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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>To: Pierre Levy, Lawrence Lessig, Richard Stallman,
Pekka Himanen</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear Pierre, Lawrence, Richard and
Pekka</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Here at Creative Commons Italia we are following up
on the request we <BR>received on December 16th 2004, when right after the
official launch of the <BR>Italian Creative Commons licenses a political
representative suggested CC <BR>Italia to help draft a new law that would
reflect the spirit and nature of <BR>the public domain through the opening of
the licenses of publicly funded <BR>work. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>"Scarichiamoli” initiative can be defined in a few
simple words:<BR>Everything that has been created with public funds and/or
public financial <BR>support should be placed under the public domain, and made
easily and openly <BR>accessible to everyone (wherever. possible
“downloadable”). </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The Internet, due to its nature, is a powerful
media on which communities <BR>and citizens can coordinate themselves and
transform their personal <BR>initiative in social, political, economic action.
<BR>Politicians are responsible to listening and transforming those instances in
<BR>real, tangible solutions.<BR>We are very pragmatical about this: we have an
initiative and we want our <BR>politicians to do their job: listen to us.<BR>As
initiatives like this will be more frequent in the near future, this is <BR>not
a simple "online petition", this is not a simple "civil protest": we <BR>want to
reach directly institutions and get them to look at this issue in <BR>the face.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In this direction, the exclusive rights relative to
intellectual work should <BR>expire the moment in whicht he work is
reproduced/replicated thanks to <BR>public financial support.<BR>To evaluate if
the work reproduced thanks to public financing can be <BR>utilized, it is
possible to adopt the "conditio sine qua non" <BR>criterion:intellectual work
can be reproduced/replicated if the work could <BR>have not been created without
that public financing.<BR>For example: if the state finances the production of a
film, that film <BR>should remain under the public domain.<BR>If the state pays
an author to create music, the musician should not be able <BR>to claim
royalties on the execution of that song. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>To share our knowledge freely: this is what we are
asking and this is what <BR>communities and citizens want as well. <BR>It’s
people’s will.<BR>Vox populi, Vox Dei (the voice of the people, the voice of
God); what people <BR>want in this respect is more than legitimate: it needs
only to be approved <BR>and formalized by the State.<BR>There are also many ways
and media through which this can be achieved: from <BR>the Internet to digital
TV.<BR>So what we are seeking is not just an upgrade to the European Copyright
law <BR>(related rights and patrimonial rights should be declined by authors
when <BR>they receive public financial support) but we also demand the creation
of a <BR>publicly accessible web portal through which music, art, cultural
artifacts <BR>and products of “our” knowledge can be made accessible under a
public domain <BR>license.<BR>This shall be a public clearinghouse entitled:
"Scarichiamoli" <BR>("Scarichiamoli" stands for "download them" but also means
"discard <BR>them"...you can guess who is going to be discarded...) and to
achieve this <BR>we invite the State to proactively engage and interact with
universities, <BR>foundations, associations. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>We strongly believe that public domain means
nothing without having true and <BR>effective public access.<BR>If you share the
goal of our initiative, please endorse us, we will be happy <BR>to honor your
support with a written mention.<BR>And if you want we will be happy to have you
collaborate with us. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>For further information please visit<BR><A
href="http://www.creativecommons.it/main.php?page=scarichiamoli">http://www.creativecommons.it/main.php?page=scarichiamoli</A>
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Best<BR>The "Commoners" of Creative Commons
Italia<BR></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>