Enrique Dans

Un gran artículo, sí señor. Y recomendaría también la lectura deeste post de Jorge Portillo, no ya por el post en sí sino por el interesante y educado debate entre Jorge Portillo y el propio Pepe Cervera.

Hecho ;-)

A mí me preocupa bastante el tema de quién nos defiende a los consumidores. Creo, además, que en los próximos meses/años nos jugamos mucho. Y gran parte de lo que nos jugamos se dilucidará en los tribunales. Por una parte están las empresas, que tienen poderosos despachos legales trabajando a destajo, y por otra parte estamos los consumidores, que siendo más no trabajamos de una manera colaborativa en este aspecto. Pensaba yo, en mi inocencia, en la posibilidad de financiar el mejor equipo legal posible para luchar en igualdad de condiciones contra la industria y su poder de lobby. Así, hace unas semanas le escribí a Lawrence Lessig al respecto. Con bastante indulgencia por su parte me contestó que no le parecía mala idea pero que estaba centrado en Creative Commons.

Mi correo:

Mr. Lessig,

I want to start this email by thanking you for your Free Culture (IÃ?Â?m reading it right now).

My understanding is that in the coming future there will be (maybe there is now) a strong battle between two sides: on the one hand media companies, content distributors and the like and, on the other hand, startups, entrepreneurs and final consumers, with public institutions under a lot of pressure coming from the first side.

I guess that this battle will be tough and its result may be crucial and set a precedent for years to come in terms of access to and creation of knowledge, and foster of competition and innovation.

So bearing all this in mind, have you thought about trying to raise money from final consumers? What I mean is that we as consumers may fight trying to influence our politicians, writing about it in our weblogs (IÃ?Â?m a blogger myself), gathering signatures and getting attention from traditional media (though I think they will stand, in the end, against public interest). But finally a happy end will depend on our ability to present our case in court. So, though we can think our demands are fair, we need the best possible legal advice. And, as you well know, this advice is really expensive.

I see you are trying to get financial support for Creative Commons, and it is a very good idea. I guess that the CC initiative may be very valuable for independent content producers, not tied to incumbent companies and traditional distribution chains. But final consumers just donÃ?Â?t get it. On the contrary I think that trying to raise money to fund a first-class legal team to represent us, consumers, in trials would be widely understood and even supported. If you think of it we could even hire some guys who work now for incumbent companies and lobbies (I guess many will think that only involved people should participate but I think we are risking too much and canÃ?Â?t reject any possibility).

Since you already have experience with Creative Commons setting a donation initiative wouldnÃ?Â?t be such an issue and we could think about ways to organize it. I guess people should be able to donate small amounts (so that anybody could support), and some content (music, literature, etc.) should be given in exchange for peopleÃ?Â?s donations, preferably in electronic format (so there is no transportation or production costs involved). We would get support from the weblog community and even attention from traditional media. There are also some widely known people: artists, sportsmen, even politicians who could help us too.

Finally I guess that main effort should focus first on the US and then on the European Union. I think that most vital trials will take place on the United States, and people from other countries will understand that and will be willing to support it.

I imagine you may be thinking of me as being na�¯ve of even foolish but it��s just a thought I had and I wanted to share it with you. You may have recently heard that the Mozilla Foundation is raising money to buy a full-page ad in the New York Times. And I think this is much more important.

I appreciate your time reading this email and look forward to read your comments. Just let me know if I may be of any help.

Kind regards,

Su respuesta:

Thanks for the email. I do think it is a useful project, though as you note, my own time is captured by my work with CC. I’m sorry I can’t help.