Discordianism and the concept of KopyLeft go hand in hand. Although just a small part of the counter-culture gestalt, I believe that the Principia Discordia was probably one of the earliest expressions and strongest champions of this idea, which has since seen such concepts as the "Open Source Software" initiative, with endeavors such as the Linux OS. Remember, if it's not KopyLeft, it's not Discordian. This concept is at Discordia's very heart, ye and its spleen, gonads and pineal gland. Or something. I remember stumbling across the Discordian internet site some meatboy had constructed and copyrighted - I laughed and laughed at the sad-arsed bastard. No doubt Eris will accordingly soften him sorely.
-The Rev. DrJon Swabey, from the intro to the Apocrypha Discordia
How do you guys feel about this? Should all Discordian works be KopyLeft? I like the idea that if I say something sort of cool, somebody else might take it, polish it up, and use it for something really cool. I feel that once an idea leaves your mouth, it's alive in a way you can no longer control.
I think that this notion of this is inherent to Discordia. There's a sort of zen-buddhism implied in Kopyleft. Kopyleft forces a detachment from any territorial stake in your ideas. It forces us to communicate and entertain each other in a way where we have little to personally gain - it's communication for communication's sake. Not for the market, not for the ego, not for the benjamins.
I think the Kopyleft principle is alive and well in this community. For example, we create a lot of our own channels of entertainment. We have a magazine, a radio station (coming soon!), and about a zillion pdfs, meme bombs, and miscellaneous marginalia. None of this would be possible if we weren't comfortable taking, breaking, remixing and replaying each other's work.
I think about the Meme Bomb thread, and how we have probably a half dozen "best of" collections. It's now difficult and unimportant to determine who said what. The vast majority of the meme bombs aren't creditable to a specific author without some dilligent searching. Most commonly, the meme bombs are attributed to the community - an interesting concept, to be sure! Is this ideological socialism? Is our communication better when there aren't any pissing contests about who controls what ideas?
Please note that I'm not trying to start a thread about the merits and flaws of the copyright system, or whether artists should get paid for their work. I'm interested in discussing the notion that Everything Discordian Should Be (K). What's your take on it?
