[Politech] Textz.com owner accused of German copyright crimes [ip]

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Fri Mar 05 2004 - 06:08:54 PST

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    -------- Original Message --------
    Subject: textz.com, copyright, jail
    Date: Thu, 04 Mar 2004 15:47:50 +0100
    From: Sebastian Luetgert <sebastian@private>
    To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private>
    
    Dear Declan McCullagh,
    
    I am sending you this mail because I remember that, three years ago,
    you forwarded the "initial" rant from textz.com to politech (see
    http://www.politechbot.com/p-01816.html).
    
    Textz.com is currently involved in a (to say the least) interesting
    legal battle over the copyrights on two essays by the German
    philosopher Theodor W. Adorno, currently held by a foundation owned
    by a wealthy Hamburg philanthropist, Jan Philipp Reemtsma, who has
    obtained a warrant of arrest against the owner of textz.com (me).
    
    I have no idea whether this case is of any interest to your readers
    (it is currently stirring a lot of discussion in Germany, both in
    mainsteam press and more specialized publications, but that may be
    just because it is a very "German" case). I'm just sending you this
    to announce that I'm going to send, later today, some more
    information about the issue to a list of English-speaking friends,
    journalists, etc, and that this list includes you. Just to make
    sure it doesn't go *directly* to your spam folder...
    
    Best regards,
    Sebastian Luetgert
    textz.com
    Berlin/Germany
    
    
    
    
    
    
    -------- Original Message --------
    Subject: Textz.com: Copy Adorno, go to Jail?
    Date: Thu, 04 Mar 2004 21:13:49 +0100
    From: Sebastian Luetgert <sebastian@private>
    To: textz@private
    
    [Bcc: Daniel G. Andujar, Jeebesh Bagchi, Rachel Baker, Richard Barbrook, Sharon
      Ben-Joseph, Franco Berardi, Andy Bichlbaum, Franko Birkut, Zeljko Blace, Mike
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      Olia Liliana, Geert Lovink, Eva Mattes, Kobe Matthys, Declan McCullagh, Kevin
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      Sundaram, Klaus Theweleit, Alan Toner, Mark Tribe, Ulrike Uhlig, McKenzie Wark,
      Peter Weibel, Joseph Weizenbaum, Dirk de Wit]
    
    Dear all,
    
    some of you may already know about the issue, some of you may not. Textz.com --
    which, juridically, boils down to me -- is currently having a problem with two
    essays by Theodor W. Adorno. Their copyright holder -- a Hamburg foundation run
    by Jan Philipp Reemtsma, well-known theory collector and wealthy philanthropist
    who owns a big slice of Adorno and Benjamin -- has obtained a warrant of arrest
    against me, claiming textz.com has trespassed on their "intellectual property".
    The case has already stirred a bizarre controversy in German mainstream press,
    but I think that the issue deserves some more attention beyond just that.
    
    Attached is an open letter sent to the Hamburg foundation, as well as the press
    release textz.com has issued last week. The latter includes both a how-to that
    lists a few ways to support textz.com and a collection of links that point to
    some more background information, correspondence, press coverage, and the like.
    Most of it is archived at http://textz.com/adorno -- and since at least some of
    it is even quite funny, I hope that I'm not completely wasting your time.
    
    Best regards,
    Sebastian Luetgert
    textz.com
    Berlin, Germany
    
    
    ================================================================================
    
    
    Free Adorno, Free Benjamin
    
    An Open Letter to Jan Philipp Reemtsma, Regarding His "Intellectual Property"
    
    Jan Philipp Reemtsma
    Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Culture
    Mittelweg 36
    20148 Hamburg/Germany
    
    Dear Jan Philipp Reemtsma,
    
    you are a man of immense wealth - a wealth that is not limited to the material
    world, but stretches far into the realm of the intellectual. You have founded
    and are continuously funding a number of institutions and archives that claim to
    serve the public by advancing both scientific research and cultural expression.
    Today, we have to notify you that, just as your material riches are about to
    increase by another few thousand Euros, you have irrevocably lost the rights to
    some of your most precious pieces of "intellectual property".
    
    As you, as its president, must be aware of, the Hamburg Foundation for the
    Advancement of Science and Culture has sued - and obtained a preliminary
    injunction against - the owner of textz.com, who, according to your lawyers,
    Senfft, Kersten, Voss-Andreae and Schwenn, has caused your foundation damages of
    more than 2,300 Euros by making available for download two essays by Theodor W.
    Adorno. Even though textz.com, by never paying or even acknowledging these
    fictitious damages, has given you sufficient time to realize your mistake, you
    have filed for and obtained a warrant of arrest against the - still undefended -
    defendant.
    
    Jail time for copying Adorno: that's where you have crossed the line that
    separates ordinary copyright cases from extraordinary tales of copyright madness
    - despite, and maybe just because, the formal correctness of your procedure. As
    an "intellectual proprietor" of Theodor W. Adorno and Walter Benjamin, you
    should be aware of the power that still emanates from their works: a negative,
    dialectical, weak and historical power that stretches far beyond the reach of
    any court of law, and that it impossible to contain in any of your archives.
    "Intellectually", Adorno and Benjamin will always escape the idea of becoming
    commodities, and their works, even as the private property they have become,
    have a peculiar tendency to vanish the very moment you try to get hold of them.
    
    The question of "intellectual property" is not if the producers of creative
    works should be denied their right to material reproduction through their
    creative work, or if the temporary owners of such works should be hung by the
    guts of their lawyers. The question of "intellectual property" is when it will
    finally be acknowledged that the people have a universal right to the
    reappropriation of the means of production, that creative works - however
    privatized and commodified they may have become - are a such means of
    production, and that their reproduction ist a fundamental and fully legitimate
    form of production itself.
    
    Even confronted with today's draconic laws against digital reproduction - the
    state of permanent emergency and institutionalized panic that is the "war
    against piracy" - people have never ceased to copy, paste, modify, save, upload,
    download, print and share digital data. In the case of "intellectual property",
    the power of the factual exceeds by far the power of the law. The people are
    perfectly aware of the historical fact that no law is ever just given. Law is
    created though factual struggle, and it erodes through factual struggle. Thus,
    the critique of "intellectual property" cannot remain individual, sporadic, and
    theoretical - it has to become swarming, massively parallel, and practical.
    
    We are glad to announce that, effective today, every single work by Adorno and
    Benjamin that you claim as your "intellectual property" has become part of the
    very public domain that had granted you these copyrights in the first place. Of
    course they will not be available instantly, and of course we will not publish
    them ourselves - but you can take our word that they will be out, in countless
    locations and formats, and that not even a legion of lawyers will manage to get
    them back. Maybe it helps if you think of your "intellectual property" as a
    genie, and of your foundation as a bottling business.
    
    We like non-fiction, and we live in fictitious times. We live in a time where we
    have fictitious "intellectual property" laws that serve fictitious copyright
    holders. We live in a time where we have fictitious private institutions that
    are going to war against piracy for fictitious reasons. Whether it's the fiction
    of rights management or the fiction of intellectual theft - we are against this
    war, Mr. Reemtsma. Shame on you, Mr. Reemtsma, shame on you. And any time you
    got the Arts and the Sciences against you, your time is up.
    
    Thank you very much,
    
    The Berlin Foundation for the Advancement of Production and Reproduction
    
    a.k.a.
    A.S.Ambulanzen
    Berlin/Germany
    February 24, 2004
    
    P.S.: We know that German Neo-Fascists have attacked you numerous times for the
    exhibition on the crimes of the German Wehrmacht, curated by your Hamburg
    Institute for Social Research, and that they continue to defame you as the "heir
    of a tobacco company", which not only, and in the first place, perfectly fits an
    anti-semitic cliché, but also resonates, in many of these defamations, with
    hints to your "personal responsability for the death of millions of smokers".
    Please be assured that - even though we don't share your opinion that said
    exhibition was a "success", and even though tobacco may be just another
    commodity that kills - we, as a group of smokers who know the Germans and their
    history, are on your side, no matter what, in defense of society against
    Fascism. If you side with us in defense of wealth against scarcity is an
    entirely different question - but we bet that one day you will.
    
    
    ================================================================================
    
    
    Copy 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
    legal 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 is seriously wrong on a whole number
    of points. 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.
    
    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.
    We're just at the beginning.
    
    Textz.com
    February 24, 2004
    
    http://textz.com
    mailto:textz@private
    
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    How you can support textz.com:
    
    - Spread the word. Tell your friends, tell 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 press@private
    
    - Sign our petition at http://textz.com/adorno/petition.html.
    
    - 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 textz@private
    
    - Donate to textz.com via http://textz.com/adorno/donate.html.
    
    - Buy 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 "Free 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 this case.
    
    - Select all, copy, paste, save, upload, share. Reappropriate. (And remember:
       there is no need to break what you can circumvent. Don't innovate, imitate.)
    
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    Related links:
    
    Documentation of our correnspondence:
    http://textz.com/adorno/documentation.de.txt
    http://textz.com/adorno/documentation.en-babelfish.txt
    
    Press coverage:
    http://textz.com/adorno/press.de.txt
    http://textz.com/adorno/press.en-babelfish.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 "intellectual property":
    http://textz.com/kafka
    
    Textz.com mission statement, early 2001:
    http://textz.com/concept
    
    What others 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 freeing Adorno, please free the Grey Album too:
    http://textz.com/greyalbum/greyalbum.html
    
    
    	
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