There appears to be a Big Disconnect in the free culture scene. My impression of free culture enthusiasts on the Euro-Indo scene is that they are very sincere in their idealism, but ranging from the blissfully naive to the doggedly over-optimistic about the real dynamics of the movement. On the U.S.U.K. scene, as most of you know, the very invocation of Collaboration, Community, Free Culture, Open Sharing, or Wiki-Work is likely to raise the hackled spectre of a well-earned cynicism. The Euro-Indo evangelists that I have known seem to be living in deep denial about the Fact Of Exploitation (FOE), and the fact that the free culture movement on the Western Front is already so subverted by the Usual Forces Of Exploitation that there is really no salvation for the motive ideal along the path of its current momentum.

There will have to be a reckoning … or death of the dream …

Jon Awbrey

I think the Euro-Indo folks are less acquainted with FreeKulture's older sister, libertarianism, than US/UK (OK really just US but UK folks do tend to understand US society/culture pretty well.) In Europe and the Subcontinent they are likely to hold on to notions that there is something progressive about free culture. After all it's "CopyLeft," right? But in the USA we are painfully aware of the societal damage a sustained barrage of libertarianism ideology can can on public institutions. The wiki claim of "collaboration" does not amount to working together on a common project for the good of all like a drive among neighbors to support a library. It is a sham in which a isolated individual actors guided by an "invisible hand" pursue their own interests. In the process they abandon all rights and control over their own work and put it at the disposal of anyone with the capital and infrastructure required to exploit the material.