<nettime> Copy Adorno, go to jail?

[Florian Cramer <cantsin@zedat.fu-berlin.de>]

[Screwed linebreaks of the original posting fixed, otherwise forwarded
as in the original. -F]

----- Forwarded message from ariel authier <arielauthier@gmx.net> -----

From: ariel authier <arielauthier@gmx.net>
To: rohrpost@mikrolisten.de
Subject: [rohrpost] Fw: <textz.com> copy adorno, go to jail?

COPY, COPY, CPOY, COPY, COPY, COPYA, COPIA


Copy Adorno, Go To Jail? Textz.com Doesn't Think So

The Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Culture,
presided by Jan Philipp Reemtsma, has just advanced science and culture
to a whole new level: Sebastian Luetgert, the founder of textz.com, is
facing a warrant of arrest and may go to jail if he fails to pay more
than 2,300 euros in damages for the alleged copying of two essays by
Theodor W. Adorno that the foundation claims as their "intellectual
property". Reemtsma was kindly asked to settle, but refused.

The case dates back to August 2002, when the foundation filed for a
preliminary injunction against Luetgert at the Hamburg State Court,
referring to the alleged distibution of two works by Theodor W. Adorno,
"Jargon der Eigentlichkeit" and "Fascism and Anti-Semitic Propaganda".
Since not a single e-mail was sent to notify textz.com of the matter,
and since written notification failed to reach the defendant, textz.com
only learned about the issue after a few days.  The works in question
were immediately removed from the site to avoid any further legal
hassles.

In December 2003, Luetgert found himself confronted with a warrant of
arrest, obtained against him by the Hamburg Foundation, citing unpaid
claims related to the unauthorized copying of said works. In January
2004, Luetgert addressed the issue in a letter to Reemtsma and asked for
a scholarship so he could pay this debt and avoid jail time. Reemtsma
did not reply, but handed the letter over to his foundation's lawyers -
Senfft, Kersten, Voss-Andreae & Schwenn - who insist on the payment of
2,331.32 Euros for alleged damages and legal fees.

Textz.com believes that an "intellectual proprietor" of Theodor W.
Adorno and Walter Benjamin who claims to advance science and culture by
sending people to jail for taking Adorno and Benjamin serious is
seriously wrong on a whole number of points. The Hamburg Foundation
undererstimates the resistance of their possessions against their legal
protection just as much as their lawyers underestimate the ability of
the Internet to route around damage. In the end, they may even be wrong
in thinking that they will ever get their property back.

Today, in an open letter (http://textz.com/adorno/open_letter.txt),
Reemtsma has been notified that his foundation's "intellectual property"
has been returned to the public domain. This first-of-its-kind protest
signals a refusal to let copyright holders and lawyers censor the very
works they pretend to protect and control what the public can archive or
read. There is a universal right to copy that will never cease to apply,
and there is copyright legislation that will.  The spectre haunting the
scientific and cultural industries is a new commons materializing before
their very own eyes. We're just at the beginning.

Textz.com
February 24, 2004

http://textz.com
mailto:textz@textz.org

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How you can support textz.com:

- Spread the word. Tell your friends, tell a journalist, write about it,
  put it on a website, post it to a mailing list, etc. Textz.com is also
  available for interviews, just mail to press@textz.org.

- Sign our petition at http://textz.com/adorno/petition.html.

- Write a letter to Jan Philipp Reemtsma, Hamburg Foundation for the
  Advancement of Science and Culture, Mittelweg 36, 20148 Hamburg,
  Germany. If you like, send a copy of your letter to textz@textz.org.

- Donate to textz.com via http://textz.com/adorno/donate.html.

- Buy a copy of Robert Luxemburg's "The Conceptual Crisis of Private
  Property as a Crisis in Practice" (http://textz.com/crisis). All
  proceedings will go to textz.com's fund for legal expenses.

- Put our "Free Adorno" banner (http://textz.com/adorno/banner.gif) on
  your website, and/or link to http://textz.com/adorno.

- Meet textz.com at Neuro Festival, February 26-29, Munich, Germany
  (check http://neuro.kein.org for details) and join our discussion
  about further strategies in this case.

- Select all, copy, paste, save, upload, share. Reappropriate. (And
  remember: there is no need to break what you can circumvent. Don't
  innovate, imitate.)

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Related links:

Documentation of our correnspondence:
http://textz.com/adorno/documentation.de.txt
http://textz.com/adorno/documentation.en-babelfish.txt

Press coverage:
http://textz.com/adorno/press.txt

Open Letter to Jan Philipp Reemtsma:
http://textz.com/adorno/open_letter.txt

The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction:
http://textz.com/adorno/work_of_art.txt

Franz Kafka on "intellectual property":
http://textz.com/kafka

Textz.com mission statement, early 2001:
http://textz.com/concept

What others say about textz.com:
http://textz.com/press

The textz that textz.com is all about:
http://textz.com/cache
http://textz.com/textz

Some state-of-the-art copyright circumvention technologies:
http://textz.com/trash
http://textz.com/crisis

Some more stuff we have not yet been sued for:
http://textz.com/search
http://textz.com/news

Drop us a line, send us a text, or subscribe to our newsletter:
http://textz.com/contact

Finally, while freeing Adorno, please free the Grey Album too:
http://textz.com/greyalbum/greyalbum.html


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