[Air-l] Fwd: Silent Theft: Commercial Exploitation of the Commons

[jeremy hunsinger]

I've been considering forwarding this all day and finally gave in:)
Begin forwarded message:

> From: Seth Johnson <seth.johnson at RealMeasures.dyndns.org>
> Date: Mon Apr 29, 2002  02:45:11 PM US/Eastern
> To: cyber-rights at cpsr.org, farber at cis.upenn.edu
> Subject: Silent Theft: Commercial Exploitation of the Commons
>
>
> (Forwarded from Commercialism Alert list,
> commercial-alert at lists.essential.org)
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2002 11:28:12 -0700
> From: Gary Ruskin <gary at commercialalert.org>
>
>
> Commercial Alert
> April 29, 2002
>
> David Bollier has just written an excellent book on the
> enclosure and commercial exploitation of the commons, titled
> Silent Theft: The Private Plunder of our Common Wealth
> <http://www.silenttheft.com>.
>
> The book describes the broad scope of the commons -- such as
> the environment, natural resources, our culture, genetic
> material, public spaces, government research -- and the
> corporate looting of it.
>
> "We are living in the midst of a massive business-led
> enclosure movement that hides itself in plain sight,"
> Bollier writes.  Silent Theft's great contribution is to
> collect and distill material from dozens of fields of
> inquiry to make this enclosure movement visible and easily
> understood.
>
> The book is especially strong on corporate plunder of
> intellectual property, the Internet commons, and the
> privatization of public knowledge and federal drug and
> information resources.  But it also has useful chapters on
> the commercialization of culture and public spaces
> (including schools), and the academic commons, among many
> other topics.
>
> Silent Theft is important history.  It will help
> environmental, anti-commercialism and consumer activists to
> understand how their work fits into the broader pattern of
> the assault on the commons. It is rich with analogies we can
> use in efforts to protect different kinds of commons.
>
> But Silent Theft is no mere anti-corporate rant.  It argues
> persuasively how the shrinkage of the commons hurts
> business, especially through the concentration of market
> power and the stifling of innovation in computer software,
> on the Internet, and in science, generally.
>
> If we are to stop the commercialization of nearly
> everything, we first need to know what the commons is, what
> we have lost, and how we lost it.  Silent Theft is a great
> place to start.
>
> <---->
>
> Following is an old English folk poem, circa 1764, reprinted
> from Silent Theft:
>
> They hang the man and flog the woman
> That steal the goose from off the common,
> But let the greater villain loose
> That steals the common from the goose.
>
> The law demands that we atone
> When we take things we do not own
> But leaves the lords and ladies fine
> Who take things that are yours and mine.
>
> The poor and wretched don't escape
> If they conspire the law to break;
> This must be so but they endure
> Those who conspire to make the law.
>
> The law locks up the man or woman
> Who steals the goose from off the common'
> And geese will still a common lack
> Till they go and steal it back.
>
> <----->
>
> Commercial Alert's mission is to keep the commercial culture
> within its proper sphere, and to prevent it from exploiting
> children and subverting the higher values of family,
> community, environmental integrity and democracy.
> Commercial Alert's website is at
> <http://www.commercialalert.org>.
>
> Commercial Alert's materials are distributed electronically
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>
> This note is posted at:
> <http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/commercial-
> alert/2002/000112.html>.
>
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>
> PLEASE DISTRIBUTE WIDELY
> --
> Gary Ruskin | gary at commercialalert.org
> Commercial Alert | http://www.commercialalert.org/
> Congressional Accountability Project |
> http://www.congressproject.org/
> phone: 503.235.8012 | fax: 503.235.5073
>
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>
jeremy hunsinger
jhuns at vt.edu
on the ibook
www.cddc.vt.edu
www.cddc.vt.edu/jeremy
www.dromocracy.com