[Commons-Law] Libre Commons Licenses

[matthew fuller]

I have not had time to look at these thoroughly, but it does seem to 
be an interesting initiative.
See also an accompanying essay in another post.

best,

matthew






http://www.libresociety.org/library/libre.pl/Libre_Commons

Libre Commons

Welcome to the Libre Commons Licenses. This is a project to develop
non-legal licenses that will operate in the shared space that can non-
bureaucratically and non-instrumentally be formed resisting law, the
intellectual property regime and state violence. These licenses are
written explicitly against the presuppositions and caveats of the
Creative Commons licenses which (un)consciously seek to use culture
as purely a resource. Instead these licenses are anti-licenses;
ethical frameworks or chromosomes of social practices.

Rather than relying on law or legal fictions (written by clever
lawyers) these Libre Commons licenses are explicitly social and
political, aiming to radicalise and uncover the basis of commonalty
and shared life. Where Creative Commons is seeking hegemony and
representative status, becoming an obligatory passage point for
creativity, the Libre Commons rejects bureaucratic attempts to
overcode the social through law. They affirm the most important part
of shared creativity, namely the intersubjective recognition and
affirmation that commonalty provides. As such, it is hoped these
licenses will help to avoid the claims of 'experts' who seek to
assist us in our production and creativity. We hope that you will use
the Libre Commons licenses to contribute to these practices and to
set in motion an enormous capacity for innovation that can transform
reality itself.

Another world is possible, a better more democratic world and this
project aims to contribute towards fostering desire for that world.


Background

The development of information and knowledge as important new
economic resources differs from previous uses which were embedded
within the commodity itself. There has been a move away from the
importance of material inputs (which previously were critical
elements in production) to ideas and knowledge as contributing
significant value to the product, often referred to as trade-related
intellectual property. Immaterial Labour is based on things held in
common being commodified in order to generate profit. Changes in
capitalism, mean that profit is increasingly reliant on intellectual
property, dividing different forms of social relationship so capital
can benefit.

Intellectual property is a site of global struggle between those who
wish to own what is currently free and held in common between us, and
those that wish to commodify all areas of our lives.

Choosing a License

Offering your work under a Libre Commons license does mean giving up
your copyright. It means offering contributing the work to the
commonalty and towards radical social practices.

What conditions? That you together with your work contribute to a
shared resource of radical democracy and collective social
transformation through affirmative and positive social production.
There are currently two Libre Commons licenses to choose from.

Note: These licenses reject state and international law and are
predicating on ethical and political practices not on lawyers and
state violence.

Libre Commons Res Communes License

This license declares your work to a common that is shared between us
as human beings. It is therefore owned in common with others.

Libre Commons Res Divini Juris License

This license declares your work to the realm of the gods. Where as a
moment of clearing it contributes to a permanent state of exception
rejecting state law and liberal conceptions of the nation state.