I think that we could benefit by doing a site assessment of publishing and distribution tools, legal marks and licenses, and media/information sharing practices. Then, with that survey, we can design our creation and distribution and re-use of media in ways that flow with nature/reality, meeting more of our needs more gracefully.

How I see our situation:
1) Our current infrastructure allows copying of digital content at no cost to the creator, and that copying tends to happen regardless of legal permission.
2) In order to buy something, someone must first know the thing exists and that it’s for sale — this can be a challenge for authors in the information flood of current society, as they face obscurity.
3) If an author/creator/researcher invests attention/sweat/money in creating information I value, and gets no compensation, then they might not create anything new, and that’s a loss for me if I value their information.
4) Therefore, as the boundaries to sharing information diminish, I step out of the commerce system in which payment is enforced by police/military, and into a commerce system that puts responsibility for payment in the hands of everyone who derives value from a piece of work.

That’s the creation, sharing, and payment aspect, now for licensing, re-use, and the commons.

In English, “free” has two meanings: “gratis” means “free of charge,” as in “free lunch”; and “libre” means “freedom,” as in “free people” or “freedom to use, study, modify, and re-distribute a creative work.” I want libre creations, including data about plant species research, and blueprints for compost tea brewers, and software for mapping, and written works. I want those things libre because that respects the creative capacity of each human that comes in contact with the work, recognizing that anyone might improve the design, or just needs to modify it for their particular situation. Evidence for the viability of this comes from multiple sources, some documented in Terry Hancock’s book “Achieving Impossible Things” (CC-BY-SA licensed, available at http://www.archive.org/details/Achieving_Impossible_Things_with_Free_Culture_and_Commons_Based_Enterprise ).

Pieces of a way forward: We form a permaculture commons, and folks pay into it (individually, as guilds, and as part of course tuition) and then vote on which proposals for research and writing they want to fund. Anyone can submit a proposal, edit a proposal, or fund a proposal. Since work gets at least partially funded before production, it’s easier for the writers/researchers. And all works created are given a libre license, thus building a knowledge base that is freely editable, that we can build on freely. More details on this sort of idea:
http://mutualgift.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/permalibre/

What do you think?

A colleague and I taught a living foods workshop some months back. One participant rang up before the event to complain that such events should be run for free in the spirit of sharing and so on. She was critical of capitalism and charging money for things generally, let alone events aligning themselves with sustainability.

I explained the various costs involved (room hire, ingredients, transport, tutor time etc etc) and she relaxed to the point that she attended the workshop. She had a great time and at the end paid happily. Afterward she got in touch saying thanks and sharing all the bread and related fermented goodness she was making as a result.

I think of the DVDs under discussion in the same way. If the time of skilled people working in this field (let alone the most accomplished in the world!) is not covered, then they become less able to continue their work. To be frank, the more money that organisations like the Permaculture Institute are able to pull in through their good work, all the better, as the more good work they can continue with!

Cheers,
Dan

The beauty of the DVD’s is not what they cost, because we know that a single DVD is often “passed around” and seen by many people. The most extraordinary thing is that they actually exist in the first place, these DVD’s are a result of an immense investment of personal energy and many years of good work.

The key here is to support good work, support and cooperation is what brings the work into the world, be very gentle with any criticizing of those that are actually out there doing it because there are far too few of us out there in the field, the truth is, we need all the help and support we can get.

Regards: Paul Taylor

…come to the caravan of hope and action… for she is moving now!!!

Well while actual permaculturalist and other sustainability activists are in the field, sacrificing, planting, building systems and empowering communities, it is not uncommon for the token “haters” to display their poison vomit. it reflects an internal pollution far worse than any GMO that the tongue nor the teeth can contain. they are a problem within which is the solution to draw the antidote out of the poison, a lesson that no movement for real transformation will be free from the vampire-like Klueless Klutz Klan, but we should aikido like harness their sludge, compost it, use it through understanding that they ONLY appear when there is effectiveness in action… accordingly we should rejoice and double our efforts…thus harnessing it…

if Geoff’s films were not supporting international work, transforming permaculture demand, and opening up broad based receptivity through appropriate media utilization, if all this was not happening then Count Clueless would not materialize before us… in a twist of unintended consequences, the Clansmen has only further incited the resistance…man it feels good to be on the right side of history…

At best one can say that the sad character who posted the toxic tantrum is misguided…and as he puts it..”I just dont get it.”… that’s at best that can be thought of it.. otherwise those that attempt to cause division and mock the efforts of such life long visionaries as Bill and Geoff amount to character assassins and peddlers in despair.
even one of the rain harvesting swales cant help the barren landscape of envy and the cynical cycle of “explain and complain”… unless perhaps he gets out and actually digs one!

but as they say…when the caravan leaves the dogs will bark…so this is to be expected…and a sign of good things ahead.. and none of our vital human energy should be wasted… rather it should be replenished..

but a word to the group.. lets keep building and growing .. glowing and showing what can and must be… we are reaching tipping point around the world…and we shall continue to move on all fronts..

Gandhi said that first they ignore you, then they mock you, then they fight you, then you win….

we know what must be done, indeed we have already begun.

peace ..

walk light with light…

Ernest

Cheers,
Matt

Where would you like the costs of such an endeavor to be accounted? We put on dozens of free and low cost events for Permaculture in the USA. We have to build capacity in funding as well as knowledge. We all have bills to pay. I would happily retreat to a small section of bottom land and build my little Permaculture kingdom, but there is much work to do and people who develop the skills and delivery systems to communicate the message invest huge amounts of money and time need to be compensated in order to continue the work. Nobody is getting rich here and profit is not a bad word. It creates wealth and wealth is defined as the ability to help other people. DVDs do not cost $4, but 30 years or education, years of refinement, months of shooting and the compensation to many skilled artist that in-deed need their bills paid from doing the work on editing and post production. Everybody has got to eat, have a bed and roof.

Considering the pirating, bit torrent file sharing and thousands of people who see the DVDs in groups, the small fee for a copy is reasonable and legitimate. People who buy them support the producer. Its part of our polyculture. What great fruit we get from the this tree with just a little money mulching.

Dan Halsey, PRI Cold Climate

Re the Projects database in particular, I have firm ideas for doing this. If people know philanthropically-minded web social-networking/database type developers, please send them my way. I have made up a draft spec for such a database, and just need to find a way to get the thing made in a cost-effective manner.

Re comments from Lost Chief on not making our DVDs freely available – I feel your pain. In an ideal world all the collective genius and experience and labour of humanity would be open source – recognised as belonging to the human family, regardless of race/belief, etc. If everyone worked for the good of those around them, acting as unselfishly and symbiotically as the natural systems Permaculturists love to observe, all would have plenty. However, the predominant economic theory of the last sixty years promulgates the belief that society functions best if each individual within that society persues their own selfish interest (i.e. a greed-based economy, they say, is the only path to collective wealth and happiness). This is of course a sad reflection on the state of modern man, and our present, serious, environmental and economic problems are the direct result of this way of thinking.

The problem we have to come to terms with is that this is the framework we find ourselves in, albeit reluctantly. We are in the midst, I hope, of transition, but currently almost all of us are dependent on the extractive economic system we all despise. How to get from where we are now, to where we want to go is the great challenge of this era.

We can’t give our DVDs away, in just the same way we can’t give our books or our courses away. Each costs money to produce. Additionally, the work and vision behind PRI is not to be a business, but a platform for change. We see a storm approaching that too few are ready for. We know that in the coming years, priorities will shift from consumer desires for things like MP3 players and plasma TVs to more mundane needs – like food and water. As such, in the small window of time that we have, we would like to plant the seeds of Permaculture through setting up self-replicating educational/demonstration sites as far and wide and fast as we possibly can. This is really about saving lives, and trying to make the otherwise inevitable increase in resource wars redundant.

The people who produced the DVDs, for example, barely cover the cost of their equipment – let alone their time. All money made above and beyond the cost of production goes into promoting Permaculture in other ways. At present, for example, we’re about to begin building additional structures at Zaytuna Farm so we can increase student and intern capacity – so that we can send more people out into the field with valuable practical, life-saving knowledge. We cannot do this work without funding, and we strive for self-sufficiency (many organisations that rely on donations will likely soon fail as the financial crisis deepens). We are pleased that through the running of courses, etc., the work of PRI can be a closed economic loop – and any ‘profit’ above and beyond direct costs can go into setting up new such educational facilities in other regions.

In summary – we don’t live in an ideal world, even though we are trying to find it.

I think that your comment would be very different if you’d ever met the people you are criticising. Geoff and Nadia have tirelessly travelled the globe for over 15 years, teaching people non-stop about Permaculture. Profit has been the last driving force, and where profits have been made, they have lived the Permaculture ethic of Share of Surplus as truly as anyone I’ve met. They continue to do this, and profits from the resources you are referring to go straight back into Permaculture projects and improving their ability to share this fantastic knowledge.

Keep up the good work Lost Chief of sharing Permaculture with others, and I wish you luck with whichever approach you take. By the way, if you do produce some great permaculture resources, it’s not necessarily a bad thing to charge money for them. Money’s not evil. It can be an amazing source of positive energy if it’s in the right hands.