Inhaltsverzeichnis
PROKLA-Redaktion: Editorial
PROKLA-Redaktion und Verlag: Die PROKLA-Umfrage
Elmar Altvater: Klaus-Dieter Tangermann - Ein Nachruf
Sabine Nuss: Download ist Diebstahl? Eigentum in einer digitalen Welt
Werner Winzerling: Linux und Freie Software. Eine Entmystifizierung
Rainer Kuhlen: Napsterisierung und Venterisierung. Bausteine zu einer politischen Ökonomie des Wissens
Boris Gröndahl: Die Tragedy of the anticommons. Kapitalistische Eigen-tumskritik im Patentwesen
Michael Frein: Die Globalisierung von Rechten an geistigem Eigentum und der Nord-Süd Konflikt
Jeanette Hofmann: 'Weisheit, Wahrheit und Witz' - Über die Personali-sierung eines Allgemeinguts
Susanne Hildebrand: Die Privatisierung des mexikanischen Ejido
SUMMARIES PROKLA 126, Vol. 32 (2002), No. 1
Sabine Nuss: Is Download Robbery? From the beginning the commerciali-zation of world wide web has been accompanied by discussions about In-tellectual Property Rights. Here two positions can be identified: Claiming strong property protection for digital goods through special measures of technology and legislation and emphasizing on "information wants to be free", proclaiming that strong property protection more likely will be a hindrance for research and development. Though the two positions seem to be quite contrary, the article tries to show, that both originate from the same philosophical and political approach based on John Locke and his modern advocate Douglass North. Karl Marx fundamentally critizised this approach presenting an alternative view of role and function of property in capitalistic economies. Following this method of analysis it is indicated that changes in property re-gimes on the basis of digital technology seem to be a vanguard of mod-ernised capitalism.
Werner Winzerling: Free and Open Source Software in the horizontal computer industry. Since the great success of the operating system Linux, the development of Free and Open Source Software is broad dis-cussed. This is also seen as the beginning of a new economic develop-ment. This paper examines, what makes Linux actually so significant for the computer industry. First Linux is critical evaluated and placed opposite the Microsoft operating systems. Than some substantial new influences on the development and production in the computer in-dustry are worked out. On the one hand this are modifications in the production chain of computers and on the other hand network effects (externalization), which proceed from these products. On the basis of this new economic situation the Linux phenomenon is explained and it is shown from which the great importance of Microsoft in the computer industry results at present.
Rainer Kuhlen: Napsterization and Venterization. We use the alterna-tive concepts of napsterization (information sharing) and venteriza-tion (commerzialization and control) to characterize the main trends within information markets for organisation, production and usage of knowledge. In particular, "napsterization" will be described with re-spect to Napster itself, to the DVD conflict, to Digital Rights Man-agement for digital products such as E-books, and to problems and po-tentials of information sharing in scientific environments. Assuming that knowledge cannot and should not be fully controlled in electronic spaces we suggest that the principles of information sharing, distrib-uted information work, pricing for information, and value-added ser-vices should be adopted by the information economy rather than con-tinuing a costly and unwinnable information war" between napsterizers and venterizers.
Boris Gröndahl: The Tragedy of the anticommons. The patent system is one part of the triad of intellectual property, besieged by techno-logical progress, globalisation and political criticism. In addition to the well-known argument that patents have unwanted moral or eco-logical consequences because they function, an immanent argument gains ground in the economic debate that they actually do not work as in-tended. In complex technologies such as biology, computers and soft-ware, the argument goes, patents tend to create a "tragedy of the an-ticommons", stifling capitalist development.
Michael Frein: The Globalisation of Intellectual Property Rights and the North-South-Conflict. The article discusses the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as an instrument for the globalisation of in-tellectual property rights. It focuses on the provisions of TRIPs Art 27.3 (b), which contains global rules for the patenting of life, and the question of access to medicines for the poor in developing coun-tries. By analysing the underlying economic and political interests of the industrial countries and multinational corporations, which have formed the provisions of the TRIPs-Agreement, it is argued that higher standards in intellectual property rights, especially patents, advan-tage the rich and disadvantage the poor. Therefore there is an urgent need to change the TRIPs-Agreement in line with the interests and in favour of developing countries. The article shows that there are sev-eral suggestions for the current negotiations made not only by NGOs, but also by governments of developing countries.
Jeanette Hofmann: 'Wisdom, Truth, and Wit'. This paper looks at the history of the individualization of knowledge. Intellectual property is based on the assumption that individuals are originators of in-sights and ideas. The notion of the author as creator is a recent in-vention. Until late 18th century, literati were regarded as craftsmen or mediators, who merely write down the divine wisdom by following the rules of rhetoric. The author as defined in modern copyright law thus gets a lot of credit for intellectual achievements that once were be-lieved to be public domain.
Susanne Hildebrandt: Privatisation of the Mexican Ejido. The article starts with an introduction into the structural changes on the world markets of agrarian goods occurred since the 1970s and its effects for the Mexican agrarian sector. As a consequence of the political shift towards an export oriented model in the countryside the Ejido and the peasants became dysfunctional. In 1992, the reform of article 27 of the Mexican Constitution brings the agrarian reform to an end. The case study of Ejido Sayula/Jalisco highlights the social and political implications of this historical reform.
