I am a Creative Commonist

Flag T.16852I guess you could say that I am a card carrying Creative Commonist. I just ordered the T-Shirt, so that makes it official. I also downloaded the CopyLeft Desktop – ahhhh shucks – i feel like such a GROUPIE! The name Creative Commonist popped up last week in response to Bill Gate’s suggestion that those who seek to enhance traditional copyright laws are “communists”. Bloggers were quick to respond that they were actually “Creative Commonists”, a reference to the Creative Commons license that many of us have been using to allow the re-usage of our material within reasonable guidelines. T-shirts with a Copyleft symbol and a Russian theme were created by BoingBoing’s Xeni to give us all another piece of blogging cultural capital.

CommiesWhy did i buy the T-shirt? ( I am not suggesting you buy one.) Because in my heart of hearts i am totally committed to the sharing of valuable resources in an open source way. The Bible much has much to say on generosity and Jesus told us to freely give because we have freely received.

Freely1

I made up my own little image here – based on what Jesus said. I am not saying that Jesus was into copyleft philosophy or would be a promoter of Creative Commons. Or even blogs. Nor am i slamming the traditional copyright system or the market economy.

What I am saying, rather, that I view Jesus’s words about sharing what does not belong to us (none of us owns the gospel) as highly appropriate to the current situation. Spiritual truth is given to us and it must be shared with others who need it. We dare not get rich off it. We are entrusted with the gospel, it is not our property. It belongs to everyone. I have more thoughts on the gift economy here.

Our spiritual walk should radically change the way we view money, and it should be no surprise if we seek to bring about justice and fairness and generosity in the economic systems of our world. Gift giving should characterize the emerging church. Amen?

Thats why this blog is free.

Thats why my articles are all free.

Thats why I have never “charged” a speaking fee in 20 years of conferences.

Thats why I bought the T-shirt . .

. . . . and also because it looks cool and may one day be an historical place marker for open source publishing.

Andrew

Andrew Jones launched his first internet space in 1997 and has been teaching on related issues for the past 20 years. He travels all the time but lives between Wellington, San Francisco and a hobbit home in Prague.

10 Comments

  • I think this post warrants a fresh (re)reading of II Corinthians chapters 8 & 9 where Paul exhorts and encourages the Corinthian church in their giving and generosity.
    It’s a shame that Karl Marx seemed in many ways to have a better grasp for the social implications of this truth than the church at large over the last 150 years. Apparently Mr. Gates needs to ponder this as well…

  • willzhead says:

    TallSkinnyKiwi Is A Commonist

    Andrew Jones comes clean today, admitting that he is a Creative Commonist. I always suspected that guy was up to something. (smile)

  • graham says:

    That T-shirt would sell loads in Christian stores! :o)

  • Josh Street says:

    For those wondering about the image Andrew made, here’s the correct URL:
    http://tallskinnykiwi.typepad.com/tallskinnykiwi/images/freely1.jpg

  • Andrew Jones says:

    thanks Josh
    i didnt realize i screwed up – i just corrected the html with the right link – much appreciated.

  • Xrossblog says:

    Ich bin doch nicht ganz allein 😉

    Hab’ mal wieder bei Andrew Jones reingeschaut. Mal wieder hört sich an, als würde ich das regelmäßig machen, war aber bisher erst zwei Mal da. Aber ich glaube, den werd ich in mein Blogroll aufnehmen, denn der Typ ist mir gleich Sympatisch geworde…

  • daniel says:

    hey, could you email me saying where you got the tshirt from? its great 🙂 can you buy it online? thanks 😀

  • wolf simson says:

    Andrew, what percentage do you get for anyone buying the tshirt?
    Wolf

  • andrew says:

    nothing wolf
    but if i had another, i would send you one.

  • Micah says:

    Every single Creative Commons license requires attribution. Is there something wrong about requiring attribution? Should attribution be freely given/accepted rather than required?

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