Some Personal Observations Regarding the CopySouth Workshop

Some Personal Observations Regarding the CopySouth Workshop: Trivandrum, Kerala, December 2008
(first draft)

An Important Note for the Reader:

Please note: This is not an objective report of the presentations within the workshop. It is a highly subjective collection of notes and thoughts based on the issues raised by various speakers. My personal notes have been edited and restructured (even extended with my own viewpoints) afterwards. This text is therefore purely a reflection of my own interests and obsessions as manifest through, and by, the CopySouth workshop. However, hopefully, it may also be of interest and use to others.

I am sure that more conventional reports of the workshop will clarify my original sources -and my distortions (and possible abuses) of their comments. The "language" used is also filtered by my own obsessions. In this context, this text could be seen as a practical example of some of the problems of (mis)appropriation and (un)fair exploitation which underlie the subject of the workshop.

My sincere thanks to everybody involved.

Trevor Batten
Manila, January 2009

CONTENTS:

SECTION I. Conceptual Contexts
SECTION 2. Political Economic Contexts
SECTION 3. Technological and Social Networks
SECTION 4. Transcending Doctrine
SECTION 5. The Search for new Language

Links:

CopySouth Website
Trevor Batten's Website