IP: Killer App?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 21:43:08 -0400
> To: Barry Frankel <bfrankel () PrincetonCapital com>
> From: Jock Gill <jgill () penfield-gill com>
> Subject: Killer App?
> Cc: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
> Barry,
>
> Good questions.
>
> I wonder where we are going with high speed access if about half the web 
> pages served come from just 4 corporate sites?  How do we enable the 
> Internet to show the power it can drive via self organizing collective 
> actions based upon exchange and conversation at the edges?  Our has the 
> center captured and subverted the Internet already?
>
> I wonder what end technology when the DMCA is being used as a guilty until 
> proven innocent sledge hammer to attack rights we the people thought we 
> had? Neo-feudalism?
>
> I wonder if my new friend Thom Hartmann is correct when he asserts that if 
> we do not fight for the survival of a bottom up, egalitarian democracy we 
> are doomed to a top down multinational neo-feudalism?  Another example 
> might be suit against Greg Palast.
>
> So my guess is that what will get us roaring again is a new map to a new 
> future - a new politics which puts people first in ways Bill Clinton never 
> imagined.
>
> For example,  The Boston Tea Party of 1773 was much more about small 
> entrepreneurs fighting to save their small independent tea businesses from 
> attack by a large multinational supported by the government in England 
> than it was about "taxation without representation".   Perhaps we need a 
> new Tea Party to reaffirm the primacy individuals over today's equivalents 
> of the East India Company?
>
> [BTW, did you know that the Bettsy Ross design for our very own Old Glory 
> is a derivative work based upon the East India Company flag?  It is not an 
> original work of graphic art at all.  Today's state of Hawaii flag is a 
> similar derivative work from the same corporate emblem.]
>
> What would happen if we had a national discourse which considered these 4 
> conditions:
>
> 1] Professor Joseph Ellis, the historian, in a private meeting, points out 
> the concept of "Original Intent" is completely BOGUS .  What the Founders 
> did was frame a structure better called "The Original Argument" - a 
> process of argument and dialog in which all sides kept engaged over 
> time.  The "Original Intent" argument is a device to distort the 
> conversation and control the content of the dialog.
>
> 2] Similarly, the far right has very badly distorted and mis-represented 
> the work of Adam Smith who in fact railed against the dangers of 
> monopolies and corporations.  Smith, by the way, only mentions "The 
> Invisible Hand" once in The Wealth of Nations.  This single reference was 
> hedged with conditions and was quite likely an ironic idea he considered 
> not worth further discussion.  Yet the far right has succeeded for far too 
> long in subverting these basic truths which are far too inconvenient to 
> their arguments.
>
> 3] Would it not be energizing if we undid the 1886 court decision which 
> gave corporations the same rights as humans? Some would argue that this 
> action gave corporations MORE rights than women!  In 1885 it was ILLEGAL 
> for a Corporation to attempt to influence a politician!  No 
> contact.  No  cash.  Let's restore this restriction.
>
> 4] Further, as my brother points out,  it would  it would be very useful 
> to undo the harm done when the courts decided that money was speech and 
> thus protected.
>
> So my view is that, until we come up with some new organizing first 
> principals for technology to implement, we are likely to stagnate.  The 
> higher risk is that we will fail to prepare creatively now for the 
> transition away from the decline of the Hydrocarbon Era.  What comes 
> next?  How do we make money from the opportunity created by the confusion?
>
> Perhaps what we need is a Tea Party for the 21st Century?  A Tea Party to 
> get us innovating, but not revolting.
>
> I look forward to your thoughts.
>
> From VT.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jock



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