When in the western blogosphere speaks about “free” culture, is from the point of view of the western world. It is spoken of which any person with access to Internet, a digital camera (photo/video) is an `author’ in power. It is spoken of free(freedom) access (also of free(beer) access in some cases) to the works of those authors. Copyright. In summary: what it considers is the future model of western culture… directed to the western world.

For a moment, I propose to stop staring our belly, to raise the head and to watch around us. We have a great amount of population (although it does not seem, we are minority) that it does not have access to text books to learn to read. Millions of people who do not have access to free music, nor to any type of music. I speak of Africa, some regions of South America, Asia…

Somebody has thought about this people? Does it help showing the Nigerian children that RIAA and friends are a kind of vultures, if they do not have (nor they need) access to our music? Aside from demonstrating that to sharing is good, are there some initiatives to release text books (or e-books or whatever) with useful educative content for this people, so when they enetr The Network, either with green computer-toys, ultralight terminals or normal computers, they are with something more than the “Free Culture” from Lessig (I do not believe that it serves as too much a boy of the Ecuatorian forest)?

There are school books under the GFDL so that they can download them, print, bind and sell for themselves, and by the way, generate commercial activity from their own in these places? I do not speak to write books of its own history or culture from our western countries, but surely there are common subjects internationally that they would be possible to be grouped in free editions and that they would guarantee a minimum continuity once they enter the network and, by the way, to give the possibility of generating business with the creation of presses, cooperatives of booksellers, libraries…

What the developing countries need is commerce, not aid.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 17th, 2005 at 21:45 You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.