Archive:Nelson Pavlosky (Summit 2006)

Nelson Pavlosky's speech, co-founder of Free Culture Swarthmore
Free Culture is about the freedom to interact between consumer and creator. There is currently an artifical barrier between active culture - artists, musicians, reporters - and passive culture - users, consumers. However, many people are members of both the active and the passive culture. It no longer takes so much money to be an active member; art and media can be made at home and distributed via the internet.

What is OSS (open source software)? This is software where anyone can see the source code. Related to OSS is Free Software, or software whose program you can run, study, adapt, redistribute, improve, and release.

Free Software, and Free Culture, are about empowerment: the idea that what you buy, you own, and you can modify what you own. Congress bill H.R. 2408, or the Right to Repair Act is working so that motor vehicle owners can modify and repair their own cars, instead of having to go to specialists who have the authorized technology. But why should it be limited to cars?

FreeCulture.org's roots began when Diebold's internal emails were leaked to the internet, and Diebold vigorously sought out all hosts of the leaked emails and threatened legal action, based on copyright law. With the EFF's help, Nelson Pavlosky and Luke Smith counter-sued Diebold for misuse of copyright law and purported that the posting of the emails was legal due to fair use law.

The characteristics of fair use pertain to: the purpose of the use of the derived work; the nature of the copyrighted work; the amount and substance of the portion used; and the effect of the use upon the potential market or value of the copyright work. Fair use, in translation, is for people with lawyers.

Free Culture works for artistic freedom. Samuel Beckett's play "Waiting for Godot" has very strict instructions for stage direction, which the copyright holder demands be followed to the letter; alteration of the work is highly discouraged, limiting artistic freedom with the project. Free Culture has held art projects, including Barbie In A Blender day, to show that the public should be allowed more freedom with public icons. Public icons used to be public; now, they are owned, and their use restricted away from the public. Another portion of the Free Culture goal is to bring dead art back to life and reinfuse culture.

Free Culture works for digital rights. There is legislation attempting to be passed that would make it illegal for DVD owners to fast-forward through the movie previews at home, which FC.o is trying to stop. FC.o is also trying to save your iPod from restrictive legislation regulating use.

Free Culture attempts to educate and reach out to the public. The NYU chapter flyered about copyright protection on CDs that restricts use. FC.o encourages musicians to join Creative Commons as an alternative to standard copyright. They go on tours, and they educate about what the MPAA (movie picture association of America) does to restrict consumers.

Free Culture also works against bad patents, in promoting and reinfusing orphan works, and in protesting patent monopolies of business genres.