“Scarichiamoli†initiative can be defined in a few simple words:
Everything that has been created with public funds and/or public financial
support should be placed under the public domain, and made easily and openly
accessible to everyone (wherever. possible “downloadableâ€).
The Internet, due to its nature, is a powerful media on which communities
and citizens can coordinate themselves and transform their personal
initiative in social, political, economic action.
Politicians are responsible to listening and transforming those instances in
real, tangible solutions.
We are very pragmatical about this: we have an initiative and we want our
politicians to do their job: listen to us.
As initiatives like this will be more frequent in the near future, this is
not a simple “online petition”, this is not a simple “civil protest”: we
want to reach directly institutions and get them to look at this issue in
the face.
In this direction, the exclusive rights relative to intellectual work should
expire the moment in whicht he work is reproduced/replicated thanks to
public financial support.
To evaluate if the work reproduced thanks to public financing can be
utilized, it is possible to adopt the “conditio sine qua non”
criterion:intellectual work can be reproduced/replicated if the work could
have not been created without that public financing.
For example: if the state finances the production of a film, that film
should remain under the public domain.
If the state pays an author to create music, the musician should not be able
to claim royalties on the execution of that song.
To share our knowledge freely: this is what we are asking and this is what
communities and citizens want as well.
It’s people’s will.
Vox populi, Vox Dei (the voice of the people, the voice of God); what people
want in this respect is more than legitimate: it needs only to be approved
and formalized by the State.
There are also many ways and media through which this can be achieved: from
the Internet to digital TV.
So what we are seeking is not just an upgrade to the European Copyright law
(related rights and patrimonial rights should be declined by authors when
they receive public financial support) but we also demand the creation of a
publicly accessible web portal through which music, art, cultural artifacts
and products of “our†knowledge can be made accessible under a public domain
license.
This shall be a public clearinghouse entitled: “Scarichiamoli”
(“Scarichiamoli” stands for “download them” but also means “discard
them”…you can guess who is going to be discarded…) and to achieve this
we invite the State to proactively engage and interact with universities,
foundations, associations.
We strongly believe that public domain means nothing without having true and
effective public access.
If you share the goal of our initiative, please endorse us, we will be happy
to honor your support with a written mention.
And if you want we will be happy to have you collaborate with us.
For further information please visit
http://www.creativecommons.it/main.php?page=scari
The “Commoners” of Creative Commons Italia”
Link: creativecommons.it
