Carbon Imprints

This exception has been celebrated as one of the most liberal and progressive clauses,that enables students in developing countries to overcome the increasingly expensive education costs,and engage in knowledge dialogues that are crucial to critical education. Photocopying has played a role in democratising knowledge and information. In 14th century England,during the pre-print culture days,scribes,who copied books by hand so that the manuscript could circulate,were held in high regard. The emergence of the printing press and mass access to copied forms of written knowledge is recognised as a dramatic moment for a transition from monarchy to democracy. The digital revolution has harnessed the power of copying,leading to Encyclopaedia Britannica shutting shop,even as crowd-sourced platforms like Wikipedia produce the sum total of all human knowledge for free access to those who desire it.

Despite this history,there has been a vested interest that has driven the new media moguls and information cartels to demonise the act of copying. The arguments around copying are always made in a tone of indignation,pretending to protect the rights of a poor struggling artist or an unfortunate author who is losing out on the millions that are lost in the act of copying,that is often labelled piracy. Like in the recent case in New Delhi,where three of the largest academic publishing houses have sued Delhi University and a photocopy service for Rs 60 lakh,claiming that their allowing students to copy library books and course packages,as well as selling photocopied text-books,leads to a colossal loss for them. Whether their arguments will be valid under the fair use exceptions or not is a question that the court will have to decide. In the meantime,it is necessary to realise that a ban on copying will not only continue to make education unaffordable to the non-elite,but also neglects the history of copying and its services to the world of knowledge.

It is also an indication of how,within the digital information societies,the role and function of knowledge has changed. As digital natives transform themselves into information junkies,freely producing,consuming,sharing and distributing information in their everyday life,there is an emergence of information as the new currency. This is the reason,why in recent history,acts of copying suddenly got identified as acts of piracy. It is propelled by the tension between naturalised modes of access to knowledge and the expectation of profits from knowledge industries. The publishers will have to choose between profits and readership and they will not be able to claim this on the behalf of an academic and research community that is ethically geared towards readership over profits.

This is not an attack on the publishing industry. Just like their attack is not on a small photocopying shop on the Delhi University campus. This is an exposition that recognises this tension in our current copy-paste cultures and a hope that these two positions of access and profit are not mutually exclusive and that there will be a way of building new knowledge industries that are simultaneously democratic and profitable. It is also a moment of reckoning,asking people who are defending the publisher,to raise their hand and say,I never copied in their own quest for education that has ironically enabled them to engage in this public dialogue.

digitalnativeexpressindia.com