Cultural Appropriation and Decommodification LLC.

[The Rod]

Burning Man Culture...



So Decommodification LLC is the corporation that owns the copyrights and intellectual property crap. BMORG pays to rent these or whatever. They're suing some guy because his Canada-based non profit was named Burn BC.

The rules around words and logos are relatively straight forward in the language of the law, and the huge corporation can afford a lot of expensive lawyers.

But what about when it is about culture? Who can own a culture? The answer to this is arbitrary and subjective. We keep getting into intellectual and ethical pissing matches over war bonnets. And there's the raging debates over commodification and de-commodivawhetever and the effects of safari camps on 'our culture'. However, we rarely argue about what is and isn't illegal.*

So what happens when the Corporation that owns the names and words and logos we use to describe our culture claims exclusive rights to these words? These commodities of a culture of decommodifiction. Are they claiming ownership of this culture? They created it? It's theirs?


What the fuck is Burning Man Culture anyways? Maybe 'the culture' that exists at Burning Man isn't actually 'Burning Man Culture'.. Maybe this culture needs some new words to describe itself?


Thoughts, comments and concerns are welcome...


*besides arguing about whether or not things should be illegal

[some seeing eye]

BM is a cult owned by a guru. 98% of the work is done by the followers who pay to do the work. All burners are equal, but some burners are more equal than others (Orwell). The principles are platitudes to guide the culture, but they are not absolutes. So get what you need out of it in exchange for what you decide to put in. Obvious.

"Burning Man culture" are the works of the guru's followers to which they have limited rights. The things you bring to the event do not become owned by the event, and you can not use the event to promote those things outside without an agreement. Burning Man culture is open source for non-commercial individual use.

Burn BC is an exact copy of BM operating in competition for 4 years with the Vancouver regional. They would be smarter to pick a different name and non-infringing language for what they are doing rather than being the victim.

[GreyCoyote]

+1000. See SSM's thoughts above.

[BBadger]

You might be confusing trademark protection with patent holding. Whereas the latter is often used to stifle competitors and extract money from people and companies, the former is more about protecting consumers from source confusion.

With patents, the patent holder has rights to an idea and can prevent others from utilizing that idea, and also sue infringers. This would be like trying to shut down any festival that involved burning an effigy as its main attraction. The LLC is not doing this. Instead, they're protecting the term "Burn" and other things -- in the context of festivals -- so that it doesn't get confused with those who might try to hijack the terms/symbols for their own purposes. Protecting trademarks is generally a good thing, and unlike patents, you're required to actively prevent infringement, lest the trademark become diluted.

Were trademarks such as "Burn", the Man logo, etc. not protected, they could be used by anyone, including companies, to brand themselves as involved with the Burning Man event. It would mean there would be no protections against anyone abusing such terminology, even maliciously.

As for the culture, just because someone owns the trademarks for an event doesn't mean they "own the culture" surrounding the event. They're just protecting the symbols/words associated with the culture, and your ability to connect those symbols to the event. We all (even unknowningly) benefit from the trademarks. Whenever we speak of "burning" or a "burn" festival, we know it is associated with something involving the bona fide Burning Man. Otherwise, anyone could use the term for whatever festival of any kind they're holding with impunity.

[Ratty]

Many years ago I opened an auto parts store and the telephone co. refused to hook me up. The name of the store was 'The Boltswagon Shop'. They said it sounded too much like volkswagen. At that time you couldn't use Bug, Beetle, VW or their logo. I eventually got a phone.

[some seeing eye]

Hey A-RockLeFrench, we enjoy your posts! Don't give up. Maybe there is a way to make the yoga festival in Ashland into your dream festival (or become its guru)? Especially now that CC/F300 will probably be offering luxury tours of the other NW Yoga festivals.

Decommodification LLC is held by Larry & Co and presumably makes revenue into perpetuity licensing BM trademarks. It is an to be announced to be transferred to the non-profit in the future. The stated purpose in delaying the transfer was to "not invest blind faith in the new non-profit’s [board's] workings, and we want to be perfectly sure that it can be relied upon, in the face of temptations that arise within any organization ['s board] when dealing with power or money".

So I would focus energy on lobbying the founders to corral the new board within the original principles. Did not work so well this year, IMO.

Burn BC tried to register a bunch of BM trademarks in Canada and were blocked by Decommodification. Now in 2014 Decommodification is registering BM trademarks in Canada, presumably worldwide to extract royalties from the regionals.

[Lonesomebri]

Without proper trademark protection, just imagine, some unscrupulous con-man could capitalize on the Burn, claim to run, say, The Burning Man Project, or some other ludicrously named scam. They could solicit workers and clients by abusing this perceived connection to the Burning Man culture. Before you know it, they would be setting up boutique hotels on the outer fringe of BRC, mangling the principles along the way, selling outrageous promises, totally corrupting the entire event. Just another money-making scam. And then the apologist would flock to their defense, and before you know it, the Burning Man culture could be compromised. No one wants to see this happen.

[The Rod]

Hey A-RockLeFrench, we enjoy your posts! Don't give up. Maybe there is a way to make the yoga festival in Ashland into your dream festival (or become its guru)? Especially now that CC/F300 will probably be offering luxury tours of the other NW Yoga festivals.

Gee... Thanks! As far as that yoga festival... yeah, I'm OK leaving that one where it is, like Ashland needs more gurus...

I'd think in order for BM to be a full fledged cult there'd have to be some sort of spiritual dogma or indoctrination or something.

I'm just fascinated with the topics of cultural appropriation and general public griping about the way people in positions (perceived or otherwise) of power and authority fuck things up or fuck other people over. Thought this topic might be a good bridge. "The Assholes in Charge are Appropriating the Culture That Isn't Theirs!" Apparently not.


Apparently the verdict is in. They own the words. But not the culture. They did not create it, they just provided the venue and trademarked it. If you want to throw an event and hope to attract 'the culture' you'd better do it the way they want you to or you cannot call it by any name they control...

Like, I want to rent a big field for a weekend, invite some theme camps and artists, build a big effigy and then burn it on Saturday night. I'll build a stage and host rock and roll acts. Fine, but I can't call it Rock Burn. Because the folks who trademarked the B word in the first place want to protect 'the culture' from assholes like me who could, potentially tarnish the good name of Burn with whatever shit show I come up with? The whole thing makes me tired..

good night.

[GreyCoyote]

Like, I want to rent a big field for a weekend, invite some theme camps and artists, build a big effigy and then burn it on Saturday night. I'll build a stage and host rock and roll acts. Fine, but I can't call it Rock Burn. Because the folks who trademarked the B word in the first place want to protect 'the culture' from assholes like me who could, potentially tarnish the good name of Burn with whatever shit show I come up with?

Well, turn the effigy into a big bonfire, the R&R acts into something more historical, and you just nailed the Texas Ren Fest. And yes, everyone looks forward to the nightly Burn!

But somehow I think Larry, Inc wont be tangling with the Rennies. Its that bit about burning the Man that seems to be the lightning rod for litigation...

[kiboy]

BM is a cult owned by a guru. 98% of the work is done by the followers who pay to do the work. All burners are equal, but some burners are more equal than others (Orwell). The principles are platitudes to guide the culture, but they are not absolutes. So get what you need out of it in exchange for what you decide to put in. Obvious.

I'm taking your advice.

[kiboy]

Hey A-RockLeFrench, we enjoy your posts! Don't give up. Maybe there is a way to make the yoga festival in Ashland into your dream festival (or become its guru)? Especially now that CC/F300 will probably be offering luxury tours of the other NW Yoga festivals.

Gee... Thanks! As far as that yoga festival... yeah, I'm OK leaving that one where it is, like Ashland needs more gurus...

I'd think in order for BM to be a full fledged cult there'd have to be some sort of spiritual dogma or indoctrination or something.

I'm just fascinated with the topics of cultural appropriation and general public griping about the way people in positions (perceived or otherwise) of power and authority fuck things up or fuck other people over. Thought this topic might be a good bridge. "The Assholes in Charge are Appropriating the Culture That Isn't Theirs!" Apparently not.


Apparently the verdict is in. They own the words. But not the culture. They did not create it, they just provided the venue and trademarked it. If you want to throw an event and hope to attract 'the culture' you'd better do it the way they want you to or you cannot call it by any name they control...

Like, I want to rent a big field for a weekend, invite some theme camps and artists, build a big effigy and then burn it on Saturday night. I'll build a stage and host rock and roll acts. Fine, but I can't call it Rock Burn. Because the folks who trademarked the B word in the first place want to protect 'the culture' from assholes like me who could, potentially tarnish the good name of Burn with whatever shit show I come up with? The whole thing makes me tired..

good night.

Dood are you in Ashland? I'll keep an eye out for ya.

[The Rod]

I'm way out in Williams. But I do come to Ashland twice a week on my delivery route. Do keep an eye out: Bleach blonde mullet and handlebar mustache. Pretty hard to miss.

[kiboy]

check your PMs

[5280MeV]

What the fuck is Burning Man Culture anyways? Maybe 'the culture' that exists at Burning Man isn't actually 'Burning Man Culture'.. Maybe this culture needs some new words to describe itself?

I dunno - it always seemed to be more of an activity to me. Somehow every activity that is even mildly expressive or creative gets called a culture: Heavy Metal Culture, Surfer Culture, Football Culture, Burning Man Culture, and so on...

If you want to stay off of Larry and Co's legal turf, drop the "Man" part and call it "Burner Culture". As far as I know, the only things that are trademarked are as follows:

The names "Burning Man", "Black Rock City", and "Decompression", as well as the Burning Man symbol, the design of the Man, the design of the city’s lampposts, and the city layout design are all protected by trademark law. They may not be used for any commercial purposes whatsoever without obtaining written permission from Black Rock City LLC. In order to preserve the “Man” image for use in gifting and as an affinity symbol for our culture, we do not license this image to third parties for commercial or outside purposes.

http://www.burningman.com/press/trademarks.html

That and any images or accounts of whatever goes on inside that pentagonal region in the Black Rock Desert for the week may kinda-sorta belong to Larry.

As far as the "culture" goes, my studies indicate that it existed long before the three architects of the Man were invited to join in Zone Trip #4. People had been building beach bonfires, both on Baker Beach and other areas, and people still do. There had been other small art sculpture shows on the playa, and there are still other weird events outside of Burning Man. The whole culture of self-expression and making your own little performance was already there, and in the bay area the Suicide Club and later the Cacophony Society were doing these little events.

Larry Harvey, Jerry James, and later Mike Acker designed the iconic man to burn every year on the beach. Jerry and Mike are professional carpenters. The biggest thing that I have built only got up to about 20' - the man design is actually pretty awesome in my book both in terms of structure and fire art. If you naively build something that size and shape, then douse it in kerosene, you will find that it just burns for 10 minutes and then kinda goes out. It is also pretty hard to build something on that scale that you can erect without a telehandler.

John Law was one of the Zone Trip organizers with the Cacophony Society, and he did neon sign work. He put the neon tubes on the man, and then you had a piece of artowrk that was by any standard pretty damn interesting.

So the whole thing was primed with a community of experimental artists doing strange things, and a big iconic piece of artwork to bind everyone together like moths to a giant bug-light that would explode at the end of the week. This really ignited things, and the festival doubled in size every year until 1996 when it finally ended in disaster with a gargantuan mess on the playa, multiple fatalities, broken friendships, and many of the original organizers leaving the project.

I think that what Larry and the remaining organizers created in 1997 was actually a different festival, one with a city design, rules, regulations - something that in many ways probably went against the spirit of the old Zone Trip. But this thing they made is pretty incredible - and it works.

The city is a magic artifact, a giant fresnel lens that once a year focuses an unnaturally large amount of weird festive energy into a small space and time. It defies the normal laws of event planning. People come from all over the world not just to see what is going on, but to dump huge amounts of energy into building things and volunteering to run the device, which implodes on itself like clockwork in a flash of perfectly orchestrated chaos.

I don't think that anyone really knows how to build a copy of such a device or entirely why it works. In 2004 Larry wrote down principles and outlined a system for trying to build your own - but the design is owned by Larry so you have to play by Larry's rules. I have been doing regionals for three years and I think that it kinda-sorta works, and it kinda-sorta doesn't. You really need some sort of a desert, and I think that is why AfrikaBurn seems to have been able to hit a level of artwork and energy that I don't see in smaller events. But those smaller events are really a blast to be a part of, and making a notable contribution to them is much more accessible, especially if you don't live on the west coast.

----------------------------------------

The key here is that you can be a burner and do your burner stuff wherever you want. I realized that one day when I started making little effigies and having little gatherings to burn them in theatrical ways, shooting fire arrows and casting flaming lures from a fishing rod. It is fun, but good luck trying to get hundreds of people to spend all their free time making art for your event. Gathering that sort of energy is very difficult, and I have watched people fail at it.

The Burning Man trademark has power. If you can get the blessing of the BMorg, you can have an event where hundreds of people will show up and pour in their creative energy. Try doing that without the symbol, and it will be very difficult.

So you have to draw a line for yourself. What art do you want to own, and what art are you willing to give to Larry? If you are willing to give your art to Larry, Larry will give you in return a venue that will blow your mind. From what I have seen so far, it is more than a fair trade. I would be perfectly happy seeing Larry and the BMorg retire in style, but it would also be nice to see some of the other originators who didn't stick it out get a bit more credit too.

[Lonesomebri]

...The city is a magic artifact, a giant fresnel lens that once a year focuses an unnaturally large amount of weird festive energy into a small space and time. It defies the normal laws of event planning. People come from all over the world not just to see what is going on, but to dump huge amounts of energy into building things and volunteering to run the device, which implodes on itself like clockwork in a flash of perfectly orchestrated chaos.

Love your posts.

[Eric]

...The city is a magic artifact, a giant fresnel lens that once a year focuses an unnaturally large amount of weird festive energy into a small space and time. It defies the normal laws of event planning. People come from all over the world not just to see what is going on, but to dump huge amounts of energy into building things and volunteering to run the device, which implodes on itself like clockwork in a flash of perfectly orchestrated chaos.

Love your posts.

Gotta agree. I was about to quote the same section - it's one of the best short descriptions of what Burning Man is that I've seen, and it doesn't rely on the normal "circus" or "Vegas on Mars" type of short-hand.

[Elderberry]

Yup

[SageV]

If you want to stay off of Larry and Co's legal turf, drop the "Man" part and call it "Burner Culture". ...
The Burning Man trademark has power. If you can get the blessing of the BMorg, you can have an event where hundreds of people will show up and pour in their creative energy. Try doing that without the symbol, and it will be very difficult.

The problem I've found with the BMORG is they are more than a little overzealous. For example, if you pass along the word that a handful of Burners in an Artic Research station have a little party where they burn a man from the inside out of a block of ice, the BMORG takes that and puts it on their blog and says "what a cool [sic] culture we have." If on the other hand, some DJ on the complete opposite side of Alaska decides to sell tickets to a "Burning Man Party," and they send you a "guilt by association" cease and desist letter because you talked to that DJ at a beach party the summer before, that's just a fishing expedition.

[theCryptofishist]

I think that what Larry and the remaining organizers created in 1997 was actually a different festival, one with a city design, rules, regulations - something that in many ways probably went against the spirit of the old Zone Trip. But this thing they made is pretty incredible - and it works.

I have long thought this. That old burn died in 1996, and cannot be resurrected. What came then is some sort of related approximation--with new stuff, so it wasn't a pathetic derivation. Could a different approximation plus have worked? Who knows.

I'm so tired of fighting that fight...

[kiboy]

Because it's a fight you'll never win. Change is constant and to resist that is to just ask for a seat on the pain train.

I'm at a point in my personal evolution where I have very low expectations for my fellow man/woman. I'll put in my two cents but I won't push it anymore. If I don't like it enough I'll head off in another direction. That's just how it goes.