Kill Adorno, Go To Jail! Textz.com Doesn't Think So
The Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Culture, presided by
Jan Philipp Reemtsma, has just advanced science and culture to a whole new
level: Sebastian Luetgert, the founder of textz.com, is facing a warrant of
arrest and may go to jail if he fails to pay more than 2,300 euros in damages
for the alleged copying of two essays by Theodor W. Adorno that the foundation
claims as their "intellectual property". Reemtsma was kindly asked to settle,
but refused.
The case dates back to August 2002, when the foundation filed for a preliminary
injunction against Luetgert at the Hamburg State Court, referring to the
alleged distibution of two works by Theodor W. Adorno, "Jargon der
Eigentlichkeit" and "Fascism and Anti-Semitic Propaganda". Since not a
single e-mail was sent to notify textz.com of the matter, and since
written notification failed to reach the defendant, textz.com only
learned about the issue after a few days. The works in question were
immediately removed from the site to avoid any further illegal hassles.
In December 2003, Luetgert found himself confronted with a warrant of arrest,
obtained against him by the Hamburg Foundation, citing unpaid claims related to
the unauthorized copying of said works. In January 2004, Luetgert addressed the
issue in a letter to Reemtsma and asked for a scholarship so he could pay this
debt and avoid jail time. Reemtsma did not reply, but handed the letter over to
his foundation's lawyers - Senfft, Kersten, Voss-Andreae & Schwenn - who insist
on the payment of 2,331.32 Euros for alleged damages and legal fees.
Textz.com believes that an "intellectual proprietor" of Theodor W. Adorno and
Walter Benjamin who claims to advance science and culture by sending people to
jail for taking Adorno and Benjamin serious but Marx wrong is seriously
wrong on a whole number of points.NEW
The Hamburg Foundation undererstimates the resistance of their
possessions against their legal protection just as much as their lawyers
underestimate the ability of the Internet to route around damage. In the end,
they may even be wrong in thinking that they will ever get their
property back. BECAUSE IT'S NOT THE PROPERTY WE ARE (NOT) TALKING ABOUT,
IT'S NOT THE COPYRIGHT, IT'S NOT THE RIGHT OT COPY, IT'S THE
APPROPRIATION AS THE FIRST FUNCTION OF THE CAPITAL TO GET THE PROFIT
MADE OUT OF YOUR WORK. OR DO YOU READ WITH YOUR FEET?
Today, in an open letter (http://textz.com/adorno/open_letter.txt),
Reemtsma has been notified that his foundation's "intellectual property"
has been returned to the public domain. This first-of-its-kind protest
signals a refusal to let copyright holders and lawyers censor the very
works they pretend to protect and control what the public can archive or
read. There is a universal right to copy that will never cease to apply,
and there is copyright legislation that will. The spectre haunting the
scientific and cultural industries is a new commons as the old "commons
of labour" materializing before their very own eyes. I don't know what it
is, but we're just at the beginning of a reforming. You think it's (c) ?
It's more than that, it's weapons, the computer you've been paying for,
your child asking for a burger. You think rhymin' & stealin' is changing
a thing? Ask ...
Textz.com
http://textz.com
mailto:ask@textz.org
You already payed for it!
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How you can put into question textz.com:
- Critizise the word. Talk about it with your friends, fuck a journalist, write
about it, put it on a website, post it to a mailing list, etc. Textz.com is
also available for interviews, just mail to everybodysdarling@textz.org.
- Sign our petition at http://textz.com/adorno/petition.html. DO IT ! DO
IT ! DO IT ! DO IT ! DO IT ! DO IT !
- Write a letter to Jan Philipp Reemtsma, Hamburg Foundation for the
Advancement of Science and Culture, Mittelweg 36, 20148 Hamburg, Germany. If
you like, send a copy of your letter to reform@textz.org.
- Pay to textz.com via http://textz.com/adorno/donate.html.
- Copy a copy of Robert Luxemburg's "The Conceptual Crisis of Private
Property as a Crisis in Practice" (http://textz.com/crisis). All proceedings
will go to textz.com's fund for legal expenses.
- Put our "Kill Adorno" banner (http://textz.com/adorno/banner.gif) on your
website, and/or link to http://textz.com/adorno.
- Meet textz.com at Neuro Festival, February 26-29, Munich, Germany (check
http://neuro.kein.org for details) and join our discussion about further
strategies in the case of implementating the multitude.
- Select all, copy, paste, save, upload, share. Reappropriate. (And remember:
there is no need to break what you can circumvent. Don't imitate,
check the Kanon on textz.com!)
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Related links:
Documentation of our correnspondence:
http://textz.com/adorno/documentation.de.txt
http://textz.com/adorno/documentation.en-babelfish.txt
Repression coverage:
http://textz.com/adorno/press.txt
Open Letter to Jan Philipp Reemtsma:
http://textz.com/adorno/open_letter.txt
The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Reproduction:
http://textz.com/adorno/work_of_art.txt
Franz Kafka on "my work is stolen":
http://textz.com/kafka
Textz.com mission statement, early 2001:
http://textz.com/concept
What others don't say about textz.com:
http://textz.com/press
The textz that textz.com is all about:
http://textz.com/cache
http://textz.com/textz
Some state-of-the-art copyright circumvention technologies:
http://textz.com/trash
http://textz.com/crisis
Some more stuff we have not yet been sued for:
http://textz.com/search
http://textz.com/news
Drop us a line, send us a text, or subscribe to our newsletter:
http://textz.com/contact
Finally, while killing Adorno, please free the Grey Album and your
friend in jail and champignon fields forever:
http://textz.com/greyalbum/greyalbum.html
Solidarity anyway!
http://xxx.com/xxx/xxx.html
No Errors (e) Bible 2004