David's World

May 20, 2005

Censorship at European Universities, too

It's a little surprising, and definitely not positive news about the Spanish Universidad Politécnica de Valencia: they're kicking out a lecturer for his progressive and liberal views about intellectual property. He held a seminar about legal uses of peer-to-peer technology, and was promptly censored and then forced to resign by the dean of his faculty, under pressure of the Spanish music industry. Jorge Cortell writes about his story, and if only most of it is true, it's a sad day for UPV.

If even academics at a university can't speak out against industry consortia, how much is free speech still worth in 2005? We shouldn't forget that for now, this is an isolated incident.

Addendum: Well, good thing I wrote "if only most of it is true". As a reader notes, Cortell has difficulties maintaining his credibility. The university from which he supposedly got a PhD is thought to be a 'degree mill'. It doesn't necessarily affect the fact that a university acted against the idea of free academic discourse. But given Cortell's dubious credentials, one has to ask, how much of his story is true?

As often, the truth probably lies somewhere in between.

The problem behind this is "How to control Internet, weblogs, etc".
"They" want to press the censorship buttons without showing off, because of this they go behind what SGAE is promoting as A LAW FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION.

Regarding Jorge Cortell's entry above, he has lost all creditability in spain after bloggers found out that he faked his entire cv.

http://fraude-cortell.blogspot.com/

http://www.acam.es/noticias_detalle.php?id=858

http://homepage.mac.com/jorgecortell/curriculum.htm

University of Brantridge in Hawaii doesn't exist. He earned a diploma from Oxford (not a bachelor's degree). He only has an associate degree from a community college in the US. So in conclusion --- he doesn't even have a bachelor's degree.

jacke is a laier.

The people that can't to discuss the ideas about Jorge, has attacked his person.

There are a lot of people that give suport to Jorge.

Only have to show de coments in his new blog:

http://www.cortell.net/2005/06/04/bienvenidos-a-mi-blog/#comments

I'm sorry but my english is very bad.