Notes on Knowledge Use Rights for a Digital Age

How to think about knowledge use rights? Particularly in times of uncertainty and economic transition, with no one at the helm who is adequately concerned regarding what's at stake. Transition is inevitable - whether anyone wants it or not - because it is not possible for the consumption patterns of the 21st century to remain as they existed in the 20th century, either for services or asset formation.

If governments refuse to allow production reform for today's assets and services structures, much of what transpires in the near future will rapidly become less productive. Product of all kinds needs to not only adhere more closely to income realities, but also what individuals spend their lives preparing for. Governments, building contractors and others have not only been unwilling to face up to these realities, political constituents have become dangerously complacent as well. Only consider how ongoing efforts to stymie knowledge access has harmed digital potential, which in turn creates unnecessary losses for GDP. Time value is needed on the part of whole populations, before digital gains become evident in the marketplace.

Consider that individual rights as commonly understood, no longer completely address what is at stake. Those earlier struggles for human rights were fought over, when it was taken for granted that individuals had reasonable access to commonly available resources. That is no longer the case, as wealth value continues to shift from land use to knowledge use. Rights - as they presently exist - aren't sufficient either for economic access or identity formation.

There is a vast difference between being exposed to knowledge, and actually being allowed to use if for the benefit of oneself and community. At every turn, people are confronted by the ways knowledge is "supposed" to be used, if it is to be used at all. As a result, human potential has been cut short too soon, as evidenced by a growing reluctance of central bankers around the world, to allow continued growth for younger generations.

Hence, the remainder of this post gets devoted to a bit of dreaming. By no means is the list below complete or even totally thought through, but alas, one needs to start somewhere...

• The right to use our economic time as we see fit, so long as we express our purpose in ways which hold relevance for others.
• The right to provide for one another, based on the time we actually have to assist one another and ourselves as well.
• The right to pursue knowledge that may seem as though practical and impractical, for ourselves and others.
• The right to hold value for knowledge which need not correlate with the value it is assigned by others.
• The right to determine the ways in which we are most comfortable providing services, goods and knowledge for one another.
• The right to define services formation on personal terms: terms which provide opportunity to learn direct negotiation skills, and means by which to remain civil and responsible.
• The right to benefit from the support offered by all individuals in community, and the right to extend them our own support, in kind.
• The right to equal use and coordination of one's time as actually possible to realize, according to the ways and means by which others choose to utilize their own.
• The right to pursue individual talents and interests insofar as we either have already provided for our support, or are currently able to pursue said talents and interests through their (compensated) appeal to others.
• The right to innovation, particularly when it is shown to make some aspect of our lives and the lives of others easier to maintain and support.
• The right to define the ways our consumption takes place, particularly when said product creates problems in our lives because of how it is currently constructed.
• The right for value in use economic formation to exist alongside commonly recognized standards for value in exchange.
• The right to a marketplace for time, in local community. Without that marketplace, we have little chance of being judged for the productive capacity we actually hold, because others seldom have a way of knowing or experiencing it for themselves. It is often wrong to be judged irresponsible, when we have little means to interact in the marketplace to prove our worth.
• The right to be monetarily compensated for the expressions of our better nature.
• In short, the right to the ownership of our time and humanity.