Begin forwarded message:
> From: "textz.com" <
textz@textz.org>
> Date: February 24, 2004 12:29:09 PM EST
> To: "textz.com" <
textz@textz.org>
> Subject: <
textz.com> copy adorno, go to jail?
>
> 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.
> The spectre haunting the scientific and cultural industries is a new
> commons
> materializing before their very own eyes. We're just at the beginning.
>
>
Textz.com> February 24, 2004
>
>
http://textz.com> mailto:textz@textz.org
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> 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@textz.org.
>
> - 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@textz.org.
>
> - 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.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>