[GPSCC-chat] Green Pirates?

[Spencer Graves]

Hello, All:


       What do you think about changing the name of the Santa Clara 
Greens to something like "Green Pirates", loudly declaring an 
affiliation with the European Pirate parties (Wikipedia, Pirate Party)?  
The name refers to an aggressive response to the attacks of the 
commercial media and governments on "on-line piracy", taking copyrighted 
material without compensation -- and the use of same as an excuse by 
governments to increase censorship of the Internet.


       I believe we need strong, effective copyright laws limited to the 
purposes outlined in the US Constitution, "To promote the Progress of 
Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and 
Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and 
Discoveries."  Current copyright law is a complete travesty, as 
documented in Lawrence Lessig's 2004 book on "Free Culture":  This book 
documents how copyright power has expanded substantially since 1974 in 
five critical dimensions:


             * duration (from 32 to 95 years),


             * scope (from publishers to virtually everyone),


             * reach (to every view on a computer),


             * control (including "derivative works" defined so broadly 
that virtually any new content could be sued by some copyright holder as 
a "derivative work" of something), and


             * concentration and integration of the media industry.


       Lessig's 2011 book on "Republic, Lost" describes how the 
political system in the US corrupts virtually everyone, driven by the 
requirement of huge budgets for television advertising to get elected to 
high public office.  Lessig calls this the "gateway problem", which must 
be solved before we can solve any of the other major problems facing the 
US and the world today.  I propose we combine the name change with a 
major campaign to roll back government secrecy and abuse of copyright 
law, as outlined in Wikipedia "Free Culture (book)".


       Comments?
       Spencer


-- 
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph:  408-655-4567
web:  www.structuremonitoring.com