Control, Creativity, and Collaboration in Literature
Benjamin
Mako
Hill
Benjamin Mako Hill is a Free Software consultant and
intellectual property researcher. For ten years, he has hacked on
Free Software projects including Debian. He is the author many
articles, papers, and talks including the Free Software Project
Management HOWTO.
1.0
19 April 2004
19 April 2004
Webster's 1913 Dictionary
Years after it was published, Webster's 1913 fell into
disuse.
1988: Webster 1913's copyright expires
1995: Launch of web
1996: Project Gutenberg's republishing
of Webster's 1913...
Now: GCDE, Wikipedia, etc.
Literature, Collaboration and Control
My arguments:
literary collaboration is important
literary collaboration is hindered by individualized system
of control
Modern systems of control are rooted in an increasingly irrelevant
historical reality
We are now at a moment when we all will define the reality of
literary control -- and we all have reasons to be scared
Why Collaborative Writing is Important
87% of industry uses collaborative writing
studies have shown that people working together
collaboratively produce better
it's historically precedented: from medieval glosses and
annotations (example 1,
example 2) to Chinese
literature (no copyright in China up until the 20th century)
through Romantic literature (Wordsworth and Coleridge) through
Eliot and Pound, Carver and Lish;
Control Hinders Literary Collaboration
I see control of collaborative literary work in three
ways:
control as articulated as social forces (i.e. a Romantic conception
of authorship);
control as articulated as technology (print -> mass printing
-> mass mass printing);
control as articulated as law (copyrights expands from 14
years to the life of the author plus 75);
Things are Changing
I've already briefly described the growth of control
(authorship, centralized production and distribution,
copyright).
Then comes the Internet...
What emerges is a gap between the social and technological
realities and the law, technology, and society being called for by
the owners of ideas..
Why They are Scared
The Girl Scouts of America and ASCAP
Why I am Scared
this is where the (c)s on homework comes in;