Why Free Culture?

Because copyright is a system that benefits the few at the expense of the many. Copyright is colonial in nature, it limits creativity, it disenfranchises small and racialized creators and promotes a superstar culture in which everyone competes to have their ideas owned by a few multinational corporations.

Free-Culture, while far from perfect, provides a way to engage with creativity despite the existence of copyright. It emphasizes sharing, building upon ideas, community and the commons. It reminds us that everyone – regardless of whether they are ‘creators’– is creative, and everyone has the right to interact, engage, learn and grow from cultural works.

We build culture together.

The Licenses Fodongo uses

LicenseTypeDerivative works?Attribution Needed?Use of same license required?More Info
WTFPLDedication to the Public Domainwtfpl.net
CC0Dedication to the Public DomainCreativeCommons.org
CCBYAttributionCreativeCommons.org
CCBYSACopyleftCreativeCommons.org
FALCopyleftArtLibre.org

Recommended reading

Books

Image from Wikipedia

Free Culture, by Lawrence Lessig – Published in 2004, Lessig was one of the figures behind Creative Commons. This book is a tad outdated, since it was published 20 years ago, and a lot of Lessig’s opinions and points are very US-centered. He seems to sit on the fence a lot of the time regarding the role of law around Intellectual Property; he acknowledges that copyright law has expanded to a worrisome degree, and at the same time defends it arguing that there needs to be a law protecting Intellectual Property. It is a good introduction to the history of how copyright law became so overbearing, and a bit of how the US’ influence expanded and changed things for the rest of the world in this regard.

Canadian Copyright: A Citizen’s Guide, Second Edition, by Laura J. Murray and Samuel E. Trosow – If you live anywhere in Canada and do any sort of creative work this book is essential. Second Edition is from 2016, so a Third Edition would be incredibly welcome, but this one is super useful as it is. Murray and Trosow go through the ins and outs of how Canadian copyright works, what the differences are with the US and other jurisdictions, and how to take care in your creative endeavors. They also are very pro-alternatives, meaning they have a chapter on Creative Commons Licensing as well as some strong critiques of the current copyright system and how it affects the people who use it (which, if you read/watch/enjoy any media, it’s you as well). It is a good read and an even better reference.

Chokepoint Capitalism, by Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow – A very thorough exploration of the harms perpetrated by big platforms on the internet (read, things like Facebook, Spotify, Amazon, etc.) onto users, creators, and onto the internet itself. Giblin and Doctorow go to great lengths to describe the absolute ridiculousness of Digital Rights Management, for example; they also have a brief description of the history of copyright and how it got coopted by big corporations; they even get into what a free market actually is according to Adam Smith (that is, free from rents). The best part about this book is that it doesn’t just point out the problem, it offers solutions and ideas to make things better in the long run. You’ll read this book, you’ll get angry and then you’ll want to do things to make everything better. It’s good.

Think Like a Commoner, by David Bollier – While more wide ranging in its scope than the other books in this list, Think Like a Commoner puts into perspective the why and the how of the Commons, as well as how it compares to the privatization of resources and how this affects the communities that use and need said resources. The idea of a “creative commons” is mentioned briefly in one of the chapters, and it complements quite nicely the ideals of Free-Culture that we at Fodongo spouse. A very recommended book, and it will probably not be the last in this list by Bollier.

No Logo, by Naomi Klein – Much like the previous book on this list, Klein’s investigative reports on the effect of brands and multinational corporations does not focus exclusively on the commons or on Free-Culture; and yet both of those topics are a huge part of her argument as to why we need to resist these behemoth’s influences. No Logo talks about how brands, logos and corporations have entered our cultural life, and fought to become entrenched in culture themselves. It talks about the loss of public space, the labour abuses perpetrated by them in developing nations, the copyright and trademark overreaches and about the acts of resistance and protest against this cultural take over. It is a 24 year old book, and it is surprising and a bit upsetting how current it feels. Still, there’s hope.

Podcasts

FOSS&Crafts: A podcast about free and open-source software and about free-culture and crafts and all manner of lovely things, hosted by Morgan and Christine Lemmer-Webber. They talk about things relating to FOSS and crafting, hobbying and free-culture from an insider’s perspective; after all Morgan Lemmer-Webber sits on the board of F-Droid (and has a PhD in Art History) and Christine Lemmer-Webber was part of the team that developed the ActivityPub protocol (and is working on Spritely, now); and they are deeply and profoundly invested in their hobbies and crafts, which makes for a delightful listen.

Open Minds: A podcast from Creative Commons. They feature some neat interviews with people who contribute to Free-Culture in many different ways. It’s a great way to know of various different projects and initiatives that try to make things better for all of us. It hasn’t updated in almost 2 years, but the archive is great to listen to.

(This page is a work in progress, check back every now and then for more recommendations!)