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Dear Spit Books,

Thanks for the response.

I remember hippies during the 1960s who thought that they could simply
IGNORE the war in Vietnam and thus that war and its contexts and
consequences would not matter to them.  However, I thought then and
now, this was a dangerous illusion.

When the Commons (the "common" lands), throughout Europe including
Britain, were "enclosed," expropriated for personal benefit and profit
to the Barons, there were people who chose to IGNORE what was
happening.  After all, opposing property altogether, they did not care
what a self-promoting élite was doing to and with the Common property.
 However, this illusion, this disconnect, was meaningless as the
Barons impoverished the bulk of the population.  Ignoring a social
issue, a social problem, does not make it go away.

For some years now, Google and other mega-corporations have been
steadily eroding or altering the understanding, the traditions, and
the forms of legal ownership of writings or art ... to their own
profit.  (The so-called "Orphan Works" Act slowly making its way
through the U.S. Congress is yet another example.)  However, IGNORING
the issue will not alter the consequences.  What some of us knew as
"copyright" during the 1950s will be totally unrecognizable to the
next generation.  And, as with the Commons, Google and other Robber
Barons will make money off our writings ... and we will not!

Yes, the ideas of the International Situationists can be interesting.
However, their very ideas, the notions themselves, tend to be
withdrawn, passive, and self-referential.

Bestwishes,

Séamas

_______

On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 12:27 PM, Spit Books <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> The solution is simple. Let writing ignore what that article refers to as
> the 'basic rule of contemporary life – follow the money'.
>
>