atollscape-blog

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Alifaan Foshi

އަލިފާންފޮށީގައި ރައްކާކުރެވި ހިއްސާކުރެވިފައިވަނީ ބަގާވާތަކުން ރައްޔިތުންގެ ބާރުކަނޑުވާލެވިފައިވާ ދަނޑިވަޅެއްގައި ދިވެހީންނަށް ކުރެވޭ ފިކުރުތަކުގެތެރެއިން ބައެއް ފިކުރާއި ޝުއޫރު

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“I am thinking that what I am thinking might be wrong. If you think I’m going in the wrong direction, set me straight.”

A novel by Mohamed Nasheed (Anni), the first Democratically elected Leader of the Maldives. Nasheed wrote this book exploring his love for Dhivehi literature in 1999. He went on to become the President in 2008, and in early 2012 was forced to resign in a coup d'état before he could finish his full term of Presidency.

Over cups of black tea and cigarette smoke in a run down café, Kurusee tries to grasp his reality and figure out the complicated bonds that are formed between hearts… Kurusee; a young man who had lost the love of his life to a tragic death, struggles to overcome the guilt he feels as her memory starts to fade away with time. When he falls for an enchanting woman he meets, he is caught in a dilemma as he examines her fragile broken heart, and intelligent mind. Because of his own past he understands her pain and the ties and bonds that would need to be broken to form another. Kurusee is faced with a decision that would determine their fates.

The bonds of two hearts by Mohamed Nasheed

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What would happen if the printed book had just been invented in a high-tech world in which people had never done their reading from anything but computer screens? “The unquestionable advantages of the computer would not be threatened by this new product but the people, who so love to compare apples with pears, would be quite bowled over by this ultra-modern invention: after years spent chained to the screen they would suddenly have something they could open like a window or a door – a machine you can physically enter! For the first time knowledge would be combined with a sense of touch and gravity – this new invention allows you to experience the most incredible sensations, reading becomes a physical experience. And after experiencing knowledge only as a bundle of connections, as a system of interacting networks, suddenly here is individuality: every book is an independent personality, which cannot be taken apart or added to at will. And how relaxing these new reading appliances are, their operating systems never needs updating – the only thing that changes over the course of time is the message that they contain, which is always open to new interpretations.” “

Juan Villoro, Mexican writer and journalist cited in Metro Nature, originally from adn CULTURA (an Argentinian culture magazine) about the “future of books.” (kindly pointed about by reader David Christensen, and translated via SignandSight.com). (via amiquote)

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Design Tools for Designers, Femke Snelting 19 steps to do a Booklet, OsBlog Text available on line: OSBlog PDF lay-out: berlin_pp.pdf PDF cover: cover_berlin.pdf License: Licence Art Libre Date of publishing: 13-09-2006 (Wizard of OS – Berlin)

via OPEN SOURCE PUBLISHING – DESIGN TOOLS FOR DESIGNERS

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You are not connected to the internet.

Connect Maldives: Our aim is to secure free internet access for all.

Connecting the Maldives through the internet 

In 2008, MDP’s government came to power pledging to improve the quality of Maldivian life, centered on connecting the scattered geography of Maldives, with a transportation network. Claiming they inherited a government with no money to last even a month and with an inadequate state reserves hindering the ability to borrow, MDP now works towards growing the local economy, with pledges to aid small businesses and introducing avenues and methods to increase people’s wealth. 

One of the things they neglected to focus on is strengthening the existing telecommunication infrastructure. Which currently is in dire need of regulation with telecom companies to be held accountable for the services they provide. Perhaps the group steering the government spent too many years in waiting and they are too old to understand technologies of the modern world. Perhaps they don’t fully comprehend the inherent potential of the internet and mobile connectivity. Perhaps they are just too busy focusing on building other means of physical connectivity which they may feel can attract more votes.

Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) said in 2010:

"The right to communicate cannot be ignored," 

"The internet is the most powerful potential source of enlightenment ever created."

"Governments must regard the internet as basic infrastructure - just like roads, waste and water".

"We have entered the knowledge society and everyone must have access to participate."

Citizens deserve the internet

The internet is rapidly becoming a vital part of many people’s lives (*some usage stats). Among the quarter of a million eligible voters for the 2013 election about two-thirds would have been born after 1970s (between the ages 18 to 43). A generation that not only uses mobile phones extensively but also the advantage of internet using smart phones and computers in their homes/offices/schools/libraries. While the other one-third older citizen’s children also require access. There exist also a few hi-tech ipad owners in the current regime whose understanding of Internet may be limited to sending emails and occasional surfing of websites for pleasure. 

There has been much reference to the digital divide, which is a reality. the knowledge divide between the most favoured and the developing countries, particularly the least developed countries (LDCs), is liable to widen without effective government policy. 

The idea of the information society is based on technological breakthroughs. Since the “information age” knowledge societies differ from older knowledge societies because of the focus on human rights and the inclusive participatory character they inherited from the Enlightenment, the importance of basic rights as enshrined in Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Internet played a crucial role in overthrowing the previous regime, but thanks to no one in the current government (except for the ones that got caught up in the recent sex scandal). Perhaps they are too scared that by giving the citizens the gift of Internet, it may ultimately lead to their own downfall. However it must be highlighted that Internet is a vital in order to consolidate and strengthen the fledgling democracy. Grassroots movements are discovering that it’s not necessarily law or force, but culture and ideas that bind communities, identities, and nations.

But what about the younger population? the children studying at schools? surely they deserve more. Worldwide, the Internet is transforming the way people access knowledge and thus education. 

What about small businesses who rely on Internet to keep overhead costs low? The Internet is also revolutionizing the way government and businesses are run and commerce conducted. Notable local e-commerce initiatives include: ibay, Wataniya e-learning, badhige.com, MvLeads, Maldives e-government -gov.mv and maldves e-banking - Keesa. Yet the country still remains deprived of an affordable internet payment gateway for small and medium enterprises. It is as simple as BML negotiating with PayPal to enable payment processing for its accounts.

What about the dying Dhivehi culture? Which is experiencing an underground renaissance, and is flourishing once again as witnessed by the resurgence enabled by digital technology specially on the Internet, reinforcing a cultural community that cuts across national borders. Internet is vital for cultural transmission and Thaana script remains the very essence of it, being the most integral yet unnoticed element. Thaana typography having missed the phase of movable-able type, experienced a short stint on typewriter and has managed transition into the digital realm - though in an unkempt state. The Government needs to fulfill its duties as sovereign safe guarder of national identity by negotiating with relevant international bodies. Thus ensuring successful migration of our heritage to cyberspace before we fall victim to climate change and become stateless refugees in the real world. The fate of Dhivehi culture depends on the ability of Maldivians to preserve and carry on their script into the future.

While the government is busy carbon neutralizing, installing solar panels, dreaming up wind-farm projects, holding cabinets meetings underwater to highlight the plight of the nation and setting up ferry systems; they are not yet aware of the full potential of the Internet and ignoring  the real connectivity issue at large which will make the people connected, rich, knowledgeable and the nation carbon neutral.

Dear Mr. President:

Its high time your government stopped trying to admire and emulate the failed model of Singapore and start implementing simpler and more efficient policies towards sustainable development, most of which already exist and are just waiting to be activated.

When more and more countries around the world (with France, Finland, Estonia, Mexico, Brazil, Turkey, South Korea among them) coming to the conclusion that the Internet is a fundamental basic human right in this era, why has our visionary president still not come around to it? Surely, being an ex-journalist, we believe you won't have any trouble coming to the same conclusion and championing the cause.

We ask that you Pledge to make broadband Internet free for all Maldivians the cornerstone of your 2013 election campaign. MDP being a party that listens to the people. We are confidant that you would not hesitate to give a little power and freedom to stay in power.  

Internet Service Providers need to be consistently reminded that the services they provide are essential and not a luxury. Openness and accessibility are critical components of the Internet and as such we need to establish proper independent regulatory bodies to: 

- ensure reasonable internet connectivity through out Maldives

- hold service providers accountable 

- hold the ISPs accountable for the disruptions of services 

- ensure that ISP's honor their agreement with the government

- improve of services of mobile phones and internet providers

- keep the internet free from government interference

Show to us and the world that you are a real visionary and not just a poster boy by making the dream of a truly connected Dhivehi Raajje a reality for all Maldivian citizens.

Read more and contribute at: Connect Maldives 

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No.01: Dynamics of Critical Internet Culture (1994-2001)

about this publication: This study examines the dynamics of critical Internet culture after the medium opened to a broader audience in the mid 1990s. It is Geert Lovink’s PhD thesis, submitted late 2002, written in between his two books on the same topic: Dark Fiber (2002) and My First Recession (2003).

The core of the research consists of four case studies of non-profit networks: the Amsterdam community provider, The Digital City (DDS); the early years of thenettime mailinglist community; a history of the European new media arts network Syndicate; and an analysis of the streaming media network Xchange. The research describes the search for sustainable community network models in a climate of hyper growth and increased tensions and conflict concerning moderation and ownership of online communities.

Geert Lovink, founding director of the Institute of Network Cultures, is a Dutch-Australian media theorist and critic. In 2003 he was post-doc researcher at the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, University of Queensland. In 2004 Lovink was appointed as Research Professor at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences and Associate Professor at University of Amsterdam. He is the founder of Internet projects such as nettime and fibreculture. He recently published his third volume on critical Internet culture, Zero Comments (2007). His institute recently organized conferences and related publications on urban screens, creative industry, online video, network theory, culture of search and Wikipedia research.

colophon: Author: Geert Lovink. Editorial support: Ned Rossiter. Design: Katja van Stiphout. Printer: ‘Print on Demand’. Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam 2009. ISBN: 978-90-78146-07-0.

Submitted in total fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy November 2002, English Department University of Melbourne Special thanks to: Scott McQuire and Nikos Papastergiadis and the University of Melbourne.

This publication is available through various print on demand services.

Download the free pdf.

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“ މަގުމަތީގައި ހިންގާފައި އުޅުމަކީ ވަރަށް ދާހިއްލާ ކަމެއް 

ހިންގާފައި ދާއިރު ފެންނާނެ ބައިވަރު ފަހަތުގަ ގޮނޑި ހުސްކޮށް، އެކަކު ދުއްވާފަދާ ސައިކަލު 

ދެމީހުން އެއްދިމާލަކަށްދާނަމަ ހިނގާފަދާ މީހާއަށް އެގޮންޑި ލިބިއްޖެނަމަ ދެމީހުންނަށް ލިބޭވަރަށް ކުރިއެރުމެއް 

މިފުރުސަތު ސައިކަލު ދުއްވާ މީހުން ހިނގާފަދާ މީހުންނަށް ފުރުސަތު މަގަށް ލުއިވާނެ

The carpool alternative for Male’ - offer free saikal seats to pedestrians: increase saikal efficiency by reducing no. of 1 person saikals. reduce sweat.

(via magupool, a project by atollscape)

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King Kalaafaan Manuscripts 

How the Maldives monarchy treasured the remembrance of a fallen king for more than four hundred years

by Ahmed Nazim Sattar

The contents of the ten paper grants related in this book demonstrate how the Maldives monarchy continued to treasure the remembrance of a fallen king for more than four hundred years by maintaining his tomb as a “recurring” charitable institution. 

The discovery of the Kalaafaan Manuscripts demonstrated par excellence how the Maldivian tradition of remembering the past was carried out by successive kings and queens for more than four hundred years, over the death of a slain king, Kalaafaan. The documents proved that, what amounted to a small fortune, was spent to sustain the remembrance of this King, who in many ways was better remembered dead than alive. 

Produced by Atollscape in collaboration with National Centre for Linguistic and Historical Research (2010) English and Dhivehi  ISBN 99915-95-99-6 500 copies 170 pages

Retail Price: 80rf 

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Carla Hesse - "The rise of intellectual property, 700 B.C. - A.D. 2000: an idea in the balance"

The concept of intellectual property – the idea that an idea can be owned – is a child of the European Enlightenment. It was only when people began to believe that knowledge came from the human mind working upon the senses–rather than through divine revelation, assisted by the study of ancient texts–that it became possible to imagine humans as creators, and hence owners, of new ideas rather than as mere transmitters of eternal verities.

Besides being distinctively modern, intellectual property is a dense concept, woven together from at least three complex strands of jurisprudence – copyright, patent, and trademark–each with its own sources in premodern custom and law, and each with its own trajectory into our own era. Still, copyright, and the complementary concepts of authors’ rights and literary property in continental law–the focus of

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Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu 

A tale of love, birth, life, death and magic from Maldives 

‘arguably the most important epic work in Maldive literature’ 

Part of an oral story-telling tradition of unique imagination and descriptive power, Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu has been a popular tale in Maldives for centuries. 

Download 3mb PDF via Dhivehi Observer

Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu is available for US$40, which includes all airmail postage and handling, from the translators: editors@maldivesculture.com

Dhon Hiyala and Ali Fulhu: a true love story? -Maroshi

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Free Download 1.1MB PDF file

Maldives Culture

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Free Software Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman, 2nd Edition

This book collects the writing of Richard Stallman in a manner that will make its subtlety and power clear. The essays span a wide range, from copyright to the history of the free software movement. They include many arguments not well known, and among these, an especially insightful account of the changed circumstances that render copyright in the digital world suspect. They will serve as a resource for those who seek to understand the thought of this most powerful man--powerful in his ideas, his passion, and his integrity, even if powerless in every other way. They will inspire other who would take these ideas, and build upon them.

-from the foreword, by Lawrence Lessig

Order Now! Download a PDF copy of the book.

$20 for printed copy from the GNU Press | Free Software Foundation

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Copyleft: Pragmatic Idealism

by Richard Stallman

Every decision a person makes stems from the person's values and goals. People can have many different goals and values; fame, profit, love, survival, fun, and freedom, are just some of the goals that a good person might have. When the goal is a matter of principle, we call that idealism.

My work on free software is motivated by an idealistic goal: spreading freedom and cooperation. I want to encourage free software to spread, replacing proprietary software that forbids cooperation, and thus make our society better.

That's the basic reason why the GNU General Public License is written the way it is—as a copyleft. All code added to a GPL-covered program must be free software, even if it is put in a separate file. I make my code available for use in free software, and not for use in proprietary software, in order to encourage other people who write software to make it free as well. I figure that since proprietary software developers use copyright to stop us from sharing, we cooperators can use copyright to give other cooperators an advantage of their own: they can use our code.

Not everyone who uses the GNU GPL has this goal. Many years ago, a friend of mine was asked to rerelease a copylefted program under noncopyleft terms, and he responded more or less like this:

“Sometimes I work on free software, and sometimes I work on proprietary software—but when I work on proprietary software, I expect to get paid.”

He was willing to share his work with a community that shares software, but saw no reason to give a handout to a business making products that would be off-limits to our community. His goal was different from mine, but he decided that the GNU GPL was useful for his goal too.

If you want to accomplish something in the world, idealism is not enough—you need to choose a method that works to achieve the goal. In other words, you need to be “pragmatic.” Is the GPL pragmatic? Let's look at its results.

Consider GNU C++. Why do we have a free C++ compiler? Only because the GNU GPL said it had to be free. GNU C++ was developed by an industry consortium, MCC, starting from the GNU C compiler. MCC normally makes its work as proprietary as can be. But they made the C++ front end free software, because the GNU GPL said that was the only way they could release it. The C++ front end included many new files, but since they were meant to be linked with GCC, the GPL did apply to them. The benefit to our community is evident.

Consider GNU Objective C. NeXT initially wanted to make this front end proprietary; they proposed to release it as .o files, and let users link them with the rest of GCC, thinking this might be a way around the GPL's requirements. But our lawyer said that this would not evade the requirements, that it was not allowed. And so they made the Objective C front end free software.

Those examples happened years ago, but the GNU GPL continues to bring us more free software.

Many GNU libraries are covered by the GNU Lesser General Public License, but not all. One GNU library which is covered by the ordinary GNU GPL is Readline, which implements command-line editing. I once found out about a nonfree program which was designed to use Readline, and told the developer this was not allowed. He could have taken command-line editing out of the program, but what he actually did was rerelease it under the GPL. Now it is free software.

The programmers who write improvements to GCC (or Emacs, or Bash, or Linux, or any GPL-covered program) are often employed by companies or universities. When the programmer wants to return his improvements to the community, and see his code in the next release, the boss may say, “Hold on there—your code belongs to us! We don't want to share it; we have decided to turn your improved version into a proprietary software product.”

Here the GNU GPL comes to the rescue. The programmer shows the boss that this proprietary software product would be copyright infringement, and the boss realizes that he has only two choices: release the new code as free software, or not at all. Almost always he lets the programmer do as he intended all along, and the code goes into the next release.

The GNU GPL is not Mr. Nice Guy. It says no to some of the things that people sometimes want to do. There are users who say that this is a bad thing—that the GPL “excludes” some proprietary software developers who “need to be brought into the free software community.”

But we are not excluding them from our community; they are choosing not to enter. Their decision to make software proprietary is a decision to stay out of our community. Being in our community means joining in cooperation with us; we cannot “bring them into our community” if they don't want to join.

What we can do is offer them an inducement to join. The GNU GPL is designed to make an inducement from our existing software: “If you will make your software free, you can use this code.” Of course, it won't win 'em all, but it wins some of the time.

Proprietary software development does not contribute to our community, but its developers often want handouts from us. Free software users can offer free software developers strokes for the ego—recognition and gratitude—but it can be very tempting when a business tells you, “Just let us put your package in our proprietary program, and your program will be used by many thousands of people!” The temptation can be powerful, but in the long run we are all better off if we resist it.

The temptation and pressure are harder to recognize when they come indirectly, through free software organizations that have adopted a policy of catering to proprietary software. The X Consortium (and its successor, the Open Group) offers an example: funded by companies that made proprietary software, they strived for a decade to persuade programmers not to use copyleft. When the Open Group tried to make X11R6.4 nonfree software, those of us who had resisted that pressure were glad that we did.

In September 1998, several months after X11R6.4 was released with nonfree distribution terms, the Open Group reversed its decision and rereleased it under the same noncopyleft free software license that was used for X11R6.3. Thank you, Open Group—but this subsequent reversal does not invalidate the conclusions we draw from the fact that adding the restrictions was possible.

Pragmatically speaking, thinking about greater long-term goals will strengthen your will to resist this pressure. If you focus your mind on the freedom and community that you can build by staying firm, you will find the strength to do it. “Stand for something, or you will fall for anything.”

And if cynics ridicule freedom, ridicule community…if “hard-nosed realists” say that profit is the only ideal…just ignore them, and use copyleft all the same.

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/pragmatic.html

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Buraasfathivaru 07 “Dhaahilamaa!” Presentation + Workshop by Hussain Nashid 9pm. 25th January 2011 at South Beach Restaurant / 2nd Flr. (via channel 26)

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Coming Soon!

100 ways to sweat by Hussein Nashid et. al Illustrated by Iman Rasheed 

Adult Humour / Social Critique / Gift / Souvenir / Cultural Artefact 

ދާހިއްލުމައް 100 ގޮއި ހުސެން ނާޝިދު އާއި ރައްޓެހިން , އީމާން ރަޝީދުގެ ކުރެހުންތަކާއިއެކު

އާދައިގެ ޙާލަތަކުން ދާހިއްލާ ޙާލަތަކަށް ބަދުލުވާން ކުރެވޭނެ ކަންތައްތައް

http://sweatynation.tumblr.com/ 

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Copyleft: publishers have everything to gain by adopting it

L'Unità, 20 February 2003

Wu Ming 2

Recently, the discussion on copyright and its infringement has come to sound like another dispute, the one on drug addiction treament. In both cases, issues are both of a practical and moral nature, but the moral issues - on which anyone can have their say - always prevail over the practical ones, making people forget about real figures, data and the lessons of concrete experience.

As a consequence, nobody gets much done, prejudices have the upper hand and self-styled "experts" or "insiders" come out and show that they don't have a clue. In both discussions, those who try hard to keep their feet on the ground, give examples and cite precedents, are doomed to long-term failure, for even the demonstration of a theorem may be subject to utterly non-scientiphical evaluation. Unless...

Unless we intervene early. While the music industry has been left to run wild, unable to face the transformation that's wiping out the record industry as we knew it, the publishing industry has not yet gone mad. Maybe it is still possible to talk about reality. Here we give at least three examples which should be taken into consideration.

1. Two years ago, at the beginning of 2001, sci-fi author Eric Flint launched a revolutionary project. He persuaded his publisher, Baen Books, to build a free-of-charge virtual library containing many novels from Baen's catalogue, all of them still on the market. People could log on www.baen.com and download dozens of novels in electronic form, each of them available in five formats.

One might think it was going to be a suicide, for each downloaded text would correspond to one unsold copy of the book. That's what market analysts on the payroll of corporate record labels keep telling us every day. Well, any "ideological" prejudice was swept away by an inconfutable proof: from the moment their books appeared on the shelves of Eric Flint's virtual library, most authors have witnessed an increase in sales. One example above all: Mother of Demons, by Eric Flint himself, sold 9,694 copies from September 1997 to the end of 2000. In the following eigtheen months, while the text was freely downlodable from the website, the book doubled its sales: 18,500 copies.

Of course such an increase could be explained on other grounds. Mother of Demons is Flint's debut novel. In the meanwhile, the author became more famous. Let's cling on the lowest matter-of-fact assumption then: the presence of that novel in the free library caused no damage to Flint and/or his publisher. 

If you pardon me the sin of self-quotation, the same thing happened with Wu Ming / Luther Blissett. Our debut novel Q has been freely downloadable for a long time, in several formats, from our website www.wumingfoundation.com, and yet its paper circulation (and commerce) suffered no loss, and the book keeps on selling very well.

There's much more. Those who say that on-line availability of a cultural product (be it music, literature or whatever) damages its sales in any form, may show us catastrophic sales progress charts, but still they cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship between free downloading and the drop in demand. On the contrary, Eric Flint can show us tons of e-mail by readers who say they downloaded the text to check it out and, when they read a few pages on their computer and saw it was worth it, they went to the bookstore and bought a copy, or they kept reading it in electronic form and then presented friends with copies of the novel or, at the very least, they praised the novel in public (it's called free advertising).

Of course there are people who downloaded and read the novel but did not purchase a copy, nor did they praise the book. Most likely they wouldn't have bought the book anyway, and that unsold copy can't be put down to the free library. Zero from zero doesn't leave -1.

Moreover, word of mouth even operates in reverse order: if someone is disappointed with a book they paid $15 for, then they'll advise other people against buying it, but if they're dissapointed with a book they downloaded for free, it will be enough to say: "I didn't like it, but why not try it yourself, it's free". No car seller forbids potential customers a test drive on the new model lest they consume gas and use up the tires. If he does it, he'll find himself on the rocks very soon.

And yet an uncanny sensation of fear still shields the public opinion from such sensible arguments, and we are driven to think that had the book invented recently, authorities would question whether it is lawful or not to borrow them, and the existence of libraries would be considered an attack on commerce, and declared illegal. 

Many people, especially in the record industry, try to disprove these examples and say that publishers are lucky because a book is harder to reproduce than a CD. This is an important difference, but not substantial, as the next example demonstrates.

2. O'Reilly is a publishing house dealing with handbooks on programming, hand coding, software, new technologies etc., either on paper or in electronic form. O'Reilly holds a notable position on the market. Some books in their catalogue sell hundreds of thousands of copies. It is clear that a handbook of this kind is not an object likely to be fetishized: one may as well read it on home-printed A4 sheets. And yet, there's been no decrease in the sales of purchasable e-texts, even if they can be easily pirated.

According to O'Reilly, "piracy" is a natural market risk, like shoplifting in a bookstore. Indeed, shoplifting causes more damage because a stolen book will disappear from the shelf but not from the account book, which means that the bookseller won't reorder until s/he realizes it was stolen, thereby potential customers won't find it, and this really turns into one more unsold copy. The case is different when someone buys an e-book from O'Reilly then decides to share its content on the Internet. Book have always been lent, from time immemorial. At worst, this kind of "piracy" is a sort of graduated taxation: the more an author gets famous, the more his/her books are pirated, and the other way around: the more books are pirated, the more their author gets famous. After all, to any artist indifference is worse an enemy than piracy will ever be. Things change if someone buys an e-book from O'Reilly then put it up for sale on their own website. Quite surprisingly the readers themselves point out such violations. O'Reilly gives an explanation of this.

The publisher's website features a special section called Safari Bookshelf ['...for when you've absolutely gotta-have-it now!']. By paying $10 a month people can subscribe to this service and search across all the books in the catalogue. Once you've chosen one or a few texts, you can put them on your virtual shelf for 30 days and read them (or print them). No "pirate" site makes best offers, and this is what earns O'Reilly his tenner.

This example proves that "piracy" can be fought by offering better services at reasonable prices.

Perhaps the future will bring us electronic books so astounding that the industry will drop paper once and for all. Should this happen, publishers could carry on by offering this kind of on-line services, selecting the best texts out of the global ocean of writing, launching new authors, keeping prices low, allowing customers to choose between several frontcovers, and more...

By the day such products come to light, e-commerce will be different as well, one click will be all customers need to do in order to pay 2 or 3 euros for a downloadable text found on a publisher's website, attached with the cover, editorial news, reviews... I think there would be a lot of clicks, and authors would gain much more money than the current 10% of the price. Oh, and there would be on-line exchanges and presents, word of mouth and all. What's wrong with that?

Even the prestigious Massachussets Institute of Technology is taking steps in this direction.

3. The MIT OpenCourseWare project is an attempt to bring university back to its original purpose: make culture universal instead of sell portions of it to people who can afford the price.

Since October 2002 the lecture notes and documents used by several MIT teachers can be consulted at http://ocw.mit.edu.

Within three or four years the project will cover all the 2000 courses of the institute.

The project has a social purpose. Many people who are not enrolled and may not benefit from all the MIT services can access the content of prestigious classes anytime. This number of people includes teachers from other universities who may use that material and combine them with their own output. It's "Open source teaching", by which students have everything to gain.

In fact MIT president Charles Vest also expects to gain something, and not only prestige, fame, recognition. Many of these lecture notes refer to books published by the MIT itself, and Vest is sure there will be an increase in the sales. That's what happened with the texts published by another academic institution, National Academies Press, that gives on-line access to all the 2100 books in its catalogue. These are expensive books, NAP publishes the reports issued by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council. The same books may be purchased in another section of the website. Last year on-line customers bought 40,000 e-books from the website, it was NAP's most profitable year ever, and there was no decrease in the traditional sales (bookstores, mail order etc.).

These examples point in the direction of new, viable strategies. It is possible to have a good credit balance whilst protecting the rights of customers and benefiting from the nature of the Net. In the entertainment and cultural industry most corporations have fallen into the trap of repression and are paying dearly for fighting the whole society. Other economic subjects may either follow the same path or get rid of prejudice and look for a more "aethical" and "responsible" profit, which is a profit nonetheless.

http://www.wumingfoundation.com/italiano/outtakes/copyleft_wm2.htm