Sadly, this holiday season the United Nations released a study indicating that 2014 is among the worst years on record for the world’s children. Chronicled in the report is another disturbing history of war and state violence.

An estimated 230 million children currently live in political territories subjected to violent conflict. The executive director of UNICEF, Anthony Lake, as reported by the New York Times, states: “Children have been killed while studying in the classroom and while sleeping in their beds … They have been orphaned, kidnapped, tortured, recruited, raped and even sold as slaves.”

As we reflect on this year of violence, imagine alternatives and act for social change perhaps we may revisit an age-old political ideology as liberating, co-operative and peaceful as it is misunderstood. The rich political tradition to which I refer is anarchism.

In popular circles the word anarchism has come to mean complete disorder or chaos — a state of perpetual violence. This is unfortunate as liberty rejects violent coercion. Anarchic practitioners advocate highly ordered societies rooted in the principles of free association, mutual aid and cooperative labor.

This libertarian idea is deeply ingrained in the human spirit. Labor organizer Rudolph Rocker describes anarchism as “a definite trend in the historic development of mankind” which, “strives for the free unhindered unfolding of all the individual and social forces in life.”

This is my favorite description of anarchism. Liberty is not a doctrine, but rather a praxis innate to human thought and action — the underlying principle being that one should always challenge authority and dismantle unjustifiable concentrations of power. The result is a more libertarian relationship between people and their institutions. Anarchism is thus a human phenomenon.

When feminist movements organize for women’s agency over their own bodies and life without fear of violence, we see anarchism.

We see anarchism in Mexico as the population seeks liberation from violent drug cartels, complacent government and oppressive state policies.

We see anarchism in prisons as inmates band together in these dehumanizing institutions to demand living conditions free of violence and sexual battery.

We see anarchism in war-torn regions of the world where individuals risk their lives to save innocent victims of the drone strikes and barrel bombs of oppressive regimes.

We see anarchism in towns and neighborhoods challenging the monopoly of violence held by the police.

We see anarchism in movements that seek the protection of wilderness areas and native lands from the clutches of extractive industries and the iron fist of capital.

We find anarchism in the new technology and falling communications costs that allow all of us to craft markets and labor together free of regulatory restriction.

We see anarchism in our everyday social interactions — telling our family and friends we love them and being kind to strangers.

These are but a few examples. Anarchism is everywhere.

Human action counters systems of power and domination. We have witnessed movements rise against all the bad that has happened this year at the whims of the powerful. This is our age-old tale: History is a race between state power and social power.

So, in the spirit of the season, let us decide to embrace liberty. Let us no longer follow the whims of those who wish to command and control society. Instead, let us labor to coordinate and cultivate the free societies and communities we wish to live.

It is in anarchic order that we see everything humanity can be. Peace on Earth and goodwill toward all are not mutually exclusive — peace IS goodwill. It is our inclined labor that reminds us we can and will build a peace that makes life on Earth worth living — a peace for every child of humanity. When that’s accomplished we will know freedom; such grandeur is only attainable in liberty.

Le leggi sulla proprietà intellettuale comprendono i brevetti, i diritti d’autore e i marchi commerciali. Da qualche decennio ad oggi le imprese americane, soprattutto quelle ad alto contenuto tecnologico, hanno preso a dipendere sempre di più da queste leggi per proteggere i “loro profitti”: l’impresa prende il capitale mentre il lavoro individuale raramente riceve una ricompensa. Nota la Reuters, inoltre, che questo aumento delle cause legali è il prodotto di differenze tra le sentenze dei giudici costituzionali e le sentenze di una corte d’appello specializzata con sede a Washington che si occupa dei casi di brevetto a livello nazionale; su alcuni punti chiave le due parti non hanno raggiunto un accordo. Tenete conto del fatto che una sentenza sulla proprietà intellettuale può avere vaste conseguenze sulla società: il genoma umano e i vaccini dovrebbero essere brevettati o possono rimanere risorsa comune? Io propendo per quest’ultima. Ma l’industria farmaceutica investe molti soldi e molte energie politiche a favore di una forte protezione dei brevetti, così da poter proteggere il suo “diritto” multimilionario ad incassare una rendita su un monopolio inventato.

Se poi le cause legali che riguardano la PI sono aumentate è anche perché questa restringe l’ambito dell’attività umana e l’innovazione.

Le cause aumentano perché la libertà è la nuova etica: creative commons è qui per restare. La rivoluzione tecnologica generata dall’open source sta emergendo davanti ai nostri occhi con il suo tema della decentralizzazione, costringendo lo status quo a cambiare, e questo agli interessi particolari non piace. Per nostra fortuna il mondo è anarchico. La rivoluzione stigmergica lavora per vie traverse attorno alle gerarchie tradizionali e il loro potere di coercizione: il vecchio ordine (per quanto ci provi) non riesce a stare dietro.

Quello che vediamo è forza sociale in azione. In questa nuova pubblica piazza le corti, il potere legislativo e gli interessi particolari sono impotenti. Il mercato così liberato non è interessato alla proprietà delle idee, ma al progresso, all’innovazione e alla collaborazione nel lavoro. Il colonialismo corporativo ha i giorni contati.

Se si vuole liberare la società le idee non devono avere padroni. Una volta che queste finiscono nel mercato, chiunque dovrebbe essere libero di aggiungervi le proprie conoscenze e mandarne avanti la realizzazione pratica. Questo significa semplicemente massimizzare le capacità innovative dell’attività umana. Le migliori realizzazioni pratiche dovrebbero essere lasciate libere di svilupparsi. La PI, con le leggi che riconoscono la “proprietà” dell’informazione, restringe il potenziale creativo e innovativo della popolazione in senso ampio. Le leggi sulla PI servono a proteggere il capitale a spese dei lavoratori dotati di talento. Le idee sono uno strumento potente, fondamentale, in una società libera; e non dovrebbero essere ingabbiate dall’attivismo legalistico.

Grazie alle nuove tecnologie, oggi informazione e idee si diffondono senza restrizioni. L’attività umana ha un nuovo management: l’individuo. L’uso dei tribunali per privatizzare le idee e proibire il libero flusso delle informazioni è un credo che appartiene al passato; ecco perché è emerso creative commons. Il mercato va sempre alla ricerca della libertà, perché l’attività umana opera per l’avanzamento reciproco di tutte le parti della società.

L’attività umana dotata di talento, libera, è il motore che fa andare una società libera. L’ordine anarchico sta emergendo. Mentre seppelliamo la proprietà intellettuale reclamiamo il nostro potere sul bene comune.

Traduzione di Enrico Sanna.

“What we are seeing is social power at work. The courts, legislature and special interests are powerless in the new public arena. The liberated market is not interested in the ownership of ideas, but rather progress, innovation and co-operative labor. The days of corporate colonialism are numbered.”

IP law includes patents, copyright and trademarks. In recent decades U. S. businesses, especially those in the technology industry, have become increasingly dependent upon them to protect “their profits” — business gets the capital, individual labor is rarely rewarded. Reuters also reports that this rise in litigation is the product of differences between rulings by the justices and the findings of a specialized Washington-based appeals court, which handles the nation’s patent cases, because they have failed to reach consensus on some key issues. Keep in mind, rulings on IP can have wide-ranging consequences for society — should the human genome or vaccines be patented or remain common pool resources? I think the latter. The pharmaceutical industry, however, spends a lot of money and political energy on IP, favoring strong patents to protect its multi-million dollar “right” to collect rent on a manufactured monopoly.

Another reason for the sudden rise in IP litigation is because IP restricts human labor and innovation.

Litigation is up in the courts because liberty is the new ethic – the creative commons are here to stay. The open source, technological revolution emerging before our very eyes around the globe, with its theme of decentralization, is forcing a change of the status quo — and special interests don’t like it. Lucky for us, the world is anarchic. The stigmergic revolution works around traditional hierarchies and coercive power — the old order (try as it might) cannot keep up.

What we are seeing is social power at work. The courts, legislature and special interests are powerless in the new public arena. The liberated market is not interested in the ownership of ideas, but rather progress, innovation and co-operative labor. The days of corporate colonialism are numbered.

For a society to be liberated its ideas cannot be owned. Once in the market others should be free to add their knowledge to a concept and advance its practice. This does nothing but maximize the innovative capacity of human labor.  Best practices should be free to develop. IP restricts the creative, innovative potential of the populace as these laws allow the “ownership” of information. IP laws serve to protect capital at the expense of inclined labor. Ideas are powerful and fundamental to a free society — they should not be caged by legal activism.

Today, due to new tech, information and ideas are free to spread without restriction. Human labor is under new management — the individual now has agency. The use of courts to privatize ideas and prohibit the free flow of information is an aging creed — hence the rise of creative commons. The market always seeks liberation as human labor always works for the mutual advancement of society.

Inclined, liberated human labor is the engine behind free societies. The anarchic order is emerging. By leaving IP behind we are reclaiming our power in the commons.

Translations for this article:

• Italian, Proprietà Comune, Potere Comune.