[Imc-tech] intellectual property rights and our site

[Paul Bengt Riismandel]

I just now noticed that posts to the site under the new dada have
intellectual property rights as part of their metadata.

 

I'd like to point out that the original philosophy behind Indymedia was
open publishing, which also meant, open reuse for non-profit purposes.
While this is an option under the new intellectual property rights
schema, it is not the only one. 

 

What concerns me is that the change happened without discussion. My
assumption is that it's simply a feature of the new code and nobody
thought to turn it off, which is fine. But, then, I do think it deserves
some discussion now.

 

I'm most uncomfortable with the option to express full copyright, all
rights reserved, simply because that is the antithesis of open
publishing. I know I may be in the minority here, but I think very
strongly that if you want to reserve all rights to your stuff, then you
shouldn't be posting it to Indymedia.

 

I have fewer problems with reserving some rights, like only for
non-profit use, etc.

 

I realize that my position poses problems for all the copyrighted stuff
that gets reposted... but, then, I've NEVER liked all the stuff that
gets reposted and have for a long time advocated for people to write
summaries and critiques with links back to original stories, rather than
post the stories themselves. 

 

In my perfect world, UCIMC would take a stand against having
all-rights-reserved copyrighted material on our site altogether... but
that may be a dream.

 

(PS, I'll note here that Press Releases are typically released as public
domain, or some rights reserved...)

 

Thoughts?

 

--Paul

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