Radical media, politics and culture.

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imc-london@lists.indymedia.org Jamie london event

http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-uk-process/2003-November/001456...

http://www.cyberaxe.org/

rimorchiare

Request of Grants for Innovation in Youth Service Policy

1 In Italy is acting a transition from the Civilian Service for Conscientious Objection to a National Civic Service, voluntary based. One of the most innovative aspects of this transition is the placement of the Service on the citizenship building and the youth civic education, even it continue the peace research activity. This National Civic Service is now related to women between 18 to 26 years old, because the men are involved on the Civilian Service for Conscientious Objectors. From January 1, 2005 this service will be open to the women and the men between 18 to 28 years old. Started December 2001 with 100 placements, today, October, 2003 are in service almost 20.000 people. In foreign countries programs are involved a minority of people (around 50).

2 Arci Servizio Civile is a national non profit organization partner of the National Office of National Civic Service from 1981. Now it is the bigger organization on the field of National Civic Service with 2.045 women engaged on 279 local projects. At the same time Arci Servizio Civile has a national staff of trainers to support this local system. The members of Arci Servizio Civile are 5 national non profit organizations named Legambiente, ARCI Nuova Associazione, Uisp, Arciragazzi e Auser. These organizations are leaders on the Italian Third Sector on the fields of environment, culture, sport, children education, old people. In addition of it there are hundreds of local members.

3 The overall focus of the current National Civic Service in Italy in terms of youths are the youth civic education and the national and European citizenship building. In terms of society the goal to reach is to support the youth service as a community development strategy tool. The funding requested could help a development of some international projects based on the share of experiences, best practices, between Italian and Europeans organizations. Europeans means not only UE members, but also 10 Countries new members of UE. At the same time the building of an European citizenship is not only a juridical and institutional process, but above all a based process of to do activities together.

4 The funding are available to support the monitoring process of 8 projects that will start this December 2003 and will finish December 2004 on the following Countries: Belgium, France, Spain, Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Greece. At the same time are available to present a final report of this pilot experience. The goal of this pilot experience is to create a model of international programs to submit of the European level and the National level.

5 Arci Servizio Civile has a partnership with a survey institute of Trieste to do twice a year the polls to the people engaged on the programs. At the same time Arci Servizio Civile has a partnership with a private Agency of Rome to somministrare questionnaires to the people engaged on the programs to monitor the level of satisfaction, the problems, the proposals. At least Arci Servizio Civile has an agreement with a Social Research Institute of Milan to write a Annual Report of the impact of the programs in terms of local and national community, use of resources, impact on the Third Sector-Public Administration relations.

6 We think the funding amount requested ($ 15.000) will be, in addiction of the Arci Servizio Civile budget, to permit at the beginning of 2005 to offer a report and a vision of the development of the international and possibly transnational dimension of the Civic Service, above all look the worldwide process of need to add to the economical globalisation a human and social trust between different cultures, social approaches, religions. The funds will be utilized to pay a tutor of this pilot experience for one year ($ 4.000), to organize two international meetings with the program leaders, included ICP members ( $ 6.000), to translate in English the documents ($ 3.000), to print in English a brochure about the Italian experience, including a section of the worldwide situation in terms of Civic Service ($ 2.000). This is a preliminary budget and we are ready and happy to receive ICP suggestions.

Organization: Arci Servizio Civile, Via Monti di Pietralata, 16 00157 Roma Tel. 0039-6-4173.4392 Fax. 0039-6-4179.6224

Contact Licio Palazzini, National President Claudia Marcolin, international programs Email presidente@arciserviziocivile.it

Web site www.arciserviziocivile.it

Con grande piacere porto il saluto della Consulta Nazionale del Servizio Civile in Italia a questa First European Conference on Civic Service and Youth.

Avendo sviluppato da tempo esperienze di collaborazione con altri Paesi sono ben consapevole del dibattito sulle terminologie da usare per descrivere azioni solo in apparenza comuni, soprattutto se svincolate dall’elemento unificante della modalità alternativa di adempiere al servizio militare obbligatorio. Obbligatorio per gli uomini.

Mi attengo quindi con piacere alla terminologia Civic Service, una terminologia che si sta affermando anche a livello internazionale (penso al Symposium organizzato a fine Settembre dal Global Service Institute a St. Louis negli USA, dove hanno partecipato studiosi di tutti i continenti).

In Italia, come negli altri Paesi (penso alla Francia, alla Germania) e a livello Europeo (penso al BEOC, ad AVSO) esistono organismi di coordinamento fra NGO’s nel campo del Civic Service, espressione di una tendenza al Coordinamento comune a tutto il Terzo Settore. Più raro è avere un organismo previsto dalla legge nazionale che sia punto di riferimento per gli organismi statali chiamati a gestire il Civic Service. La legislazione italiana prevede che per le scelte più rilevanti in materia di destinazione delle risorse, di definizione delle dimensioni quantitative dei giovani da coinvolgere (il contingente annuale di obiettori o di volontari), di strategie per la formazione e così via, l’Ufficio Nazionale si avvalga del contributo della Consulta nazionale per il servizio civile.

Un organismo composto dai diversi attori del sistema nazionale del Civic Service (rappresentanze dei giovani, dei principali enti nonprofit, delle principali amministrazioni pubbliche, sia nazionali che regionali che locali) che dovrebbe elaborare contenuti che siano espressione globale delle specifiche esigenze di soggetti fra loro diversi e delle potenzialità che scelte condivise possono aprire.

Il fatto che non sempre questi obiettivi siano raggiunti non toglie niente alla validità di questa forma di governo del sistema nazionale del Civic Service. E’ inoltre importante che la stessa filosofia italiana di partecipazione sia presente anche nell’unica legge regionale oggi attiva per il Civic Service, quella recentissima della regione Emilia Romagna.

Mi pare che questo possa essere un contributo italiano al dibattito internazionale sulle modalità di organizzazione delle amministrazioni statali e regionali nella promozione, sostegno e controllo del Civic Service e sulle modalità di formazione delle decisioni più rilevanti. Una modalità inclusiva, che operi nella linea della sussidiarietà fra pubblico, privato e nonprofit.

Il riferimento ai componenti della Consulta mi permette di richiamare una specificità italiana che credo rilevante. Mentre in materia di SVE la legislazione italiana attua disposizioni decise a livello comunitario e quindi sono nonprofit i soggetti abilitati a coinvolgere i giovani, in Italia, in materia di Civic Service e prima ancora di Civilian Service, la legislazione mette sullo stesso piano nonprofit e Pubblica Amministrazione nella attivazione di progetti di SCN.

La rilevanza del peso della Pubblica Amministrazione nell’offerta di Civic Service è frutto della storia del servizio civile degli obiettori di coscienza e di specifiche scelte del legislatore italiano.

Se questo favorisce la presa di coscienza anche da parte dei pubblici amministratori del valore e dell’efficacia del Civic Service, può anche introdurre possibili modifiche nella percezione delle finalità dell’impegno sia da parte dei giovani che di alcuni amministratori rispetto alla finalità principale del Civic Service: la educazione alla partecipazione civica e alla solidarietà sociale, per avere cittadini, anche europei, consapevoli dei propri diritti e dei propri doveri.

Sono tutte sfide che rendono ancora più appassionanti i possibili sviluppi di questa First European Conference on Civic Service and Youth.

Vorrei indicare nel breve tempo a disposizione alcune azioni concrete che ritengo utili a consolidare un percorso internazionale, del quale avverto l’estrema necessità proprio per l’esperienza italiana. Avere realizzato una transizione così impegnativa in termini di giovani coinvolti (in due anni già 20.000 persone), di soggetti sociali interessati, di risorse investite, sia pubbliche che nonprofit è un merito per il nostro Paese e una scelta importante del Governo in carica. Il consolidamento di questa scelta sarà più agevole se avviene in un quadro europeo.

Dicevo alcune indicazioni concrete.

La dimensione istituzionale europea: credo sia estremamente rilevante un ruolo di stimolo e di coordinamento da parte della Commissione Europea, un ruolo più politico che organizzativo, ma di diffusione delle migliori pratiche e soprattutto di indicazione di finalità unitarie a esperienze pratiche che saranno certamente differenti. In altri termini, precisare che, quali che siano le attività dei progetti, la mission generale e prioritaria deve essere la stessa: la educazione alla partecipazione civica e alla solidarietà sociale, per avere cittadini, anche europei, consapevoli dei propri diritti e dei propri doveri.

La dimensione istituzionale a livello di Stati: mentre sono già attive sedi di dialogo sovranazionale per il nonprofit, serve un costante dialogo fra i diversi organismi nazionali chiamati ad attuare le leggi in questa ampia materia, per programmare soluzioni omogenee per problemi comuni: la mobilità, il tempo di permanenza nei Paesi ospitanti, le coperture assicurative, le tematiche sanitarie, il monitoraggio e le verifiche sull’attuazione dei progetti etc..

Sul piano del contributo italiano a questo percorso credo che molta rilevanza vada data al bando straordinario attivato dall’UNSC per progetti nei 15 Paesi della UE e nei 10 Paesi di ingresso. Sarà importantissimo monitorare costantemente la attuazione dei progetti, rilevare le indicazioni che ne scaturiscono, così come sarà importante condividere queste indicazioni in modo sistematico con i Paesi interessati e la Commissione, per valorizzare le indicazioni concrete e correggere eventuali imperfezioni.

Sarà anche utile che il sito internet dell’UNSC abbia una sezione in lingua inglese per favorire la comprensione della nostra esperienza.

Infine la connessione del Civic Service con il programma Gioventù dell’Unione Europea.

Il superamento del legame giuridico fra Civilian Service e obiezione di coscienza al servizio militare permette di collocare meglio il Civic Service dentro questo progetto dell’Unione. Ritegno importante che l’opportunità di questo ingresso sia inserito da subito nel percorso di definizione di proposte che la Commissione sta istruendo in vista del rinnovo con il 1 Gennaio 2007 del programma Gioventù.

Ringrazio in conclusione il Sig. Ministro Giovanardi per aver scelto di tenere questa conferenza, il Direttore dell’UNSC, Palombi per l’attivazione del gruppo di lavoro che ha permesso questa conferenza, Giovanni Bastianini per essere stato l’animatore di questo evento.

Pirate Autonomy Where are the advocates of freedom in the new digital society who have not been decried as pirates, anarchists, communists? Have we not seen that many of those hurling the epithets were merely thieves in power, whose talk of "intellectual property'' was nothing more than an attempt to retain unjustifiable privileges in a society irrevocably changing? But it is acknowledged by all the Powers of Globalism that the movement for freedom is itself a Power, and it is high time that we should publish our views in the face of the whole world, to meet this nursery tale of the Spectre of Free Information with a Manifesto of our own." - Eben Moglen, the DotCommunist Manifesto

Eben Quote from DotCommunist Manifesto

"......intellectual property and its conceptual neighbors may bear the same relationship to the information society as the wage-labour nexus did to the industrial manufacturing society of the 1900s." James Boyle

1. Attack on Dystiopianism 2. Dark net quote 3. Quote from Report on P2P 4. Availability of criminal sanctions against non-commercial users since the NET. 5. Agenda for the FTAA.

"Having redefined IP as a trade issue and exhausted the immediate opportunities presented by the GATT, knowledge industries and the US government then moved policy back to WIP where the level of protection was once again ratcheted up in two treaties in 1996 (The World Copyright Treaty and the World Performers and Phonographs Treaty). Even this event however witnessed a steeling of developing countries position and the end of the multilateral trojan horse was nigh. Fused with frustration at the refusal by many states to go beyond formal compliance with TRIPS (leading arch-lobbyist and former head of the US Patents and trademarks Office, Bruce Lehman, to baldly state "TRIPS has been a terrible failure") the US has returned once again to coercive bilateral deals, whose ideal protectionist template is provided by the recent Free Trade Agreement with Singapore. For many accustomed to the association of the WTO with satanic acts, it is urgent to understand that the place of the game has changed.

P2P As many readers will be aware, the RIAA finally filed civil charges against 261 users of p2p systems last monday, after having sub-poenaed personal information on about 2000 users in recent months. Whilst the identities of many of the defendants remain unknown to the public, it is confirmed that they include a 67 year old man from Texas, and a 12 year old girld from New York city named Barbara ? - understandably she has decided to settle her case, paying $3.000 to the RIAA.

This wave of prosecutions arises in the same week when the RIAA offered an amnesty to those willing to publically confess and atone for their sins. Such a rapid escalation can only be understood as evidence of mounting desperation amongst major music owners in the face of a file-sharing population now numbering up to two hundred million by some estimates. This legal vilification and desire for an exhibition of public-shaming however is but a simulation of control; the heterogeneity of p2p networks, the complexity of jurisdictional issues, and the constant refinement of the technology itself spells doom for the RIAA in their battle against sharing. Indeed, the most immediate consequence of the current onslaught is a renewed interest and development effort to safeguard user privacy against the hostile data-trawling conducted by copyright owners. Ironically the current debacle offers probably the most fertile ground for the emergence of new clients to challenge market incumbents like Kazaa and iMesh, as users shop around and compare the relative levels of protection on offer.

All of the actions currently underway are civil suits for compensation and it is noteworthy that the criminal provisions of the No Electronic Theft Act have not yet been brought into the fray. Jeffrey Gerard Levy - then a 22 year old student at the University of Oregon - was the first person charged under this act in 1999, for making available music and copyright images from his website. Copyright infringement under the NET becomes a felony once the value of the copyrighted works infringed exceeds $2,500. Levy pled guilty and received a non-custodial sentence. The RIAA understood long ago that public reaction to this most recent move would be hostile and this likely explains why the criminal provisions have not been invoked. Furthermore criminal prosecutions are the province of state action, and would require strong support from the FBI's 'cybercrime' division and a district attorney willing to commit political suicide and initiate charges. Nonetheless, criminal actions can be expected in the near future: the inability to close the networks down will lead to the utter jettisoning of reason and desperate attempts to impose order through the prospect of jail.

Within the RIAA there appear to be different and clashing views. In November 2001, Cary Sherman contrasted the 'reasonable' approach of the music industry to that of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) who have had no compunction about going after individuals: ""Nobody likes playing the heavy and having to resort to litigation," said Cary Sherman, the RIAA's president. "But when your product is being regularly stolen, there comes a time when you have to take appropriate action. "

Now that claim lies dead as a dodo. Some players undoubtedly find the idea of attacking their customers distasteful, but the exhaustion of other avenues has obviously put to bed these doubts. The failure of legal action against Morpheus earlier this year may have been the turning point. The District Court determined that distributed file and search systems were not liable for their users activity in the same way that Napster had been determined to be. Napster used a centralized server so as to establish the initial contact between its users, giving the site's owners considerable control over their behaviour. Subsequent generations of p2p clients have not repeated this mistake (by and large). With this decision (currently on appeal) the offensive against p2p developers as a point of potential vulnerability has faded. Thus a new figure was required between the industry's cross-hairs - the individual.

The coming moths will be crucial. Targeting the 'content-owners' with protest, propaganda and boycotts is fundamental - passivity could lead to the slow erosion of the sharing community if people are individualized for victimization and go to their fate alone. Groups such as the EFF and boycottRIAA.com already offer a campaign infrastructure into which some people may wish to invest their energies, but there are lots of other opportunities and methods of creative action.

push in the standards bodies threaten legislation so as to accelerate the adoption process (CBDTA - FCC, felony circumvention)

- Negative experience during the 1980s with dongles - Defeat of SDMI/CSS - Broadcast Flag for digital tv transmissions - Complex role of hardware manufacturers: ensure exceptions for themselves, relegate consumer interests, interoperability - Videogame lock-out; Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Accolade, Inc. and Atari Games Corp. v. Nintendo of America - Innovation/value addition v barriers to entry - Sklyarov, elcomsoft, adobe ebooks - Microsoft DRM hack

Decommodification

1. The new field of production 2. China/Korea, Munich, Brazil. 3. BBC archive project 4. Strangulation of proposed conference on open-collaboration to be hosted by WIPO. 2. Controversy over WIPO meeting on FLOSS 2a. Aggressive posture adopted by the uS State Department on orders of copyright industry 2b. Meanwhile announcements about Munich and Brazil 2c Software Patents Directive 2d Litigation commence against P2p users Microsoft had threatened to boycot WSIS if "Open Source" was so much as mentioned in the WSIS Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action.

The non-rivalrous nature of information -- use by one doesn't diminish availability to another – network-driven decline in communications cost, and cheap commodity hardware enable new realms of cooperation where human labour is central. GNU/Linux, Kuro5hin, Indymedia, SETI, and filesharing networks such as eDonkey and Kazaa are just a few of the outcomes of this protean productive force composed through the voluntary cooperation of network prod-users. A key benefit of the peer-based production model limned above is that volunteer labour goes where it is most competent -- bypassing the inefficiencies of task allocation through firms or price signals -- and goes only where it's willing. Such spaces of free association constitute a significant terrain of individual freedom. Although this voluntary labour and its fruits are partially appropriated by capitalism, these practices are nonetheless concrete experiences of self-valorization, where participants appropriate the tools and knowledge of production and employ them to their own ends in a sort of triumph of use over exchange. Intellectual property laws limit or attempt to crush the potential of this mode of production by narrowing the range of inputs available to be refined or repurposed by all. "

- externalities positive and negative, capturing imagination, exploiting sociality, subjectivity, cooperation, creativity. Life-long learning, perpetual serviude tot he demands of the capitalist labour market. - affective labour “What is prescribed is subjectivity, that is to say, precisely that which only the operator can produce by ‘’giving themselves”” to the task. The impossible to command qualities that are expected from her are discernment, the capacity to confront the unexpected, to identify and resolve problems (Gorz, 16). Physical production becomes subaltern to the affective moment, the ‘’service’’, the research and development behind the product - shift in nature of the workspace from one of forced and often violent discipline (factory model) to the bringing of culture inside the production process.

1. Antechamber to a real appropriation. 2. Workshop for the transmission of knowledges. 3. Willingness to tolerate certain level of piracy as means of market construction and increasingly to hinder the expansion of free software.

1. Why do we bang on about infrastructures? It’s the substance that counts. Limitations of autonomous media systems, centrality of the new proletariat. 2. Confronting the media systems in their entirety. Those building a transformative media apparatus are not media-activists but rather a paradigmatic figure of the new workforce, precarious, mobile, multi-skilled. The Sky broadcast team is a mirror of the media activist. 3. Inability to establish a sustainable funding model lies has historically spelt out the destiny of transformative communications initiatives. Clearest in newspapers (Liberation, Tageszeitung, Village Voice) but also manifested in physical spaces close to political agitation; the familiar story of the squat or social center that signs a contract and five years later has no meaningful substance at all, existing merely so as to produce a wage for those determined enough to persevere, ekeing out an exploitation of past feats with the occasional artiistic retrospective of its radical origins.

1. What happens to the public in noddy-noddy land? Their focus would move away from commercial considerations to providing "public value", he said. "I believe that we are about to move into a second phase of the digital revolution, a phase which will be more about public than private value; about free, not pay services; about inclusivity, not exclusion. "In particular, it will be about how public money can be combined with new digital technologies to transform everyone's lives." 2. How do the discourses that seek to reinforce the public state and authoritarian scaremongering of the security pandemic coincide?

Why go to Geneva 1. Constuitutive moment share skills 2. relaunch a discussion outside of the pattern of summit-hopping 3. experiment with decentralized mode of organizing 4. capitalize on public attention to raise consciousness aropund issues such as IP/precarity 5. Access to communications workers outside of the west 3-400 delegates related to cris, 8-10,000 delegates for summit

The sadness of the WSIS 1. Refusal to establish separate fund to finance digital divide program. 2. Today, 16th July, a governmental sub-group constituted of the governments of China, Egypt, Canada, Mexico, San Salvador and the USA was formed to look at issues of Human Rights, the “Right to Communicate” and Cultural Rights. Egypt blocked a European proposition to introduce a freedom to communicate. China, presumably, is responsible for the exclusion of HRIC. Opposition to Libya's role in the Human Rights trade led to the exclusion of RSF. 3. Concentration: US, Italy 4. Bureaucratic obstacles to registration etc. 5. CS to draft their own declaration out of exasperation with official process 6. Militant position of CCBI 7. Instrumentalization of digital divide discourse: No conflict then with programs such as the recently launched 'Digital Freedom Initiative' administered by USAID with their 'partners' Cisco and Hewlett Packard, guided by the approach outlined by Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans: ""Our solution is free enterprise and free markets. We know that the miracle of capitalism is that in an environment of free enterprise the spirit of competition takes hold, leading to more innovation, which leads to economic growth, which leads to higher standards of living, which leads to quality of life, which leads to a world that lives peace and prosperity."

David Carney, Bush Administration Announces Digital Freedom Initiative http://www.techlawjournal.com/topstories/2003/20030304.asp

Enabled by the dramatic decline in price of powerful computational devices, information processing has transformed every area of work: from the PDA-equipped waitress taking her orders, to real-time tracking of dockers track as they move pallets on quaysides or in warehouses. Nothing escapes the suction towards capillary monitoring, modeling, integration into workflow and inventory management. Incumbent businesses strive to appropriate these gains wherever possible, as a new mode of production emerges, child of the precipitous reduction in the cost of computation power, the transaction costs of communications. This protean productive force is composed of the voluntary cooperation of network prod-users.

The Mad Stuff "School children should recognize their own creativity by including the copyright symbol on their course work."

According to the Patent Office's director of copyright, Anthony Murphy, a major proponent of the new program, understanding intellectual property carries important social value: "By bringing awareness of the importance of copyright into our schools, tomorrow's consumers can take their place in a community which understands, values and respects intellectual property." http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/07/16/abc_ip/print.html

Ten Theses on Freedom of Communication and Freedom of Movement

1. Two great transformative productive forces.

2. In both instances evasion or resistance to the laws takes place upon a mass level that feels no need to articulate itself politically. Mass illegality is the practice of emancipation.

3. Both require the erection of legal borders and their imposition.

4. Both increasingly tend towards a police response.

5. In both management is introduced as a euphemism for control and surveillance - governmentality

6. In each the prohibition is ambivalent: the need for labour creates a demand for migrants. The IOM actively recruits specific type of workers as well as deporting others. Security firms need hackers. Software companies need pirate copies in circulation. Porosity.

7. At the level of migrant subsistence there is a direct correlation in many cases; wherever the labour market is tight the migrant community depends on infringing or grey goods in order to eke out a living.

8. As the key determinant in productive capacity IP restrictions are central to the hindering of national industrial development and consequently an individual's capability to subsist where they are born. IP laws now help to fashion the flow of immigration from the labour intensive areas of the world to the profit centers.

9. In both areas there is a tendency towards a kind of feudalism; under feudalism labour was tied to land, migration controls execute such a function negatively by excluding migrants from the desired land. Trade secret laws achieve the same thing in terms of restricting the portability of knowledge, tying it to a particular workplace to the worker's detriment.

10. Illegal migrants, 'border-hackers', breach social laws by going where they ought not be. Their assault on the reining lies in this symbolic disordering as well as their material reality. Hackers themselves first penetrate at this symbolic level, although there can be material costs coincident to this.

11. Long before the emergence of mass media, migrants, pirates, soldiers, slaves were the conduit of information through which knowledge of struggles circulated. The movement of people and the movement of radical ideas have always been inseparable, driven by disaster, repression, agitation. Migrant communities, forced to operate in clandestinity make continued use of these exact informational structures. On the other hand to interpret the progress of free software as a sign of a general obsolescence of the need to fight around IP strikes me as simplistic. The threat of jail for p2p users and the reality of death for millions in need of patented medicines are very real.Whilst the former may function as something similar to a migrant's risk of ending up in a detention center - a risk, but not the controlling factor of migrant action or subjectivity - by performing legal vilification on an individual as a simulacrum of control and management. The complexities of modern life and the basic conditions for modern production do not however enable the realization of such power fantasies. Instead we get the totalitarian state show five days a week after the news at lunchtime, repeated again at 6.30. The potential danger in this display lies in tis capacity to straightjacket the social appropriation of technology, in such a way as to keep the model of exploitation central to media-marketing-news companies alive. This is why the struggles around IP should not be foremost about consumption, but production, social relationships and the collapsing of the distinction between user and producer. In this light there is nothing 'moralistic' about 'sharing' – it is t pragmatic mode of exchange commensurate to the form of social relation proper to that nebulous movement now touted as the 'commons'.

Key Terms: Role of research in agitation. For a European Inquiry into Information and Communications Production.

Time Bandits against the Gangsters of Accumulation: access to the means to life remains contingent on mostly unnecessary production whose only purpose is to reproduce the cycle of accumulation and continue the class war waged from above.

Criminal Mass: strategies against the of Criminalization of sharing of, and access, to knowledge.

Pirate Pride Parade: to coincide with the Genevan festival, a parade through the streets, culminating in a concert and rave.

Copyriot.Fightsharing.Dealers for life.Outlaw Broadcasters.Highwaymen of the net.Global Syndicate. What's the point of robbery when there's nothing left worth stealing? Evil genius for a better tomorrow.Illegal bodies

Crackpipe Neoliberalism

What are the moments represented by these themes?

Communication and movement from below are two of the strongest forces fashioning our everyday lives in ways which are not controlled and commanded by the state. No accident that the same paradigm, management, involving in one case demographic survey and in the other personal profiling based on informational inputs, is applied to both. Both are defined as problems; both have generated mass practices of illegality which the institutions given sovereignty over these jurisdictions can only simulate control over; both are central to the reproduction of the economy and profit on the terms now defined.

Movement from above mostly expresses itself in the movement of capital over borders and industries, the effortless economic blossoming and withering of regions. But it is also the summit-hoping by those who would be kings, and the fairytale lifestyle of the media celebrity or business magnate who flies to Venice for dinner and London for his tailor. Communication from above is the engineering of opinion, the manufacturing of the subject as consumer, the predatory generation of the fear of the other, the evacuation of sense and the bending of the knee before neo-feudalisms (old) new aristocracy.

Where we can be and what we know determine the parameters of what we can do. But in this world at the end of each trail lies the mad demands of production and the morality of the job. Work was always ugly but becomes even more undignified under informational capitalism, accelerated, intrusive, destabilising and omnipresent. Whether its selling the self in 'services' or the demand to turn-over a hundred 'customer inquiries' an hour in a call center, the means of accessing an income are locked to the use of the wage as a means of social control and the demand to extract surplus value from one and all. There is labour from below, but alas it doesn't tend to produce income, unless we're talking about that activity dubbed criminal, whose repression comprises one of the few outstanding justifications for its own existence that kingpins of the state apparatus appear to invest their faith in.

When the majority of profit extracted from commerce derives from the design, idea and research behind the good rather than the physical artifact itself, and when the manufacture of these physical containers can be subjected to a devestating dose of comparative advantage as demonstrated in the market for labour, then intellectual property rules become the fundamental vectors for control and the reproduction of profit-centers. In a world without borders these rules ensure that each keep their proper place, injecting a certain social order. Meanwhile, the networked millions, discovering the scale of their capacity in collaborative production from below using informational inputs, find their practice of building outside of profit impeded by rules erected so as to limit access, prevent the emergence of alternatives capable of challenging the rentier's racket and deny access to knowledge. These laws bind the arms of workers in the labour market as well, block the portability of skills, know-how, and of course, alienating us from the products of our work

References: Solo, Trashing Free Software Jacques Godbout Killbarda’s article Sasha Constanza Chock Yochai, Coase’’s Penguin. Kuda Rossiter 1. BBC Announcement about archives http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3177479.stm HRIC http://iso.hrichina.org/iso/news_item.adp?news_id=1527 Telestreet, Gurriglia Marketing, Link to my article RSF http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=797215.09.2003 http://www.itu.int/wsis/docs/im/content_themes/contributions/ccbi.doc ]. Cptech artcile on compulsory licensing and FTAA. Conrad’’s article on FTAA.

i. The User Insurgency

(a) As Critique of property

There is a more precise connection between this mass 'criminality' and the merging productive power; the desire to obtain media commodities for free is a powerful motivation for self-education the acquisition of new skills and knowledge: how to use cryptographic hashes, compression techniques, wider knowledge of less-charted (and thus safer) network spaces, familiarity with formats and the ability to render digital forms as physical objects such as mastered CDs and DVDs, familiarity with publishing techniques, wikis etc. File-sharing forums function as veritable apprentice-yards for the diffusion of techniques which once acquired are portable to uses outside of the reproduction of the commodity circuit.

(b) As Productive Force

"But the worker, as owner and seller of his labour-power, enters into relation with capital only as an individual; cooperation, the mutual relationship between workers,only begins with the labour process, but by then they have ceased to belong to themselves. On entering the labour process they are incorporated into capital. As co-operators, as members of a working organism, they merely form a particular mode of existence of capital. Hence the productive power developed by the worker socially is the productive power of capital." Panzieri

Critical interpretations of automation earmark the introduction of technology as either a reaction to the militancy of or, or an attack on, workers activity. This is sometimes described as the increasing role played by constant capital (investments, machinery) with respect to variable capital (labour). The worker is deskilled as the intelligence formerly drawn from living labour is invested in the machinery itself, the producer ceases to be the subject of production and becomes supervisor of a machine that has taken her place. In some cases the introduction of technology will result in unemployment whose disastrous consequences can be seen in a thousand former industrial towns turned wastelands.

P2P reverses this situation at least in part. As the range of its productive practices grow it substructs tasks from the market and the firm. Instead of 'management' or 'planning' these projects rely upon horizontal negotiation, modular production and exploits the ease and cheap nature of digital communications to overcome the need for a centrally located decision-maker, formerly known as the boss. Widespread social cooperation need longer be constrained to the firm - this is the fundamental change of peer to peer. Distinguishing this practice from real-world volunteerism are the low costs of coordination, the role of information (and its especial public good characteristics) as both raw material and output of the productive process and the access to a near infinite range of expertise and paralellizable workers through the network.

No objections to the creation of value per se.

Produces a decline in the level of political dependence.

(c) The Dark Side of the Collaborative Mode

ii. Response of the State

iii. Response of existing market incumbents

ii. Deregulation of the media

iii. We want the machines to work for us. To improve the standard of living whilst abolishing monotonous, labour.

Assessing the effects of technological innovation between potential productivity and real-world effect allows us to shine light on the social consequences at the level of distribution of wealth and crucially power, rather than fetichizing innovation in and of itself.

"The working-class struggle thus presents itself as the necessity of global opposition to the capitalist plan, where the fundamental factor is awareness -- let us call it dialectical awareness -- of the unity of the 'technical' and 'despotic' moments in the present organization of production. The relationship of revolutionary action to technological 'rationality' is to 'comprehend' it, but not in order to acknowledge and exalt it, rather in order to subject it to a new use: to the socialist use of machines .30" Panzieri

Caffentzis essay commentary

In the master's mind, "the machinery and his monopoly of it are inseparably united"12 Panzieri

iv. Freedom to be where we want and do what we like

"In fact, for Marx, free time for the free mental and social activity of individuals by no means simply coincides with the reduction of the 'working day'. It presupposes a radical transformation of the conditions of human labour, the abolition of wage labour and the "social regulation of the labour process" In other words, it presupposes the total overthrow of the capitalist relationship between despotism and rationality, for the formation of a society administered by free producers, in, which-with the abolition of production for the sake of production-planned development, the plan itself, rationality and technology would be subjected to the; permanent control of social forces, and work would thus (and only thus) be capable of becoming man's 'vital need'."

Difference between opposition within the accumulation mechanism and that at the level of the social relation of power that lies at the heart of the system as a whole.

‘ An important meaning of liberation with continuities to the Revolution of 1640 is suggested in the first chapter: namely the growing propensity, skill and success of London working people in escaping from the newly created institutions that were designed to discipline people by closing them in. This tendency I have dubbed 'excarceration' because I wish to draw attention to the activity of freedom in contrast to its ideological or theoretical expressions. I see that activity as a counter-tendency to a recent historiographical trend exemplified by Michel Foucault, who stresses incarceration in the 'the great confinement' and who makes rulers of government and society seem all-powerful.' Linebaugh, The London Hanged, p.3

v. Strategy "The tendential line that can be identified objectively as a valid hypothesis/guide lies in the strengthening and expansion of self--management demands. Since self-management demands are not posed merely as demands for 'cognitive' participation, but affect the concrete relationship rationalization/hierarchy/power, they do not remain closed within the ambit of the firm. Instead, they are precisely directed against the 'despotism' which capital projects and exercises over society as a whole, at all levels, and they are expressed as the need for a total overthrow of the system, by means of a global prise de conscience and a general struggle of the working class as such."

fn41: The representation of communist society as a society of 'abundance' of goods (even if not purely material ones) and of 'free time' is widespread in Soviet ideology, and is obviously the result of denying any effective social regulation of the labour process. 'Technological' illusions intervene today to sustain such ideology; for example, in R. Strumilin (On the Road to Communism, Moscow 1959), 'directing functions in the processes of production' are identified with 'technical' control, with the 'higher intellectual content' of work made possible by the "development of technology with its miraculous automatic mechanisms and electronic machines that 'think' ". Thus, automation will make it possible to achieve a really 'affluent' society of consumers of 'free time'; see above, note 30! As an example of typical deformation of Marx's texts on this point, see G. Friedmann, Industrial Society, New York 1955, where the worker's reappropriation of the product and of the content of work itself is identified with 'psychic-physiological control of work'!

6. Obscuring of labour, technical, comparison with housework etc.

7. “The reason we’re so downbeat is we think the peer-to-peer problem is going to only get worse. In 2008, broadband will be prevalent around the world,” said Simon Dyson, the report’s author.

It's funny how in the beggining all you wanted was to get that X item (song/game/app etc) and ended up joining and participating in very nice comunities. You laugh you learn and you meet ppl all over the world which otherwise you would never have met.

lol .... for me one of the great staisfactions of this internet age is seeing those two words together... "Download Complete" eh eh eh (how sad am I?) No really ppl begin with filesharing then they learn about routers then network connection... the possibilities are endless (you even begin to unravel the mistery of the smurfs.... which I only begin to compreend...) June 20, 2003 p2pforums.com

Chris Gregory "Gifts and Commodities", Ongka's Big Moka Ongka: A Self Account by a PNG Highlands Big Man by Andrew Strathern Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy, starting with the second book. There are also elaborations on an eco-economy, too, and hydrogen economies. Vonnegut mauled the gadget genre with Player Piano.

- difference between ‘’gift exchange and direct reciprocity’’ - http://struggle.net/Ben - MIYACHI TATSUO - Germna Ideology, Feuerbach - indignity of work breeds the desire and readiness to produce elsewhere for free, in conditions of dignity

What are the moments represented by these themes?

Communication and movement from below are two of the strongest forces fashioning our everyday lives in ways which are not controlled and commanded by the state. No accident that the same paradigm, management, involving in one case demographic survey and in the other personal profiling based on informational inputs, is applied to both. Both are defined as problems; both have generated mass practices of illegality which the institutions given sovereignty over these jurisdictions can only simulate control over; both are central to the reproduction of the economy and profit on the terms now defined.

Movement from above mostly expresses itself in the movement of capital over borders and industries, the effortless economic blossoming and withering of regions. But it is also the summit-hoping by those who would be kings, and the fairytale lifestyle of the media celebrity or business magnate who flies to Venice for dinner and London for his tailor. Communication from above is the engineering of opinion, the manufacturing of the subject as consumer, the predatory generation of the fear of the other, the evacuation of sense and the bending of the knee before neo-feudalisms (old) new aristocracy.

Where we can be and what we know determine the parameters of what we can do. But in this world at the end of each trail lies the mad demands of production and the morality of the job. Work was always ugly but becomes even more undignified under informational capitalism, accelerated, intrusive, destabilising and omnipresent. Whether its selling the self in 'services' or the demand to turn-over a hundred 'customer inquiries' an hour in a call center, the means of accessing an income are locked to the use of the wage as a means of social control and the demand to extract surplus value from one and all. There is labour from below, but alas it doesn't tend to produce income, unless we're talking about that activity dubbed criminal, whose repression comprises one of the few outstanding justifications for its own existence that kingpins of the state apparatus appear to invest their faith in.

When the majority of profit extracted from commerce derives from the design, idea and research behind the good rather than the physical artifact itself, and when the manufacture of these physical containers can be subjected to a devestating dose of comparative advantage as demonstrated in the market for labour, then intellectual property rules become the fundamental vectors for control and the reproduction of profit-centers. In a world without borders these rules ensure that each keep their proper place, injecting a certain social order. Meanwhile, the networked millions, discovering the scale of their capacity in collaborative production from below using informational inputs, find their practice of building outside of profit impeded by rules erected so as to limit access, prevent the emergence of alternatives capable of challenging the rentier's racket and deny access to knowledge. These laws bind the arms of workers in the labour market as well, block the portability of skills, know-how, and of course, alienating us from the products of our work.

If I was Berlusconi, who has changed a lot since 1994... I wouldn't even put one policeman in the Piazzas. I would let those kids break every window. I would let them do it: go ahead with iron and fire... your tango. I would want these kids to vent their anger. And then: Bang! Armoured vehicles on the streets... you would see that even today, exactly as in my era, the left invokes the police, the hard hand... This autumn will be 'hot' because the target is a big one. People will beg us to stop them. And then we will stop them with armoured cars and with loaded guns, authoprised to shoot and also to kill.... And we will clean up the piazzas."

Quoted in The Dark Heart of Italy by Tobias Jones at p.222.

"Give Sky the 'Boot' "

Telestreet Rome

A flurry of activity has convulsed the Italian Telestreet project in recent days. This coordination of micro-broadcasters first came on air in the summer of 2002 in the form of Orfeo Tv, a neighborhood station based in Bologna, and a slew of others launched shortly thereafter. Transmissions occur on frequencies allocated to commercial broadcasters which lie unused either for reasons of local topography or due to simple lack of interest on the part of the assignee. Given the outlandish concentration of media ownership in Italy - where 90% of the audio-visual media is controlled directly or indirectly by Silvio Berlusconi - this recycling of frequencies has become a flashpoint for the development of critical approaches to information production and distribution. Despite being in breach of the law only one station had encountered legal problems until last thursday. Telefabrica was broadcasting in the area around the Fiat factory in Termini Imerese, where workers were on strike and involved in generalized protests against restructuring and layoffs, when they were closed by the Carabinieri in december of last year. They subsequently went back on air.

Last week the axe fell again, this time in the small town of Sigallia, near Ancona, in central Italy. A voluntary group principally occupied with care for the disabled had been broadcasting with the involvement of local members of the centre-left party, Democratici della Sinistra, under the name "DiscoVolante". The station was raided and closed by the Carabinieri for being in breach of the broadcasting regulations, and the studio sealed. Meanwhile it was learned that another Telestreet, this time in Pechioli near Pisa, would be closed on September 26th. In Pechioli the project is actually supported by the town council. Paradoxically, thus, these two recent targets represent those with strong institutional affiliations who practice a form of broadcasting that would appear to fall within very orthodox definitions of legitimacy. Media insurgents did not let this attack go unpunished, as you will see below, but first a a little context....

A Tale of Two Despots

Berlusconi's Mediaset group controls approximately 50% of the Italian television market. Victory in the general elections of 2001 extended his grip from the private to the public sector, giving him a free hand over the national public broadcaster RAI, who with 40% of the market constitute the only serious competition to his networks. Within a couple of months he began to purge RAI of popular TV presenters known for their critical attitude and statements in his regard.

The Italian TV market has some unique characteristics; terrestrial broadcast remains essentially unchallenged as the distribution format and there are few cable channels. Secondly, satellite television has been slow to take off and use of unauthorized decoder cards remains commonplace. Until last year there were two players in the Italian market: Stream and Telepiu. 80% of Stream belongs to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, whereas Telepiu was owned by Vivendi-Universal. This merger established an effective monopoly in the satellite market. An interesting tangent to this story is that the deal also contained an agreement by Canal+ (now owned by Vivendi) to drop a legal action filed in California against News Datacom Services (NDS), a News Corp subsidiary, in 2001. Canal+ had filed a multi-billion dollar suit for damages against NDS accusing them of having provided information to 'black-hat' engineers involved reverse engineering and the design and manufacture of unauthorized satellite decoders. Canal+'s reasoning was that information was provided to strategically undermine their business model and ultimately the ability to compete. NDS were were necessarily well infiltrated in the black hat scene out of a desire to protect their own interests and remain abreast of technical developments in the underworld. With the purchase of Telepiu this rather sleazy and fascinating story ceased to unfold in the public domain. The merger was cleared by European Competition regulators in April 2003, who also placed restrictions on the exclusivity and duration of broadcast rights agreed with football clubs and film studios.

The new satellite operator, now known as Sky Italia, was launched publicly at the end of July. In the meantime contracts had been negotiated with Italy's most famous football teams - Lazio, Juventus, Roma, Inter Milan etc - for transmission rights. Sky currently has just 2.3 million subscribers in Italy (110 million worldwide) and aims to increase that base to 6 million subscribers, and profitability, within two years. Industry estimates the number of satellite dishes at 6 million, most of which use unauthorised cards.

Given the nature of the market, Murdoch desire for audience growth can only come from two sources. The first is to clampdown on users of unauthorised decoder cards in a massive anti-piracy jihad. The second is to take eyeballs from the existing market incumbents and enter into conflict with Berlusconi's interests. A hallmark of Murdoch's business style has been the instrumentalization of his media empire in order to extract favours from political leaders, most notably in Britain and more recently evidenced by the vile political postures assumed by his Fox Television network in the United States and other activities in China. In Italy however this role of media-magnate cum political puppetmaster is already occupied by the politico-business apparatus of Berluska himself. The scene seems set for a truly modern conflict.

But let's leave the Goliaths for a moment, and turn our eyes back to David, and the working class quarter of San Lorenzo in Rome.

An Assault on the Sky...... San Lorenzo is a small district couched between the University, Verrano cemetry and the city walls, it was one of last quarters in the center of Rome to be built during the so-called "Construction Fever" that accelerated from 1870. The district has a proud radical tradition with socialist, communist and anarchist elements traceable to its population of workers, artisans, and more recently, students. Mussolini's gangs always found themselves driven out of the area whenever they attempted incursions prior to the march on Rome in 1922 which concluded with his assumption of power, That night fighting and shoot-outs in S.Lorenzo claimed thirteen lives. Apart from this politically antagonistic character, the other unmistakable trait of the district is its passion for Roma Football club. When Roma became Italian champions in 2001 the streets were closed down for a massive popular celebration complete with the roasting of pigs in the middle of the street. This fanaticism for foot ball for which Italy is renowned comes from its popular and working class character, but changes in the structure of the football industry in recent times have relentlessly driven up the costs for those who follow it with dedication. Tickets for games are difficult to acquire and have become ever more expensive due to the spiraling costs of transfer fees and player salaries required to maintain competitiveness at an international level. Excluded from the stadiums, fans are obliged to make do with watching games on television. Whilst games were once broadcast free over terrestrial stations, the rights are now largely under the control of Sky Italia, who charge a minimum of 47 euros for a basic package that includes soccer coverage.

In this context of the enclosure of popular culture, and determined to make a quick rispost to the state's authoritarian suppression of Disco Volante in Senigallia, an alliance of several telestreet groups (SpegnilaTV, Teleaut, AntTV, OrfeoTV) and a subversive marketing project named 'Guerriglia Marketing' decided to escalate the level of the conflict. The proposition was simple: use the telestreet apparatus for the retransmission of the match between soccer giants Juventus and Roma, for free, to the entirety of the football-mad district. One decryption card attached to the transmitter would be transformed into a decoder for the whole area. Intriguing posters with legends such as "Totti Libero!", "Montella libero!" -- star players on the Roma squad -- appeared on the walls of the district. Shortly after the appearance of these teasers -- which caused enough perplexity amongst Roma Ultras that they tore many posters down misinterpreting the slogans as an attack on their life-long love -- flyers were distributed explaining that on Sunday 21st September the game would be broadcast free on UHF channel 26.

A studio was established in a secret location so as to evade police detection and the equipment prepared. There had been some anxiety as to whether it would actually function as reception obviously depends on many variables, especially the direction in which the antennas on apartment blocks roofs are pointed. A straw-poll conducted via house speakerphone laid these worries to rest. Large numbers of people were enjoying the game in the comfort of their won home for free, and their responses were enthusiastic and admiring. That evening the broadcast was the talk of the district. The following day the news hit all the national newspapers. Guerilla marketers insist that rather than prosecuting them, Sky should recognise the value brought to their product by the underground viral dissemination of their materials, and pay them for the publicity generated for Murdoch's fledgling operation.

Before the game started a communique was read in defense of another local struggle, that of a housing occupation in Via de Lollis involving more than a hundred Italian and migrant families and individuals, now under threat of eviction. Naturally the advertising that would normally have been shown during the 15 minute interval was excised from the broadcast, and the time employed instead to transmit video-spots produced as part of the Telestreet project and an interview with a Roma Ultra who critiqued the commodification and exploitation of modern football, arguing that access to soccer and other forms of immaterial wealth should be a right for all. At the bottom of the screen sat the logo of Disco Volante, closed just three days before. As SpegnilaTV commented: "Turned off in Senigallia, Disco Volante lights up again in Rome."

Yesterday Sky made a formal complaint to the police about the affair, but good ideas need no newspaper to spread, and a proliferation of this practice elsewhere in the country can be predicted with some confidence. With one move a small DIY television project has made a decisive incursion into the popular imagination. Through the medium of football thousands will tune into channel 26, give the business plans of Sky a kick in the teeth and open up a channel that will be used to communicate radical social practices and critiques. An intervention to be emulated.

Some links

SpegnilaTV http://www.spegnilatv.it/web/

Guerrila Marketing

http://www.guerrigliamarketing.it/

OrfeoTV http://www.telestreet.it/telestreet/home.htm

New Global Vision - Archive of Italian and international Audio-Visual works available for free download. http://www.ngvision.it

Report from First Telestreet Conference - Etarea (scroll down page to second article) http://www.heartybreakfast.org/freedistro/archives/2002_12.html

Manifesto of Urban Televisions http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=03/04/16/173209&mode=nested...

Lower Your TV Please http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=03/07/25/198255&mode=nested...

i. The User Insurgency

(a) As Critique of property

There is a more precise connection between this mass 'criminality' and the merging productive power; the desire to obtain media commodities for free is a powerful motivation for self-education the acquisition of new skills and knowledge: how to use cryptographic hashes, compression techniques, wider knowledge of less-charted (and thus safer) network spaces, familiarity with formats and the ability to render digital forms as physical objects such as mastered CDs and DVDs, familiarity with publishing techniques, wikis etc. File-sharing forums function as veritable apprentice-yards for the diffusion of techniques which once acquired are portable to uses outside of the reproduction of the commodity circuit.

(b) As Productive Force

"But the worker, as owner and seller of his labour-power, enters into relation with capital only as an individual; cooperation, the mutual relationship between workers,only begins with the labour process, but by then they have ceased to belong to themselves. On entering the labour process they are incorporated into capital. As co-operators, as members of a working organism, they merely form a particular mode of existence of capital. Hence the productive power developed by the worker socially is the productive power of capital." Panzieri

Critical interpretations of automation earmark the introduction of technology as either a reaction to the militancy of or, or an attack on, workers activity. This is sometimes described as the increasing role played by constant capital (investments, machinery) with respect to variable capital (labour). The worker is deskilled as the intelligence formerly drawn from living labour is invested in the machinery itself, the producer ceases to be the subject of production and becomes supervisor of a machine that has taken her place. In some cases the introduction of technology will result in unemployment whose disastrous consequences can be seen in a thousand former industrial towns turned wastelands.

P2P reverses this situation at least in part. As the range of its productive practices grow it substructs tasks from the market and the firm. Instead of 'management' or 'planning' these projects rely upon horizontal negotiation, modular production and exploits the ease and cheap nature of digital communications to overcome the need for a centrally located decision-maker, formerly known as the boss. Widespread social cooperation need longer be constrained to the firm - this is the fundamental change of peer to peer. Distinguishing this practice from real-world volunteerism are the low costs of coordination, the role of information (and its especial public good characteristics) as both raw material and output of the productive process and the access to a near infinite range of expertise and paralellizable workers through the network.

No objections to the creation of value per se.

Produces a decline in the level of political dependence.

(c) The Dark Side of the Collaborative Mode

ii. Response of the State

iii. Response of existing market incumbents

ii. Deregulation of the media

iii. We want the machines to work for us. To improve the standard of living whilst abolishing monotonous, labour.

Assessing the effects of technological innovation between potential productivity and real-world effect allows us to shine light on the social consequences at the level of distribution of wealth and crucially power, rather than fetichizing innovation in and of itself.

"The working-class struggle thus presents itself as the necessity of global opposition to the capitalist plan, where the fundamental factor is awareness -- let us call it dialectical awareness -- of the unity of the 'technical' and 'despotic' moments in the present organization of production. The relationship of revolutionary action to technological 'rationality' is to 'comprehend' it, but not in order to acknowledge and exalt it, rather in order to subject it to a new use: to the socialist use of machines .30" Panzieri

Caffentzis essay commentary

In the master's mind, "the machinery and his monopoly of it are inseparably united"12 Panzieri

iv. Freedom to be where we want and do what we like

"In fact, for Marx, free time for the free mental and social activity of individuals by no means simply coincides with the reduction of the 'working day'. It presupposes a radical transformation of the conditions of human labour, the abolition of wage labour and the "social regulation of the labour process" In other words, it presupposes the total overthrow of the capitalist relationship between despotism and rationality, for the formation of a society administered by free producers, in, which-with the abolition of production for the sake of production-planned development, the plan itself, rationality and technology would be subjected to the; permanent control of social forces, and work would thus (and only thus) be capable of becoming man's 'vital need'."

Difference between opposition within the accumulation mechanism and that at the level of the social relation of power that lies at the heart of the system as a whole.

v. Strategy "The tendential line that can be identified objectively as a valid hypothesis/guide lies in the strengthening and expansion of self--management demands. Since self-management demands are not posed merely as demands for 'cognitive' participation, but affect the concrete relationship rationalization/hierarchy/power, they do not remain closed within the ambit of the firm. Instead, they are precisely directed against the 'despotism' which capital projects and exercises over society as a whole, at all levels, and they are expressed as the need for a total overthrow of the system, by means of a global prise de conscience and a general struggle of the working class as such."

fn41: The representation of communist society as a society of 'abundance' of goods (even if not purely material ones) and of 'free time' is widespread in Soviet ideology, and is obviously the result of denying any effective social regulation of the labour process. 'Technological' illusions intervene today to sustain such ideology; for example, in R. Strumilin (On the Road to Communism, Moscow 1959), 'directing functions in the processes of production' are identified with 'technical' control, with the 'higher intellectual content' of work made possible by the "development of technology with its miraculous automatic mechanisms and electronic machines that 'think' ". Thus, automation will make it possible to achieve a really 'affluent' society of consumers of 'free time'; see above, note 30! As an example of typical deformation of Marx's texts on this point, see G. Friedmann, Industrial Society, New York 1955, where the worker's reappropriation of the product and of the content of work itself is identified with 'psychic-physiological control of work'!

-Presentazione: zombi di ngv agnese e alan di Candida:

Overview of the Talk (1 minuti)

- Introduction: (2min) Agnese - CandidaTv e' una piccola casa di produzione indipendente romana che nasce nel 1999 da un gruppo di persone provenienti dal campo della telematica, del video, della radio e del teatro. Definiamo candida la Tv elettrodomestica, il nostro motto e' "Fai la tua televisione". per oltrepassare la distinzione tra produttore e consumatore.

-Una mutazione antropologica si e' determinata: lo sport, le soap opera, il porno, sono buone ragioni per sviluppare competenze tecniche che consentano il reperimento (tracing, finding, discovery), la duplicazione e la condivisione del materiale video. I computer e la telematica mettono a disposizione queste tecnologie: i metodi di compressione video le reti peer-to-peer

-Cosa e' la compressione video: (2min) agnese Sfruttando il fatto che l'occhio umano non è in grado di percepire variazioni infinitesimali quali quelle ottenibili con la digitalizzazione di un segnale video, i dati ottenuti vengono ridotti tramite un processo matematico che passa sotto il nome di compressione. Di conseguenza un segnale video compresso richiede meno risorse di uno non compresso ma, ovviamente, contiene meno informazioni. La bontà (virtue, quality) di un sistema di compressione sta nel rendere invisibile all'occhio questa riduzione di informazioni. Il dispositivo che opera questa compressione viene chiamato CoDec (Compressore/Decompressore). La compressione consente l'upload e il download anche di film da un ora e mezza riducendo fino a 10 volte il peso originale del file. Un esempio sono gli mp3: gli mp3 vengono condivisi tramite reti peer to peer, ma lo stesso accade per i video -formato che e’ buono solo per guardare e formato che e’ buono anche per montare (vp3)

-Cosa e' una rete peer to peer? (2 min) Alan sono computer che condividono con il resto della rete parte del loro hard disk senza passare per un server centrale, creando cosi' una banca dati collettiva. nello specifico la tecnologia bitorrent consente di alleggerie il traffico di download perche' e' pssibile scaricare i file da chi li sta in quel momento scaricando da altri nodi della rete.

Queste tecnologie, sviluppate dai consumatori per appagare la loro sete di consumo nell'intimita' e nel calore delle case, diventa un enorme risorsa per la costruzione di reti autonome all'interno delle quali condividere o copiare video non e' piu' un reato.

1. P2P e un rete dove ogni participante fornisce risorse (banda, i cicli di processore, spazio per immagazinare) o saperi (dati, fatti, puti di vista, valutazioni) agli altri senza passare tramite un server centrale.

2. Il migliore conosciuto forma e il file-sharing, condivisione di file, sopratutto musica ma sempre di piu materiali video e multimediale. Nel rete file sharing c'e un virtualisazione delle risorse. Una folla diffusa, transiente, e capace di raggiungere livelli di aggregazione che permette la distribuzione del file in un modo veloce e economico.

3. A qualsiasi momento ce sono 6 millioni di persone che usanno le reti file sharing. Allo stesso modo, ce sono altro 4 millioni chi contribuiscono i cicli di processore al progetto SETI: "un esperimento scientifico che sfrutterà la potenza di centinaia di migliaia di computers collegati a Internet, alla ricerca di intelligenze extra-terrestri [Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (S.E.T.I.)]. Voi potrete partecipare facendo "girare" sul vostro computer un programma che scarica e analizza i dati di un radio-telescopio. Esiste la lontana, ma accattivante, possibilità che il vostro computer scopra il lontano mormorio di una civiltà extra-terrestre."

e.g CNN & Portale di informazione independente come Indymedia

a. Velocita di collegamento dell'utente b. Velocita di collegamento dell'server dove sono ospitati i materiali desiderati c. Accord tra provider diversi di gestire il traffico di data, cosidetta 'peering agreements' d. Dorsale. Crescita di traffico e piu grande che il livello di espansione della dorsale della rete, legato anche al sviluppo della technologia delle router.

Qua, le risorse condivise sono: - spazio sull hard-disk per immagizanare dati - capacita di trasferimento (la banda)

Nell'area della distribuzione, la coordinazion e realissato attraverso un delle due seguente methodi: - o all'interno dell protocollo stesso (pura p2p) - o tramite l'uso di supernodes (computer piu potente, con piu banda quini in grado di funzionnare come punto di riferimento per gli altri nella localita. - o attraverso un server centrale che gestisce il collegamenti ulteriori

Intermezzo Agnese (30 seconds)

-e New Global Vision dal 2001 (5 minuti) (Zombi)

-Un esempio di reti autonome e indipendenti sono v2v (2 min)

Noi vogliamo svillupare una communita dentro, dedicato alla distribuzione di materiali independenti, perche purtroppo la grande parte delle materiali condivisi sono prodotti strettamente commerciale. Ovvio che per le aziende mediatica queta si pone come problema della cosidetta 'pirateria' per noi, l'aspetto infelice e che riprodiusce e fa crescere preferenze commerciale e acritiche.

1. Accordarsi sull utilizzo di codec standard

2. Standardised metatdata Systema di etichetta e categorizazione standard poer fare ricerca, organizzare un palimsest etc., sapere se la qualita delli materiali e adeguato di essere riciclati. Naming protocol, fer favorire l'identificazione di opere critici o independenti. Anche se non conosci il nome del film, metti V2V e trovi tutti gli risultati, scegli.

3. Experimentation with bit torrent Sperimentiamo con un programmino chi si chiama bit torrent. Questo e il forma di scambio p2p piu efficace. Facilissimo di installare. Scarici un piccolo file che contiene due elementi:

- tracker: server che osserva chi e collegato al file in questo attimo, che pezzi del file detengono. Cosi, quando il primo di scaricarlo e aggiunto da un altro, questa seconda commincia a scaricare dell fonte originale e il primo scaricatore, e il primo prende dall secondo altri pezzi che non ha ancora scaricato e cosi via.

- hash data: representazione crittographica dell file originale - ti permette di verificare gli contenuti delle dati, e prodce anche informazione sull pezzi dell file gia scaricati.

Quindi scarici il file, lo apri, questa to collega al tracker eagli altri utenti. Tutti quelli che scaricano consentono anche di scaricare agli altri. Più persone sono coinvolte nel processo e maggiori saranno le velocità di download di ognuno.

4. V2V e un progetto infrastruturale. Rete 'syndicato'. Questo vuole dire che non appartiene a un portale specifica. File contribuiti sono pubblicati su una lista RSS, aggiornata automaticamente.

RSS è un formato per la distribuzione e la diffusione su diversi canali (syndication) di liste di link, titoli e sommari di news. L’uso della Really Simple Syndication favorisce la decentralizzazione del materiale, consente agli utenti di integrare i links in qualsiasi pagine web, accanto materiali fatto del produttore del pagine. Torrent files o legami edonkey, possone essere attacati, o collati in email, e girato. Encoragiamo gente di formare gruppi per digitilissare materiali interessanti, e usufruire l'infrastruttura,

5. Ha una infrastruttura communitaria, che permette risposte, questione, o offerti di aiuto delli utenti. Questa e fondamentale, perche al di la di distribuire li materiali, e condividere risorse per superare ostacoli finanzialli, nostra aspirazione e di svillupare relazioni, basati su altre norme, non quelli inscritte nella diritto di autore. Quindi strumenti di dialogo sono fundamentali.

6. A parte di Bit torrent, usiamo altri reti di file-sharing anche. Anche se sono meno efficiente, hanno un aspetto che Bit Torrent Manca, cioe la capacita di fare una ricerca piu grande sulli materiali esistenti tra i utenti. Bit Torrent richiede che qualcuno ti tira l'attenzione attraverso email o RSS, o che visiti un portale. E ottimo quando c'e multo domanda per uno certo file durante un tempo breve, quando e uscito, ma non tre mesi dopo. Altri sistemi, come MLDonkey, ci permettono di risolvere questa lacuna.

7. Dall punto di vista di produttori independenti, offre la potenziale di diffondere i loro prodotti senza pagare gli costi della infrastrutura, e tramite mezzi che sono capace di attenuare gli inuguaglianze economiche al rispetto dell grande impresa mediatice.

8. E sostenibile perche il numero di 'providers' cresce con il livello di domanda, questa riduce la problema di dipendenzia sull finanziamento esterno, che nell ambito della cultura viene spesso sia dello stato, sia di Fondazioni; entrambe hanno gli loro esigenze che determinano l'orrizonte dell accetabile (institutionalisazzione) sia altri privati e le regole del mercato (professionalisazzione)

L’uso della Really Simple Syndication favorisce la decentralizzazione del materiale, consente agli utenti di integrare i links nei

In via di sviluppo e nata per cercare degli standard nella compressione e i metodi piu' rapidi per la distribuzione e condivisione creando cosi' un bacino multimediale e una comunita' di produttori e distributori

Licenze (1 min) Le license sono stati creati inizialmente dall communita Gnu/Linux, e la sua machina di progresso. Questa licensa mantiene il diritto di autore ma da al utenti certi diritti normalmente riservati: - reproduzione - distribuzione - modificazione

Ogni programme prodotto usando un software sotto license GPL deve essere distribuita sotto le stesse termine e condizioni.

Le licenze di creative commons sono un tentativo di trasferire questi principi dall software a "prodotti dell'ingegno": cioe, literario, musicale o multimediale. Ci sono diverse license disponibile per gente chi si trova in svariate circonstanze. Alcuni permettono solo il consumo gratis, altri favoriscono il riuso delli materiali per creare opere derivati.

La licenza attualmente da noi consigliato e quella che: - richiede attribuzione - permette il riuso se il creatore e daccordo che anche il loro opera sara riusabile (licenza d'ereditarietà). "The nonsoftware analogue to making the code of a new work openly available is to make the derivative work itself available on the same terms as the original." - proibisce l'uso con fini di lucro.

Questo ultimo termine e problematica, a cosa della definizione multo stretto di 'fini di lucro'. Adesso, nell Stati Uniti, anche le ricevute di altri dati e considerato come incluso in questo definizione - non c'e bisogno per un scambio di soldi. Al livello dell sviluppo di una communita sostenibile di produttori independenti e ovvio che dobbiamo essere capace anche da vendere, almeno in certe circonstanze. Quello che vogliamo eliminare come possibilita e che i grandi interessi commercilai sfruttano nostro lavoro, usando la liberta che noi aveviamo avuto intenzione dare ai utenti e altri case di produzione critiche o independente.

-------------- (4 min) Sirenetta illustra la centralita della recodificazione di certi personaggi mediatici. Abbiamo tutto il nostro lessico audio-visivo, personaggi famigliari. Disney e l'esempio par excellence: sono diventati proprietari della nostra memoria dell'infanzia. Per questo che le famiglie portanno i bambini al loro film, e compranno loro giochiali generazione dopo generazione. Noi vogliamo fare parlare questo personaggi con altre voce, fare raccontare altre storie. Questo materiali sono stati appropriati, e in questo sta un puo a parte della potenziale per le rete medaitiche autonome chi e il sogetto del nostro discorso. Punat sull fatto che anche con nostri mezzi technologici avanzati, dobbiamo ancora confrontafre una legge che riflette li interessi della 'gran pezzi', perche Disney e stato praticatmente l'autore della legge di 1998 che ha esteso la durata del diritto di autore nell' Stai Uniti.

Negativeland prova una routa. Noi facciamo un altro. Si intrecciano. Qualche parte da questo incroci si trova un modo per fronteggiare lal logica del mercato sull produzione culturale.

===================== -Le license: (1 min) La distribuzione di prodotti dell'ingegno via web pone sempre il problema delle licenze, da un lato come un problema di distribuzione di materiali eventualmente coperti da copyright dall'altro come un problema di tutlela del materiale distribuito in modo da garantirlo da possibili manipolazioni, soprattutto a livello commerciale. Ogni risorsa, sia un'applicazione, sia un file testuale o un ipertesto, sia un file multimediale o audiovisivo ha i suoi problemi nella distribuzione, riproduzione e manipolazione; quindi benchè sempre nell'ambito del copyleft, deve essere individuata una licenza apposita per il tipo di materiale audiovisivo. Le licenze proposte da Creative Commons http://www.creativecommons.org/ sono copyleft e si occupano specificamente della tutela e circolazione di materiale di tipo multimediale piu' precisamente per prodotti creativi, che siano musica, video, o testo. NGV ha adottato simbolicamente, nell'attesa di uno sviluppo nell'affermazione giuridica del concetto di copyleft una licenza Creative Commons "Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike": viene garantita l'atrtribuzione di proprietà, ossia la proprieta' del contenuto e' dell'autore; viene diffidata la creazione di un priofitto dalla semlplice distribuzione del file; il file deve continuare a essere distribuibile, condivisibile quanto il file originario (quest'ultimo principio è mutuato dalla gpl e dalle licenze copyleft utilizzate nella protezione dei software). Strumenti come NGV o V2V possono tutelare i file che ospitano e tutelarsi nei confronti degli utenti attraverso l'assunzione di una licenza che genericamente copra i materiali distribuiti ma che non potrà in alcun modo incidere sul tipo di tutela stabilita dal produttore: il primo e per molti aspetti unico soggetto in grado di garantire la protezione accanto alla circolazione di una risorsa intellettuale in rete rimane lo stesso autore.

As Florian correctly pointed out the demo in Geneva was not only to IP-focussed institutions (WIPO, WTO) but also to the IOM.

The evening beforehand the content of the action was introduced at a public meeting addressing freedom of communication and of movement; the discussion summarized some key developments in each area and went on to examine analogous tendencies in each field. Substantially this comprised a reflection on autonomy and its limits (of migrant labour, of communications production), the paradigm of management as the modern form of control and performance of power (digital rights, border management etc) and concrete connections (role of communications in migrant flows, use of communications in struggles against detention centers, the relationship between the circulation of pirate or 'grey' goods and the material economy of migrant subsistence).

We decided to this on the basis of a hunch, without a clear idea of the shape of the interconnection between struggles in these two areas. Those discussions have continued and become steadily more wide-ranging, confused, fascinating and rewarding - but inconclusive. ------------------

When we met in Geneva last April for two hectic days the only consensus I recall was that our work was not towards an independent media love-in, but should address broader questions, and at least three were mentioned: IP, border management and work. Since then other themes have also been raised, such as financial flows. Any call worth the name should provide ample space for all these thematics. Rather than scripting the agenda with conceptual finality this document needs to function as a device to allow people to co-operate, both those who have been in the process so-far and those who may want to become involved later. The structure should provide space and interface for autonomous initiatives.

Almost all of us have been highly sceptical about WSIS itself from the beginning, that it should not determine our agenda, our acts, a skepticism shared also by many in the CRIS campaign. Consistent with that I don't think it should dictate our schedule. The references to the HUB in Florence were important for me not because we went there with a clear plan and came away with a new political network (which we didn't really) but because in retrospect it was the first moment in a new cycle of struggles, even if we didn't know it at the time. HUB involved people working in innovative communications strategies, migration and agitation in the new world of work. Not all of these elements have been brought into synthesis and those which have hybridized are not yet mature, but that a process of recomposition began seems clear. This is the timeline, the schedule which attracts me: the time necessary to bring these elements, and the people who care passionately about them, together. Fuck the event, this is a work in progress, a site under de-construction.

------------------- I liked the style of Jamie's first draft enormously but felt that it overemphasized the IP aspect. As we work together on IP conflicts I now where he's coming from ;-)

The danger of playing into the official summit dynamics and agenda lay behind the desire to give the moment a 'festival like fashion' and turn it into a show of strength and potential 'by any means networking'. There is however a difference between being sucked into predictable oppositional dynamics and abandoning the contestation and conflict. I believe that there is a necessity for conflictuality in Geneva, just not at Palexpo where it runs the perverse risk of giving a legitimacy and sense of significance to a talk-shop and petty-governance disneyland.

"I am vehemently against downgrading the ongoing struggles around globalization and informatization to a somehow moralistic notion of "sharing"." Florian

I would also applaud Armin's extension of the field of freedom of movement to laws affecting individuals within the EU etc. and dissection of the modality used to achieve that. Likewise with his stress on the fact that the information society is 'labourers society' with the same disfiguring savagery and darwinian exploitation as yesterday, and as today.

On the other hand to interpret the progress of free software as a sign of a general obsolescence of the need to fight around IP strikes me as simplistic. The threat of jail for p2p users and the reality of death for millions in need of patented medicines are very real.Whilst the former may function as something similar to a migrant's risk of ending up in a detention center - a risk, but not the controlling factor of migrant action or subjectivity - by performing legal vilification on an individual as a simulacrum of control and management. The complexities of modern life and the basic conditions for modern production do not however enable the realization of such power fantasies. Instead we get the totalitarian state show five days a week after the news at lunchtime, repeated again at 6.30. The potential danger in this display lies in tis capacity to straightjacket the social appropriation of technology, in such a way as to keep the model of exploitation central to media-marketing-news companies alive. This is why the struggles around IP should not be foremost about consumption, but production, social relationships and the collapsing of the distinction between user and producer. In this light there is nothing 'moralistic' about 'sharing' (although Florian's comment suggests to me that the term is already fulfilling its potential as a wolf in a lamb's clothing) which I suggest is the form of social relation and mode of exchange proper to that nebulous movement now touted as the 'commons'.

I agree with Ionnek's comments about the signature of the call (Geneva 03) and its location.

1. WHAT WE'RE GOING TO TALK ABOUT (2 mins)

[CONTEXT & QUESTIONS]

-- 'Preferences' 'Production of affect' --- the necessity of changing what is produced, consumed and distributed over P2P

-- Conflict --- What is the site of conflict? What do we expect? \

[PROJECT]

-- V2V

-- A group project (LIST)

--- A set of syndication standards and naming protocols that uses metadata to make independent media available over user-built infrastructures

-- Geneva03 ... The Shivers of Sharing

2. CONTEXT & STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS (5 mins)

- Discussions yesterday

-- tenability of commons vs. proprietary spaces

-- the necessity of 'protecting' commons (the hardware layer)

Our assumption: free as in zero cost is a given: it cannot be removed.

But free as in zero cost does not equal free as in free minds, free as in at liberty.

The problem: how to address the imbalance of content 'preference' in 'autonomous' media infrastructures.

3. PROJECT (10 MINS)

PRECEDENT & CONTEXT (5 MINS) as Eben pointed out distribution is an amateur activity

....looks at elements the advances in social and software technologies that have enabled the emergence of film-sharing.

-- Portals: www.sharereactor.com

-- Checksums (p2plinks, bitzi etc.) www.edonkey.com, www.bitzi.com

-- Partial Download Sharing

-- Multiple Source Downloads

-- Swarm downloads http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/download.html http://bitconjurer.org/BitTorrent/FAQ.html

-- example of bit torrent portal www.torrentse.cx

-- previous attempts at video sharing www.mediajumpstart.org

-- existing portal for the distribution of independent works over ftp (limited political genre) www.ngvision.org

-- likewise but limited to artistic genre Open Video Archive (http://ova.zkm.de/)

-- attempt to commercialize p2p infrastructure for independent film www.transmissionfilms.com (operated by the developers of Overnet/Edonkey)

3.1 V2V (5 MINS) others: others

- Appropriates the release structure from Warez groups - Establishes of the basic network of ftp servers to spread initial load - checksums

a. Ring of FTP servers

b. Running P2P clients

c. metadata format. size, length, license, genre, title, creator

d. format VP3 - better quality xiph, theora

divx - lighter

e. license share alike will make available options for those who want to distribute but not allow recombinancy

f. rss feed

g. independent portals working on the same infrastructure

h. community infrastructure for feedback and the provision of mutual aid Users and producers prod-users (community edit)

...where the gift is concerned, goods circulate in the service of ties. Any exchange of goods or services with no guarantee of recompense in order to create, nourish, or recreate social bonds between people is a gift. We intend to show how the gift, as a form of circulation of goods that promotes social bonding, represents a key element in any society. Jacque Godbout

This is not the vulgarized reputational accumulation of Eric Raymond

this is social norms

law

bring users and producers closer together

19 media collectives, talking to producers, film festivals etc.

h(2) legal consequnces of legitimate uses (transmission films)

i. no-one portal: curated portals with different emphases

j. not open publishing

k. polymedia distribution in other formats such as cds/dvds packaged with books and magazines showings in local halls

l. sustainable user-constructed infrastructure which scales according to demand - avoids problems of dependency upon external funding that drives process people into either professionalization or institutionalization

The Model:

- Appropriates the release structure from Warez groups - Establishes of the basic network of ftp servers to spread initial load - Creates space for release groups of different types to then proliferate on the secondary layer - Uses BT so as to overcome some of the free-rider problems - Employs more traditional p2p networks to expand persistence

& - Integrate collaborative media software to allow feedback to those who made the work and to facilitate knowledge exchange between enthusiasts - Include voluntary payment mechanisms so as to provide revenue to the producers - Provide a license engine so as to allow specification as to what constitutes fair use. - Finds a way of providing useful metadata from the vantage point of both users and producers - Potentially offers a media for the establishment of real world screenings by individual or venues.

& - Co-ordinate maintenance of hard archives - Combines virtual delivery with distribution in other formats through inclusion with books and magazines, feed for television, independent cinemas etc.

-- DEMO

DOWNLOAD & RUN

RUN GENEVA03 RAID VIDEO

3.2. GENEVA03

Explain project

Shows technological conditions can allow liberty of expression to be performed

And this suggests an ultimate site of conflictual

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