons I've talked about in the past][3], I think
that fact may ultimately make us less successful.

In the free software movement, our most important goal (free software
itself) is documented in the [Free Software Definition][5]. Even the
most ethically motivated among us aren't perfect -- most of us use some
proprietary software -- but we have an ideal to hold our behavior up to
and a method by which we can always improve. Inspired by free software,
I unimaginatively said that I thought free culture needed a
"definition." I probably could have found a better way to describe what
I wanted and I'll do so in the future. I suppose I should have thought a
little more about the definition of definition.

    [1]:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7661663613180520595&q=23c3

    [2]: http://freedomdefined.org

    [3]: http://mako.cc/writing/toward_a_standard_of_freedom.html

    [4]: http://www.aaronsw.com

    [5]: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html

URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20070103-00
From mako at atdot.cc  Fri Jan  5 04:20:10 2007
From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous)
Date: Fri Jan  5 04:20:11 2007
Subject: [copyrighteous] Who Owns <em>Free Culture</em>?
Message-ID: <20070105042010.A8E7641707@volo.yukidoke.org>

The previous year saw far too much fighting over who gets to define and
control the term _free culture_. The biggest problem, in my opinion, is
that these fights conflate a very important discussion about the goals
of a set of nascent social movements -- or the lack thereof -- with much
less important issues of semantics, definitions, and control over terms.
The term is being used in a way that describes a whole lot of projects I
support and participate in fully -- and a few I don't. And I think
that's OK.

When Erik M?ller and I launched the [Free Cultural Works Definition][1]
(at the time, the _Free Content and Expression Definition_), we
struggled to find a good term for the works that we wanted to liberate.
We thought about using the terms content, expression, knowledge,
information, art, data and communication but each word seemed to exclude
an important body of works or producers. Few musicians we knew thought
of their productions as "content" while few encyclopedia writers did
not.

The term we liked most was _culture_: it defines a very broad set of
practice and has very positive connotations. Of course, others had
already been using the term _free culture_ so we spent some reading up
on the term and talking to the people most closely associated with it.
Originally, the term seems to have its roots in the book [Free
Culture][2] by Lawrence Lessig. I reread the book to get an idea for
exactly what Lessig meant when he used the term but, upon reaching the
end, I found myself without a good answer. The book's index included a
promising entry for "Free culture, defined" which pointed to a short
section in the preface:

> A free culture is not a culture without property; it is not a culture
in which artists don't get paid. A culture without property, or in which
creators can't get paid is anarchy, not freedom. Anarchy is not what I
advance here.

>

> Instead, _the free culture that I defend in this book is a balance
between anarchy and control_. (emphasis mine)

Framed by a negative definition of what _free culture_ is not, Lessig's
definition describes the broad space between two unattainable extremes.
This resulting ambiguity is fully intended: Lessig has not only spoken
out against [my particular suggestion][1] but against _any_ definition
and the process of offering _ex cathedra_ definitions or goals
altogether [[1]][3].

In personal conversations about [our definition][1], Lessig was
initially very supportive. In fact, it was Lessig who introduced Erik
and I to each other and suggested that we work together. What Lessig did
disagree with us on however, was calling the definition the _Free
Culture Definition_. I think that Lessig felt some sense of ownership of
the term and felt that he and others had defined it and been using it in
a way that was broader and incompatible with the definition we were
proposing and with _any_ definition of the type of we were suggesting.

[Early on][4], [Lessig blessed][5] a group of students to create a [Free
Culture student movement][6]. Most active now in [Harvard Free
Culture][7] and [Free Culture NYU][8] and but in a handful of other
places as well, these groups have been involved in everything from the
promotion of [transgressive approaches to IP][9], to [speech
bubbles][10], to [anti-DRM work][11], to [protecting the right of cereal
restaurants to operate][12]. When Erik and I suggested to this group
that they might benefit from adopting the [Free Cultural Works
Definition][13] as a set of explicit ideals or goals for their movement,
the larger part of the coalition soundly rejected the idea. Like Lessig,
they wanted _free culture_ to refer to wide variety of projects and did
not feel good about describing any work by sympathetic parties as "non-
ideal."

Erik and I were faced with two choices: we could call our definition the
_Free Culture Definition_ and in effect engage in a power struggle with
Lessig and with some portion of the free culture student movement or we
could pick another term. While we don't like the alternatives as much as
_free culture_, we didn't have a lot of trouble deciding that going with
a term like free cultural work or free content and expression was the
better choice.

This is why I am a little worried about the recently announced UK-based
[Free Culture Foundation][14]. I have nothing but respect for the
founders (Matt Lee, Tom Chance, and Rob Myers) and trust them to create
the type of free culture organization that I would like to see. I am
very much looking forward to working closely with them on this project
in the future. They seem likely to choose a set of goals and adopt a set
of strategies in line with the ones I've argued for. But in that my
goals and strategies have run into opposition among many of the most
visible people using the term _free culture_ in the past, that's also
why I'm a little worried.

[SJ Klein][15] and I were recently saying that its time to start naming
organizations and projects in this area using only words in dead
languages. That way, we can side-step the (unimportant) semantic
arguments over who gets to control existing terms and focus on the real
goal of building stronger social movements, setting goals that sound as
unthreatening to each other as they actually are, and building better
tools. Without semantic arguments in our way, we'll be able stronger to
build coalitions and work together in all the ways we should be.

[[1]][16]

This is an important distinction because it is also possible to disagree
with the first fully articulated definition but also feel that offering
another set of goals -- for example, a set that allowed for commercial
use or anything under current CC licenses -- was productive.

After all, I have been arguing for much longer in favor of [any set of
goals][17] much longer and more strenuously than I have argued for any
particular set of goals and I still feel that a set goals is much more
important than any paritcular one.

    [1]: http://freedomdefined.org

    [2]: http://free-culture.org/

    [3]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/?flav=rss2#id18

    [4]: http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/001730.shtml

    [5]: http://www.lessig.org/blog/archives/002838.shtml

    [6]: http://freeculture.org/

    [7]: http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/freeculture

    [8]: http://www.freeculturenyu.org/

    [9]: http://www.piratbyran.org/

    [10]: http://www.thebubbleproject.com/

    [11]: http://www.defectivebydesign.org/en/node

    [12]: http://freeculture.org/cereal/

    [13]: http://freedomdefined.org/Definition

    [14]: http://freeculturefoundation.org/

    [15]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sj

    [16]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/?flav=rss2#id3

    [17]: http://www.metamute.org/en/Freedoms-Standard-Advanced

URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/ip/20070104-00
From mako at atdot.cc  Fri Jan  5 17:20:22 2007
From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous)
Date: Fri Jan  5 17:20:32 2007
Subject: [copyrighteous] Remembering Mnemonics
Message-ID: <20070105172024.8CF36413D4@volo.yukidoke.org>

I noticed recently that often had trouble remembering mnemonics. To help
remember them, I've started a [list of mnemonics that I have trouble
remembering][1] on my Wikipedia user page. If there are [mnemonics][2]
you have trouble remembering, you should leave a comment on my blog or a
message on [my Wikipedia talk page][3] because it's possible I have
trouble with them as well. If I do, I'll add them to my list. If they
are not even in Wikipedia's [List of mnemonics][4] I can add them so
others who forget them also might be able to recall them as well.

One thing I noticed when making the list was that in some situations
(e.g., the lists of planets or the hierarchy of the taxonomy in
biology), I have no problem remembering the thing that the mnemonics in
question are referring to but can't remember the mnemonic itself. Of
course, I can sometimes use the referent as a mnemonic for the mnemonic.

Also, since my list is hosted in my user page on Wikipedia, I should
also urge you to considering [donating to the Wikimedia Foundation][5]
to help support the great work they and to insure that they can purchase
the bandwidth and servers necessary to keep Wikipedia going.

    [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Benjamin_Mako_Hill#List_of_Mn
emonics_I_Have_Trouble_Remembering

    [2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnemonics

    [3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Benjamin_Mako_Hill

    [4]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mnemonics

    [5]: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Fundraising

URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20070105-00
From mako at atdot.cc  Tue Jan 16 01:50:08 2007
From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous)
Date: Tue Jan 16 01:50:09 2007
Subject: [copyrighteous] MIT Mystery Hunt
Message-ID: <20070116015008.2654141365@volo.yukidoke.org>

I competed in the [MIT Mystery Hunt][1] again this year for _Codex_
(this year, we were _Codex Ixtlilxochitl_). _Codex_ has improved in the
rankings every year. This time, we came in second place solving 106 of
[108 puzzles][2] in 40 hours -- only 90 minutes behind _Palindrome_
(this year, they were _Dr. Awkward_). I'm very much looking forward to
helping _Codex_ improve again next year.

Our team has an interesting mix of free software advocates (e.g.,
myself, [Seth Schoen][3], [Don Armstrong][4], [Dave Turner][5]) and a
very large contingent from Microsoft. The effect is pretty impressive.
I'm looking forward to the days when we work together on much more than
just puzzles.

    [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Mystery_Hunt

    [2]: http://web.mit.edu/puzzle/www/07/puzzles/

    [3]: http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/

    [4]: http://www.donarmstrong.com/

    [5]: http://novalis.org/

URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20070115-00
From mako at atdot.cc  Tue Jan 16 15:20:09 2007
From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous)
Date: Tue Jan 16 15:20:11 2007
Subject: [copyrighteous] Geography Lesson
Message-ID: <20070116152009.98B0D40A74@volo.yukidoke.org>

I gave a talk at a the [Boston Ruby group][1] last Wednesday. The
meeting was generously hosted by the Boston start-up [Back Channel
Media][2]. On the way out, BCM offered attendees schwag in the form of
branded inflatable globes and [Slinkies][3]. On Thursday, I suggested to
[SJ Klein][4] and [Seth Schoen][5] that we might be able to use the
globe as a research aid during the [MIT Mystery Hunt][6]. That seemed
like a good idea until they pointed out that there were a few
inaccuracies on the map.

Sure enough, a quick glance revealed that:

  * Burkino Faso is marked as Upper Volta (it's only been 22 years) with
a capital as Duagadougou.

  * Rwanda seems to be a small horizontal bar across a country marked
both as Ucanda and Buhuno.

  * Zimbabn is labeled clearly while Morocco, clearly divided into two
countries, is not marked in either of the resulting (and differently
colored) states.

  * A missing border and a color identical to the ocean (!) renders
Egypt completely underwater. Yemen, Iraq, Thailand, Romania, Austria,
Croatia, Finland, (whose name is missing), and the eastern quarter of
India are better off in that they blend into the ocean but have river
colored borders demarcating them from the rest of the sea.

  * The Arabian peninsula is host to Qatah, the United Arab Emiraies,
and the Saudi capital of Rivaiih.

  * A bit to the north, Jurdan borders Irae and Lebanaw.

  * The countries Czek and Slovak seem to be located just above
Czechoslovakia which, in turn, is just above Huudatn.

  * A similar situation happens in Yugoslavia which seems to be next to
Monienegro and other more familiar Slavic states.

  * Amstercam is right next to the the German city of Roro.

  * Swirzerlano sits in the middle of Europe.

  * England's Lworpool and Rirmingham are clearly, and clearly
incorrectly, marked.

  * Both Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States are clearly
marked while China, despite having dozens of its cities labeled, is not.

  * St. Petersburg seems a full 1000+ kilometers from any body of water
and closer to Bellarussian than to a port.

  * Lapan shows many cities including Tokya, Kyole, and others -- while
most seem to be located somewhere off the coast of Lapan in the Pacific
ocean.

  * The Korean peninsula contains N. Korea and S. Aurla.

  * Myanmar is marked as Burma (although I might forgive that one if I
had reason to believe it was intentional).

  * Malaysia is labeled Malaskia.

  * The continent at the South Pole is proudly marked Tarctica.

Of course, this list is extremely incomplete. I've barely looked at
cities, rivers, and even some country names and I've barely looked at
the degree to which the cities and labels are correct but incorrectly
placed. The full list of errata would, in a manner reminscent of
[English As She Is Spoke][7], be very, _very_, long.

While the globe does not bear any markings of a producer (I wouldn't
want to take credit for it either), a group of us suspected that we
might be able to find the country of origin by locating the one country
that was represented completely accurately.

We couldn't find a single one.

    [1]: http://boston.rubygroup.org/

    [2]: http://www.backchannelmedia.com/

    [3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slinky

    [4]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Sj

    [5]: http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/

    [6]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Mystery_Hunt

    [7]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_as_She_Is_Spoke

URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20070116-00
From mako at atdot.cc  Wed Jan 17 06:20:09 2007
From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous)
Date: Wed Jan 17 06:20:11 2007
Subject: [copyrighteous] Geography Lesson (Part II)
Message-ID: <20070117062010.151DE416FD@volo.yukidoke.org>

Yesterday, I received _many_ requests to post pictures of [my rather
inaccurate globe][1]. I'm pleased to oblige. Please read [the summary I
posted yesterday][1] for a list of some of the errors you should have
little trouble picking out.

You can click on each cropped thumbnail to see much larger, higher
resolution versions of the area and the surrounding continent or region.

[![/copyrighteous/images/bad_map-1-thumb.jpg][2]][3]

[![/copyrighteous/images/bad_map-2-thumb.jpg][4]][5]

[![/copyrighteous/images/bad_map-3-thumb.jpg][6]][7]

[![/copyrighteous/images/bad_map-4-thumb.jpg][8]][9]

[![/copyrighteous/images/bad_map-5-thumb.jpg][10]][11]

[Enrico][12] suggested that if the globe was manufactutered in China,
Taiwan would be the same color as China and Taipei would be marked as a
provincial, rather than national capital. Sure enough, I now have both a
good idea of the globe's origin plus an idea of how to spell Taipei with
an _o_.

    [1]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20070116-00

    [2]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/images/bad_map-1-thumb.jpg

    [3]: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=360162906&size=l

    [4]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/images/bad_map-2-thumb.jpg

    [5]: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=360144798&size=l

    [6]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/images/bad_map-3-thumb.jpg

    [7]: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=360144789&size=l

    [8]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/images/bad_map-4-thumb.jpg

    [9]: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=360144787&size=l

    [10]: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/images/bad_map-5-thumb.jpg

    [11]: http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=360144784&size=l

    [12]: http://enricozini.org/

URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20070117-00
From mako at atdot.cc  Fri Jan 19 16:50:07 2007
From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous)
Date: Fri Jan 19 16:50:09 2007
Subject: [copyrighteous] Digital Citadel
Message-ID: <20070119165008.0D03C40F29@volo.yukidoke.org>

The solution to a crypto puzzle I helped solve during the [MIT Mystery
Hunt][1] was "ALMOST PLAGIARIZE DAN BROWN WORK." [Seth Schoen][2] did
this beautifully with an extremely humorous parody of Dan Brown's
[Digital Fortress][3].

His story, [Digital Citadel][4] is extremely funny if you are marginally
familiar with Dan Brown and his writing style -- and probably even if
you are not.

I have not seen a copy of the prize winning entry in the hunt -- a story
called The Ikea Code -- but the excerpt I heard was also hilarious.

    [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_Mystery_Hunt

    [2]: http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/

    [3]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Fortress

    [4]: http://ephemera.media.mit.edu/codex/wiki/2007_Digital_Citadel

URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20070118-00
From mako at atdot.cc  Mon Jan 22 18:20:11 2007
From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous)
Date: Mon Jan 22 18:20:13 2007
Subject: [copyrighteous] Accents
Message-ID: <20070122182011.D47E4416CB@volo.yukidoke.org>

One of my pet peeves is people telling a non-native speaker of a
language that they have no accent.

Saying that a person has no accent is like saying that they have no
temperature. Annoyingly, people frequently say that also.

URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20070122-00
From mako at atdot.cc  Mon Jan 29 05:50:06 2007
From: mako at atdot.cc (copyrighteous)
Date: Mon Jan 29 05:50:08 2007
Subject: [copyrighteous] Public Relations
Message-ID: <20070129055007.01BBA416EF@volo.yukidoke.org>

A number of people in the [Open Access][1] movement are up in arms
because a large publishing group [just][2] [hired][3] Eric Dezenhall, a
man known as "the pit bull of PR," to tackle the "threat" posed by OA.

One might wonder how a nominally talented PR agent would end with such a
horrible reputation. Additionally, since Dezenhall hasn't actually
_done_ anything for the publishers yet, one might conclude that the act
of hiring "the pit bull of PR" might have been a bad PR move in and of
itself.

    [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access_publishing

    [2]: http://www.nature.com/news/2007/070122/full/445347a.html

    [3]: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/25
/AR2007012501705.html?nav=rss_nation/science

URL: http://mako.cc/copyrighteous/reflections/20070129-00