[-empyre-] [longis rant] Re: perspective from an open source developer

[Jeff Sonstein <jeffs@it.rit.edu>]

melinda@subtle.net wrote:

>  i saw you were on the empyre list and i was wondering if you would put
> forward an opinion  from your perspective of a person who has been 
involved
> in developing the v-net opensource software used by lots of people, 
and how
> you feel about copyrite issues.. and that thenet isnt a free place any
> more..
[snip]
> i am always very optimistic about the net and free xchange of 
information
> and  sharing ideas.
>
> and that exchange happens a lot still, but these days the net it is 
mostly
> a commercial market place and we artists tend to inhabit , or hang on 
to the
> gaps between e-commercial sites

<RANT_ALERT>
  first off
  I should express some of my biases...
</RANT_ALERT>

when I look at what actually drives the web
what I find is a lot of free and OpenSource software:
the Apache web server moves more HTTP traffic
than any other web server
Perl acts as the "duct tape" which hold things together
and so on and so on...

I think that using copyright laws
can make some good things can happen
for the producers of works
[I want to stay out of the art vs craft argument
 for the moment]
but the copyright laws can also be abused
[and can be written stupidly
 as witness the copyrighting of algorithms]

it is my impression that art *mostly* happens in
"the gaps between [snip]commercial sites"
and that this has been true most of the time
for most of human history
so that part honestly does not bother me

and I must ask myself
what exactly is the *point* of "doing art"??
is it to make money?
is it because the artist is driven to do the work?
I think it is probably mostly the second:
because artists cannot *not* do the work...

I used to be a PoV-Ray nut
now I am a VRML nut...
I do 3D not because I can make any money off of it
[although that would be a great "plus" <g>]
but rather because I am driven to do so...

I recently took a weekend trip to New York City
and in wandering around
ended up visiting the Museum of American Folk Art
and looking at an exhibit of "outsider art"...
art by folks who did it for themselves
and not for the "art establishment"

driven
not paid

if no one uses/looks-at my work
if I am not paid for it
does that mean it is somehow "not art"??
IMHO the answer is that
the answer to that question is "no"
and that other things govern my making the judgement
that something is or is not "art"

if I pay too much attention to
what people want to experience and are willing to pay for
then those considerations can end up
"driving" the kinds of work that I do...
not a consequence I desire

to be honest
I think of the VNet code as a form of "art"
for code can express my visions
[like paint and canvas can]
of what is and what might be
and because code can have a cold beauty all it's own
and I think of VNet code as a form of "craft"
for it provides a toolset for others to express *their* visions

and Cristiano wrote:

> loads of support for the arts in UK, which means that lots of crap
> gets funded, but at least there is room and nourishment for the true
> little flowers to blossom. Amidst a pile of rubbish, because, let's 
face
> it, very few in the art establishment are able to recognise the
> difference between art and craft (or lack of one or both of the above).

does the "art establishment" every recognize anything
in a useful fashion?
IMHO rarely

I do not long for the days of patrons
for many reasons not germane to this discussion
[not the least of which is the question of
 "who owns the product of my work?"]

so what am I saying
about OpenSource code
and about "art on the Web"??

I am saying that
I think people who are driven to "do the work"
will do so regardless of whether anyone notices
and that
I think copyright is useful for establishing a claim to work
but should not prevent the work from "being out there"...
some people will *always* copy other people's things
and that does not seem to me to be a reason to not do the work
nor a reason to not put it "out there"

hmmmm
this note got a bit longer than I thought it would <g>

jeffs

--
Jeffrey Sonstein
Assistant Professor of Information Technology
Rochester Institute of Technology
=====================================
"They that give up essential liberty
 to obtain a little temporary safety
 deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Benjamin Franklin: 1759