Hm… this site is linking to FreeCulture.org:
http://www.russ.ru/culture/network/20040426.html
Putting it into Babelfish causes an error, so I can’t tell what the article is about. At least with languages that use Roman characters I can make some guesses as to what they’re saying. This Cyrillic alphabet is a pain in the butt. Can somebody who reads Russian check the page out and at least tell me what the gist of the article is and what kind of a site it’s on? Thanks a gazillion!
P.S. This Livejournal community also mentions us:
http://www.livejournal.com/community/za_lib_ru/58701.html
That works in Babelfish and I kind of get what’s going on. The poster makes an interesting point at the end, according to Babelfish: “American students are concerned, first of all, by access to the music and the films. In Russia The situation Is another: as it is assumed to the most reading people, on the agenda – the protection of right to reading. However it seems to us there is to what to learn in the Americans – both in the plan of line of reasoning and in the plan of organization.” The right to read! Richard Stallman talks about that! I’m not sure exactly what they mean by that though, it’s probably not what RMS means… do they mean they fear government censorship, and that’s why filesharing is important for them? Are they worried because they can’t buy books, so they’re anxious to find free learning/reading material online?
I’d like to contribute to the discussion, but of course I can’t. Can somebody who understands the scdc and FreeCulture.org go in there and make sure they understand who we are? One thing I would like to emphasize is that it really is an international student movement, and once we have some good, high-quality articles on the site in English, we will start up a wiki for each language, so that non-English-speakers can join in and help contribute.
Update: I posted about the results of my sleuthing in the brand spanking new freeculture community!
Re: I read the article
Gah! You tease… stop toying with me! 😉 What does the article say about us?
Outlines for the Russian text
Hi, This is Anatoly Volynets. I don’t want to subscribe, but hate anonymous speech.
The author, Tatyana Danilova
praises Free Culture for its stand for free culture, or, as she put it “against copyright metastasis”. She thinks Russians have to learn from Americans how to organize public to fight for public interest. She also thinks there is something to learn there how to conduct argument (this is a point I disagree with).
All other that remains regards Russian affairs. Regretfully, Russia has not refused copyright madness,” bowed to Western pressure and extended artistic work lock-in term to author’s life + 70 years in order to be accepted in the WTO. It is not enough though. US and others demand “effective” measures against “piracy” (I am afraid to imagine what can such measures cause on the Russian soil). Author thinks that Russian politicians gave up national cultural heritage, particularly right to read.