Moving Beyond Copyright (Blog)

[Maria O]

Originally Posted by Maria O

the 1000th person

And if I am, do I get a prize?

[pjhaggerty]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I agree that the HOW seems a bit tricky. That's why I wanted to discuss it with myself (via your feedback).

The part I'm most unsure about is whether it's wisest to try to host and coordinate translation efforts in a centralized manner. That seems good for quality control, but I wouldn't want to manage that myself. It seems like I'd need a good bit of help to make that work. That would be a lot of individually translated articles to coordinate, and I have no experience managing such things.

That's why I'm leaning towards the opposite -- decentralize everything and see what evolves organically. Empower others with greater autonomy. But that means less standardization, potential gaps, and duplication of effort.

This is a tricky trade-off. Which part of my dream world has a good solution for this, or some good experience to draw upon that can shed more light on it?

Maybe it's not an either-or thing though. Perhaps some sort of hybrid solution could work, with some centralized management handled by volunteers and good autonomy for those with creative ideas to pursue.

At this point I only got an inspiration to bring it this far. I don't yet feel a strong inspiration for the next steps.

Why not run it like wikipedia?

Host everything on this site. But let anyone who wants to post and edit your articles in another language do so.

that way you can maintain stewardship over the content, but you can also allow the other 'parts of yourself' to work on it. Also, you can use any ad revenue generated to pay for the hosting and upgrading the site, perhaps hiring translators for languages not covered or as a way of lowering prices on your other services such as the CGW.

All you would really then be responsible for is the high-level organization of the articles. Organizing them by language, etc, somehow like how these forums are run. That way the other 'parts of yourself' who are inspired to translate can translate, but you can maintain your role as visionary/overseer of the whole project. This would probably lead to the best translations as well, because everybody can check and edit everybody else's translations. You could then decide about other ideas for distribution or re-use on a case by case basis.

You wouldn't even have to maintain copyright over them yourself, you could put them into a corporate/charitable trust and have that entity maintain the copyright and use the funds to spread your ideas, and potentially recompense some of the translators/moderators.

I don't think it benefits everybody for you to give up all control though, because that could easily lead to a dilution of your message. You want to maintain the integrity of your message and not be confused because another part of yourself interprets the message differently.

It seems like the thing you really want to watch out for is not that other people might use your ideas and benefit from them. That's the whole point of this blog. I mean, say somebody reads one of your articles and is inspired by it to write an article of their own that makes them money. should you be compensated because your idea caused them to write? No. Why? Objectively, it's because it's not your article anymore. Subjectively it's because you were both inspired by the dreamer, but they are representing that inspiration uniquely, just as you did, because you are both unique representations of this dreamer.

I think the thing you need to maintain copyright control not to police others from benefiting from your work but to maintain message unity. you as steve pavlina are a unique representation of this dreamer. You have a unique message and point of view. Therefore you want to maintain that any 'steve pavlina message' is truly in line with your message. You don't want people to attribute work to you that isn't yours or even contradicts your message. You don't want a translation error to lead to a misunderstanding. As steward of the message, it's your job to ensure that the writings stay unified. And you need a mechanism of enforcing that.

If you let everything go public domain and release all control, you run into the possibility of having your message be degraded as people continually repackage it. The ensuing messages might be more or less useful, but they are not yours. So, I think you should maintain a limited copyright over your work and have a central hub where people can come to get the 'real deal'. This site for example. then have translations available through this site. Set up the infrastructure to allow others to translate. And set it up in such a way that you can correct any misunderstandings or misinterpretations that might come up.

This way, you can also ensure that the resulting income is used to further your work.

Some people seem to be scared that if you release your copyright you won't be paid. I don't think that's an issue. You might be paid less. You might be paid more. It might stay the same. Does it really matter to you? It seems that you are in a place of such financial abundance that even if your income were halved you'd probably still be more than alright. And it's likely that if you expand to international audiences your income will go up, as the greater demand for a limited supply will drive prices up, economics 101. it might also lead to more supply as people repurpose your content, but overall it should have a net positive effect.

So, I think you should eventually set up a charitable trust with open source translation similiar to wikipedia with the funds generated used to support you and your work and volunteers to self police the resulting content and a mechanism like a copyright ensuring that any repurposing of your work with attribution stays on message, but with the understanding that others are allowed to create valuable materials from your work because they are just doing what you do by expanding the amount of help available to others and to be recompensed accordingly for the value they add to the work.

I'm sure some people would abuse this and use content and not give you a 'fair' deal because there's probably a part of the dreamer which does this, however some people would create good stuff and give you back more than would've been 'fair' deal because there's a part of the dreamer which is generous and overall you'd probably come out ahead and this dream world would definitely come out ahead.

[Algy]

Dear 'Steve',

I'm glad 'you've found the subjective way of living. Been on it for about two and a half years now and many strange things are happening to 'me'.

'I'm currently writing a book (on living oneness ) and was also wondering how freely to release it online. I know that I don't want to bother what 'my' other parts will be doing with (not to speak of controlling) it, but still would like to give readers of possible derivative works and quotes an option to refer back to the text's 'origin.'

That's why I settled for a 'Do what you please as long as a visible link to h ttp://www.mywebsite.net is provided' license.

LOVE abounds,

'Algy'

[Khristine]

I am you, you are me...I love you, I'm sorry, please forgive me, thank you.

When inspired and unsure of the next step or the how to, I believe it's best to say to the Divine, "OK, I'm willing, what do I do next?"

Maybe you were inspired to ask us here, in which case someone will point you in the correct direction.

[yogi]

Bob Proctor uses ghostwriters who plagiarize?

LMAO !!!

[munish]

Originally Posted by Asmoday

I would flat out slay Bob Proctor.

Slowly.

Why slowly?

Go fast!

Hang him!

[slumberland]

hi, I was feeling obligated to read through this thread before posting my thoughts on your article... but I don't have the patience for some reason.
if I am re-hashing points that have already been made, forgive me and ignore.

but here are my immediate thoughts & concerns. I am afraid that people could use this material to take advantage of others. there are going to be people who use it to make money, and become 'gurus' - I am sorry to have this anxious reaction but that is my immediate concern.

way back before the first CGH I came across a psychic that sounded really great, online. then slowly I realized that the content had been lifted directly from Erin's blog. I was almost thinking of signing up for a reading with this person. Then I thought I should alert Erin or you to the situation. But I felt bad, I felt sorry for this person. Then also I caught myself thinking, oh maybe if I alert you guys I will get some benefit, like some perk or something. Because this thought jumped into my head I thought forget it, give it a week and I'm sure somebody else will alert Steve or Erin. I didn't want to be contacting you guys with subconscious ulterior motives.

Sure enough, somebody must have notified one of you because the plagiarized content was taken down soon after - without my help. What was left was not somebody I would contact for a reading.

Listen, Erin's writing has its own integrity and could not have been written by somebody else. If somebody is at the level where they are going to pass articles off as their own, then by definition they are not at the level to handle this content responsibly. I think they could use it for harm not good.

My reaction may not be popular but I feel the need to warn. What if people had turned to this person for advice based on trust derived from writings that actually belonging to Erin?

Ideas have a life of their own. They come to whoever is a good home for them. Whoever will take care of them properly. If you want to open up your content beyond ways that serve you directly then that is great, but letting go of your copyrights entirely is going to open the door up to people who want to take advantage of others. Especially considering this is personal development.

If I read this thread later and find out that I am just rehashing points that have already been made then I will delete this response. Or at least amend it.

[beautyscientist]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

How about if we catch him and hug him instead, brother dear? <3

So funny how you're like my doppleganger with the reverse polarity.

I am not really into the whole self help/personal development scene apart from reading Steve's stuff, so I am afraid I have never heard of Bob Proctor before this thread. (I think we are all agreed Steve isn't like most of the rest of them anyway.)

I don't know if Bob has a really worthwhile body of work and this is simply one minor glitch.

But I will say, I don't think there is any way Steve could have handled the situation that shows himself in a better light.

[PattyK]

These were my thoughts as I read your post:
1. Why are you writing? To reach and impact as many people as possible? To share your messages from the universe? Or to make money/build your ego?

2. Where do you want to put your energy? Into policing and protecting things from the past or into creation and sharing of what comes next?

I'm envisioning you as a conduit of information. Could holding on to what "comes out of the pipe" be slowing down what's coming IN?

[alexb5784]

Sharing information openly will encourage more people live consciously. Anyone that uses Steve's materials in a conscious and compassionate way, will find some way - be it privately, publicly, subconsciously - to credit him for the work. Maybe they won't say he wrote the material, it's not necessary. Rather, people will be attracted to the energy in the content and by unexplained methods be sent to people writing and sharing similar content. It's not important that people know Steve wrote the content, but rather that it exists and it's here to help them evolve into more passionate and meaningful beings.

Who cares who wrote it. As long as it brings immense value, encourages you to raise your consciousness, and is filled with inspired truth, the actual author is irrelevant. Some of the best material out there (usually quotes) was written by forgotten or unknown authors.

[KateHindin]

I think the best way to avoid multiple translations and keep a little bit of control over them, is to have all the translations here on the site. Simply add a language toggle at the top. If people want to contact you about translating your site into German, you can simply add a german flag, create a restricted login to your site for them, and they can paste their content in. Anyone else wanting a German translation will still come to stevepavlina.com to find it.

[davidone1967]

Hi everyone my name is David and I run a couple of motivational sites in My country, Italy. I've been reading StevePavlina.com for about three years now, and found a lot of inspiration in it. I would be honored to be a translator of Steve's articles into my language. I also understand that the main issue with translations is controlling quality. Maybe the best way would be to have a third reliable person with a knowledge of the language revise the translation. The alternative wold be just to trust the translator, come what may .

Have a nice day.

[shefyg]

First - all the one who has posted before me, please forgive me for posting, before reading all your comments - I just read the article, and want to comment while my ideas are fresh. I'll get back to reading you post after that


Hi Steve,

Really interesting article, and here are my 2 cents.

First of all - I think even as a reflection, there is an important role for your being, to experience yourself as a kind of an egotistic person with a narrow point of view.

We have special experiance as humans, that a global concious can not have. You talked about personal experience you put in your articalse, this is the kind of thing, that global concious, or god can not really have, and it is important in the process of sharing your knowlage with other people.

About the writing not being your own - it's not exactly true. Think of it that way, you get the information in english, I get information in hebrew. But there is more than that, your experiance as a human, defines the way that this knowlage is passing through you. Even if you do feel it has other source - which it does, you - Steve Pavlina, has a very important role. Without you, the knowlage is like the tree that falls in the woods, and there is no one there to hear it. So you have ownership over it.
This is why some of these people copied you, because they are not you, they couldn't make that connection, and pass that knowlage good enough, so in a way - you might think the global concious refered them to you articles to help them grow.

So how should you approach all this copyrights thing?

Remember how you said in your book and podcast, that suffering is a way of the universe to tell you that you have the wrong idea about things (Transfered to us from the universe through Budha ) I think ehat happends with this copyright thing, is that you want to share it, but you want to make sure the quality and the use that is done with the material is good. Overlooking it (not paing attention) could lead to abuse of the material, and overlooking it (paint "too much" attention) could lead to kind of suffering, the way that happened before.

I belive the way to go, is the same as when you started this site - creating information for free, and trusting that things will work out, seens they are done with the right intentions. I think you should ask people to refer back to the site, and to donate money to the site, if the use they are doing is creatiung money. Thats what I would do if I would use your materials.

I think it would be good for everyone. Using your staff without acknowledging your work, is a bad carma. Its like stealing food, instead of buying it and saying thank you. You are right not to go after those people, but it is a good idea to encourage people, to refer people back to your site, so that more people would have access to your articles, and that this would help them grow.


As I said on the title - I'm on the fence now. I'm going to leav my job in
Hi-Tech next sunday, and part of me is screaming at me to find a job.
I'm affraid of financial instabilities, but I also know it might be my chance to really start doing the things I like, and to really start helping people. My not screaming side, thinks of site and lectures on personal development with emphasize on relationships between people. Such as how to be a people person, through loving other people, and how to find love.

To me it was obvious, that I'm going to refer people to your site, as I always did.

Regards, Shefy (<- really like that smilly)

[mariamachon]

Steve,
the first thought I got after reading your questions was "wikipedia", the second was "community-driven".

For the language question I think it would be best to set up a central system where everyone can contribute. Let everyone do a little bit and let the community help you to control the quality. Just like with free software or wikipedia.

For the copyright issue I think three questions are most important:

• How get your work to spread most
• How to get your work to be applied, further developed etc.
• How to create and support a world-wide wave of inspiration based on your material

For me, mentioning the author you are quoting/translating is a matter of fairness, so I would ask for that anyway. I do not find it necessary to use non-commercial licenses (as has been proposed). If you feel already properly compensated for your writing work why shouldn't others get their fair compensation for the value they create by processing (translating, applying, spreading...) your writings or ideas?

I am happy to find the copyright/left topic in this web page. For me it is clearly a question of love, courage, and awareness!

Hugs, ;-)
María

[The Unconquered]

Hi Steve,

I've been hoping for a copyleft license of your articles for a while, but I have a different spin on the idea than translation. I was thinking of designing a technology (perhaps a Firefox add-on that works together with your site) that would let me create a PDF bundle of your articles that I could save/print/use as I wish (except claim it as my own).

For example, let's say I wanted to read all of your articles from your blog tagged as subjective reality offline. I want to read them from your earliest article to the most recent one. Since your articles are already in printable format, I'd want to download them, save them to PDF, and order them as published in chronological order. This would be very useful in case I had no access to the internet, or I wanted to print them out at a print shop to give to my friend who would rather read your articles offline.

What do you think?

[bdc]

Steve,

By defending your copyright, you provide a valuable service. You suppress noise, like search engine spam. You create focus, by publishing an authoritative repository. Although your motive may have been egoistic in the beginning, that does not negate the value you provide by enforcing your copyright.

Declaring this to be a "copyright issue" frames the problem in a certain way and limits courses of action. Did you frame the matter in these terms intentionally, or accidentally?

Is there guilt because of past egotism? Is there exhaustion from the burden of defending your copyright? Is there fear that you are stifling the universe by refusing to lead/delegate translation? Do you have D/s issues around leading and correcting other people? Do you feel uncomfortable at the prospect of revoking a license if a content licensee fails to rise to the occasion? Are you concerned about managing translation yourself and not living up to your own standards of quality? Is it an economic/tax issue? Should the economic/tax issue be solved as such?

If you no longer wish to be responsible for the stewardship of your copyrights, if you no longer wish to provide that service to the public, then I recommend the public domain. Ultimately, everything will be cast to the wind, why fear it?

Many people favor self-serve licensing schemes like copyleft, CreativeCommons, or such like. In my own warped judgement, I wonder if these people are seeking revenge on misguided copyright holders; or fearful of losing reputation; or fearful of surrendering to the chaos of the public domain? But that is my own warped, and too-harsh, judgement.

There is value in translation. There is value in refinement that borders on plagiarism. However, allowing others to effortlessly republish in existing venues, like the Internet, offers very little value; it possibly even destroys value, IMO.

Be well.

[pierrebastien]

Steve,
Recently I was reading this Zen Habits interview of you and I found out you decline article reprint requests by default, in order to save time reviewing the requests. I thought to myself then that releasing your articles into the public domain would be more in tune with your recent thinking. The very next morning I saw your "Moving Beyond Copyrights" article. That's one helluva synchronicity, at least for me. So there's my vote, as it were, cast one day before polling began. Good luck.

[Dreknavej]

I speak 3 languages fluently and the most annoying thing for me is sloppy translations.

Your content is very demanding for translations - I am comparing it to philosophy. I see the need for translating it in to other languages but I am very skeptical of correct interpretation and the end result. You will NOT be able to verify the quality.

I am looking forward to your decision.

[jun]

Making a custom license is not that difficult if you know (i.e., create) a copyright lawyer who can help you out. I imagine you want something simple, where people can reprint your articles under the following conditions:

1. The copier attributes you by name, with a back link to your website if online.
2. At some central hub––this forum, a wiki, a blog, 4chan––the copier tells a like-minded community that they're going to copy/translate/republish your content.
3. If the copier profits in some way from republishing your content, they donate time and/or money to an awareness-raising nonprofit.

I doubt just one person will want to translate all of your articles into German, for example. Keep this in mind.

Many multi-lingual hubpages have an entry page with a grid of flags to represent each language, with the Korean flag representing Korean, for example. If you want, you could do this, and then have a checklist of all of your articles; once one is translated, it's checked off and the translation is hyperlinked, possibly reprinted on the hub. Creating such a thing is beyond my technical ability, but I don't doubt someone would want to step in and help you.

[Bodhi]

I don't post here much but, I feel inspired to write:

Dreams in this world require cash. If you have big dreams for this world you need lots of cash.

[Savage]

Originally Posted by Bodhi

Dreams in this world require cash. If you have big dreams for this world you need lots of cash.

For whatever reason, my dream women never seem to request payment.

[Bodhi]

Well that is what makes this world go around. A good mate.

[codefreeze]

Originally Posted by Angela

Codefreeze, yes; fun isn't it?

And may I say that you are a total cutie?

Ah, so you felt it too! I don't know if I'd call it "fun" as such. It's kind of like in the Matrix when suddenly the Matrix gets a glitch - like something, for a moment, just went pear-shaped!

Blush, and thanks....

[codefreeze]

Originally Posted by yogi

Bob Proctor uses ghostwriters who plagiarize?

LMAO !!!

Yeah, that was my reaction too.

Two words: Reputation, tatters.

[codefreeze]

Originally Posted by cacheborn

Yes, me too. And I have become more watchful as of late.

Yes, I've been more watchful too, and noticing strange synchronicities. I think the thing that really freaks me out is the idea that my dreams may become part of my reality. That's already happened in a couple of significant ways in my life, and I'm not sure I can control my dreams, or stay watchful in them!

[HealthySoul]

Steve, since this dream character is experiencing the same situation, let me tell you what I am going to do. I will release the copyright on all of my material, which is a present reflection of the past, choosing instead to focus on what is happening in my dream now. I will meditate on the ideal outcome of giving the content to the public domain and create an intention for this to be. I will then be free to focus on what I truly want.

[The Unconquered]

Originally Posted by Bodhi

I don't post here much but, I feel inspired to write:

Dreams in this world require cash. If you have big dreams for this world you need lots of cash.

I don't see why. Many open source software projects (Wikipedia is the most well-known for this) have free documentation/article translators who do it for the love of it.

[simplyberry]

A question for co creator Seth Godin. He releases his works all the time with attribution and then he goes on to sell the same book.

He does write back and in your case he just may talk to you over the phone if you need a faster response.

[RohanThompson]

Incredible synchronicity Steve..as soon as I read your article, I was inspired to go to youtube and listen to a channel that I frequently listen to named Darryl Anka (channeling BASHAR) and this was the first video that came up when I did the search: YouTube - &#x202a;Bashar - "Wholeness of Being" - June 20, 2010&#x202c;&lrm; WOW!

I have always liked your work, but now my energy is so aligned with where you are NOW and going !!

Thanks Steve,

@RohanThompson - for those that would like to connect on twitter.

[NewSimon]

Hello. The last part of the article is throwing out ideas and questions, as I think you haven't really decided what you really want from relinquishing copyright. But you have reconciled yourself to the fact that you don't have or want ownership, which you equate with copyright? The articles are basically freely available anyway and attributed to yourself, as they have always and presumably will continue to be, available on this website in their original form.

If it was me, I would allow the articles to be used without change and without charge, with attribution. I think there is some CC license for non-commerical, verbatim use of work. You couldn't stop someone changing and making money from your articles anyway and you didn't want to pursue it. If it's under CC, then some other body can pursue it?

What unintended consequences haven't happened already?