[Imc-communication] Response to Questions/Concerns About Indy Book Project

Sat Aug 19 22:58:34 PDT 2006

Hi everyone,

We will go back to Disinfo for further discussion on the copyright and  
licensing issues. Thanks to everyone posting their suggestions ... the  
info on how it worked with WAE and other publications is very helpful,  
and gives us more insight into what the options are.

I also wanted to check in about the proposal that we have a chat over  
IRC about the book project on Monday. Is anyone interested in doing  
that? Should we pick a date a bit further in the future so that more  
people can join?

Thanks,

Susan

On Aug 19, 2006, at 6:25 PM, Tony wrote:

> Hello all
> Just thought i would chime in a bit - I am glad there is a collective  
> keen to work on an indymedia book - it will need a dedicated group of  
> people to get the project moving forward - but i would like to promote  
> 3 aspects:
> [1] Greater input from the network
> [2] anti-copyright/creative commons
> [3] Translations
>
> The book we did "We are everywhere - the irresistible rise of global  
> anticapitalism" (http://www.weareeverywhere.org) was copyleft, and as  
> it attempted to tell the story of the global movement it needed to get  
> voices from the grassroots. This took along time but was rewarding in  
> the end. It has a simular audience and distibution problems that this  
> book will face.
>
> We got the publishers - Verso - to agree that they could publish the  
> book but the contents were free for distribution and reprinting for no  
> commercial gain. At the time we labeled it Copyleft but I think a  
> Creative commons  licence would be better. This idea, although not  
> popular at first with Verso, has bourne fruit, as many magazines  
> reprinted sections letting many more find out about the book than  
> relying of reviews.
>
> We let the photographers keep copyright on their work if they wanted -  
> of course that is easier deal with. (i heard andrew stern was involved  
> with the ny book - so he could tell you more about the WAE experience)
>
> Also in the contract was the proviso that after a year of notice, we  
> could prevent them from printing the book further, this was because we  
> planned to re-print the book for free ourselves once we received the  
> royalties (which of course are now stuck with verso as they are in  
> financial trouble! another lesson...)
>
> There are other books out there that have used creative commons  
> licences and it works - i strongly feel this would be in keeping with  
> the indymedia ethic.
>
> Translations and international editions:  As we are a global network i  
> think we could work on translations before the book is finished to  
> speed up international editions. So far WAE has been translated in at  
> least 7 languages - but it has taken years to get them out there.
> Also many translations have been made in various countries where local  
> groups can reprint the book or sections of it where appropriate.
>
> Once again - i think this will be a big project and the group working  
> on it will need all our support - but it is definately time for a book  
> about indymedia from the network itself.
>
> cheers tony
> one of london indymedia
>
>
> ------------------------------------------
> We Are Everywhere:
>  The Irresistible Rise of Global Anti-Capitalism
> Edited by Notes From Nowhere
>  http://www.WeAreEverywhere.org
> ------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> At 15:51 -0400 14/8/06, Susan wrote:
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>>  This is Chris Anderson from NYC IMC and the Indypendent writing in  
>> about
>>  this Indybook project. Sincere apologies for taking so long to get  
>> back to
>>  everyone -- we haven't been trying to avoid questions or not dialog  
>> about
>>  this. There were a few things we needed to discuss with our  
>> publisher,
>>  most of them dealing with people's questions and things we needed
>>  clarified. We wanted to make sure we had definitive answers to  
>> people's
>>  concerns about licensing, especially, so people could know where we  
>> stand.
>>
>>  To address one question a few people raised: The book produced from  
>> this
>>  project will in no way be presented as "by Indymedia."
>>
>>  Alster and others had this concern:
>>
>>  "Generally, if I was to choose, I would prefer books on Indymedia  
>> being
>>  produced on more open terms. Terms providing the editors the  
>> opportunity
>>  to retain copyright and the ability to republish the book contents  
>> both
>>  under an open license, and for free. To all of those who cannot pay  
>> even
>>  the reduced price as this would still equal their daily or weekly  
>> income,
>>  this would be the only way to gain access to such books, too.
>>
>>  My interpretation of what you wrote on the legal terms makes me think
>>  that, for this book, (re-)publishing its contents in terms of an  
>> openlicense (for money or not) or for free (under an open or  
>> proprietary
>>  license) will both not be possible."
>>
>>  Actually it WOULD be possible. The word we finally got back from the
>>  publisher is that all the individual submissions to the book would be
>>  "open source" -- he didn't use those words, but that is basically  
>> what he
>>  meant. Individual contributors would be free to repost and re-use  
>> their
>>  contributions wherever they wanted, in any language they wanted. And  
>> put
>>  them up on the internet. The one thing folks could not do would be to
>>  distribute the entire book AS A WHOLE as a pdf or something like  
>> that. But
>>  the individual contributions would be open source.
>>
>>  There were other questions about the book. The first, dealing with  
>> our
>>  email: We'll be changing to a riseup or other account soon, and  
>> getting
>>  away from gmail.
>>
>>  Another question involved paying the photographers from the global  
>> south.
>>  We haven't actually discussed this with them, but we would be happy  
>> to. We
>>  actually moved in this direction at first when we got some feedback  
>> from
>>  the "We Are Everywhere" project that this seemed a good way to go.  
>> But
>>  we'd love to talk more about it with people.
>>
>>  Toya also asked: "How much it will be the cost of the book for the  
>> people
>>  from the third world countries..." we still need to check with  
>> Disinfo
>>  about this...publication rights in other countries, translation  
>> rights,
>>  etc. But we'll keep people posted. And honestly, you may know more  
>> than
>>  they do about available options, so it would be nice to hear your
>>  thoughts.
>>
>>  Again, we're sorry for it taking so long to get back to people on  
>> this
>>  stuff. We were thinking that a good way to proceed might be to have  
>> an irc
>>  chat in the not too distant future -- maybe Monday, August 21? What  
>> times
>>  would work best for people? Or other dates?
>>
>>  The "wiki thoughts" idea is great. We're also working on setting up a
>>  specific book twiki and will let folks know as soon as we have it  
>> done.
>>
>>  Finally, here is the original proposal link as sent to the imc-comm  
>> list:
>>   
>> http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-communication/2006-June/ 
>> 0603-0l.html
>>
>>  all the best,
>>  chris, susan, and john
>>  nyc imc
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>  _______________________________________________
>>  IMC-communication mailing list
>>  IMC-communication at lists.indymedia.org
>>  http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-communication
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