Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

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BlackBird
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Re: Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

Post by BlackBird »

Individual wrote:Now, look at what the BPS produces
Dhamma texts
Individual wrote: consider who pirates it and why,
Buddhists with a mistaken understanding of the second precept. I think that's the crux of the matter.
Individual wrote: and then think about how the same type of situation might apply in this case.
IMO, the majority of people interested in obtaining Dhamma texts are precept abiding Buddhists. Unlike the case of the music industry, it seems to me that it will be only a minority who have an interest in pirating copies of Dhamma texts, as stealing runs a tad contrary to what we're trying to achieve.

Metta
Jack
"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:
'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta

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Individual
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Re: Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

Post by Individual »

BlackBird wrote:
Individual wrote: consider who pirates it and why,
Buddhists with a mistaken understanding of the second precept. I think that's the crux of the matter.
That's your opinion and I disagree with it. The technical wording of the precept is "taking what is not freely given", which seems to imply the theft be of a material nature. After all, the very idea of intellectual "property" is absurd, for various reasons: because information is a non-rivalrous good that precedes its alleged owner, ownership is drawn up ambiguously, and when enforced, it violates traditional property rights. Copy "right" and intellectual "property" therefore is mislabeled, and these are regulations more to encourage ingenuity and protect business, not to secure individual property or individual rights against anything. Copyright laws initially began in order to recognize and encourage ingenuity, but today primarily benefit corporations that are not themselves authors of anything. Thus, the Beatles make almost no money from their own music.

Furthermore, the Five Precepts are misunderstood as moral absolutes and better understood as guidelines which ought to be enforced not blindly, based on their technical wording, but based on insight about the issue at hand. If the present circumstances make a particular precept irrelevant, it violates the spirit of the law to follow it.
BlackBird wrote:
Individual wrote: and then think about how the same type of situation might apply in this case.
IMO, the majority of people interested in obtaining Dhamma texts are precept abiding Buddhists. Unlike the case of the music industry, it seems to me that it will be only a minority who have an interest in pirating copies of Dhamma texts, as stealing runs a tad contrary to what we're trying to achieve.
If that were true, why so much piracy of Dhamma texts? I think there are many that wouldn't regard it as stealing. Ven. Nyanatusita seemed to suggest many Chinese Mahayana Buddhists don't regard it as such, because intellectual property is foreign to the culture, Mahayanists more heavily emphasize "expedient means" over moral absolutism, and because a person really ought to have no rightful ownership over what is essentially a derivative work.

I've said this before, by the way, in past discussions on this, but it's worth saying every time: The wide proliferation of Buddhist texts from Pali to Sanskrit, to Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Thai, would not have happened if translations were commercially restricted the way they are now.
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cooran
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Re: Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

Post by cooran »

Hello all,

Many of these posts are from a Western-centric perspective.

Only 1 in 4 people in the world has even the possibility of internet access - and of those, most have no knowledge of how to operate a computer, and absolutely no possibility - ever - of affording use.

Texts on the internet can always be altered and corrupted.

Copyright safeguards texts.

metta
Chris
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tiltbillings
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Re: Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

Post by tiltbillings »

Individual wrote:
That seems reasonable, but once a translation of a basic text of Buddhism, like the Visuddhimagga, has existed for several years, I don't understand the justification for not releasing it to the public. It would be strange if this "middleground" involved keeping translations of the most integral, vital texts of Buddhism copyrighted, while releasing small portions and modern commentaries.
You are willing to pony up big bucks to support BPS so that it can make its entire catalogue free, online and so it can continue to publish via hard copy and online copy of future works?

You are willing to pony up big bucks so the Pali Text Society can of offer it works for free online and via hard copies?

Are you willing to pony up big buck so the Vipassana Research Institute can continue make its CD-ROM version of the Pali Canon and all its commentaries (including the Visuddhimagga) to be free?

Someone has to pay for all of this.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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BlackBird
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Re: Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

Post by BlackBird »

Hello Individual
Individual wrote: Furthermore, the Five Precepts are misunderstood as moral absolutes and better understood as guidelines which ought to be enforced not blindly, based on their technical wording, but based on insight about the issue at hand. If the present circumstances make a particular precept irrelevant, it violates the spirit of the law to follow it.
Could you please show me a Canonical reference which supports your point?
I'm just a blind man, but I have always taken the precepts to be absolute. After all, what is the meaning of abstinence? To abstain, not to engage in the act where one feels justified as to the circumstance. Opening the precepts to interpretation is a bit like opening a pandora's box in my opinion.
Individual wrote: Mahayanists more heavily emphasize "expedient means" over moral absolutism
It was "expedient" for Ajātasattu to kill his father, but it didn't make it skillful. It was "expedient" for King Mahasena to destroy the Mahavihara, but it didn't make it skillful. "For the sake of convenience" can be used to justify nearly anything, and has - If you look at our long history of bloodshed. If one upholds the precepts with vigour and great effort, I cannot envision a single case where someone might come to harm as a result. But perhaps I am wrong, in which case could please point these cases out to me?
Individual wrote: and because a person really ought to have no rightful ownership over what is essentially a derivative work.
What ought to be and ought not to be, is not always what is. I think it pays to remember that breaking copyright is going to cause somebody some dukkha, somewhere. It doesn't matter that they might be wealthy, or in the case of the BPS that they're simply trying to keep on truckin'.
The law defines "what is essentially a derivative work." as someone's property, when we take that item from somebody, they're still going to feel annoyed. Which in my opinion constitutes stealing.
Individual wrote: I've said this before, by the way, in past discussions on this, but it's worth saying every time: The wide proliferation of Buddhist texts from Pali to Sanskrit, to Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Thai, would not have happened if translations were commercially restricted the way they are now.

You have a good point, but it's a red herring.

Hope you have a good day, and your practice goes well.
Metta
Jack
Last edited by BlackBird on Thu Oct 01, 2009 9:36 pm, edited 2 times in total.
"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:
'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta

Path Press - Ñāṇavīra Thera Dhamma Page - Ajahn Nyanamoli's Dhamma talks
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tiltbillings
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Re: Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

Post by tiltbillings »

BlackBird wrote:
Individual wrote: I've said this before, by the way, in past discussions on this, but it's worth saying every time: The wide proliferation of Buddhist texts from Pali to Sanskrit, to Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Thai, would not have happened if translations were commercially restricted the way they are now.

You have a good point, but it's a red herring.
The interesting things that the "proliferation" of the various texts were paid for by either rich laity or by the land holdings of the monasteries or by royal patronage. Someone paid for it.
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
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Re: Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

Post by mikenz66 »

tiltbillings wrote: The interesting things that the "proliferation" of the various texts were paid for by either rich laity or by the land holdings of the monasteries or by royal patronage. Someone paid for it.
This is something that it is easy for for westerners who don't interact with real-life Buddhist institutions to overlook. If it is free someone else has paid... I have a number of Dhamma books that have been printed and freely distributed because various generous individuals have paid for them. If I chose I could (but don't) go on retreats to my local Wat without paying a cent due to the generosity of the lay people.

All this stuff costs money, whether there is a fee charged or not.

It's not clear to me that non-profit publishers such as BPS, PTS, and Wisdom could continue to disseminate high-quality translations if they didn't have some sort of market model. It may be possible. Would those who complain about having to pay a few dollars for thousands of pages of high-quality translated text like to volunteer to set up such an institution?

My suggestion is that those who don't want to buy anything simply don't, quit complaining, and rejoice in what is freely available, which is quite a lot...

Mike
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BlackBird
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Re: Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

Post by BlackBird »

Well said Mike and Tilt.
The Dhamma is worth more than all the riches in the world could buy.

:anjali:
"For a disciple who has conviction in the Teacher's message & lives to penetrate it, what accords with the Dhamma is this:
'The Blessed One is the Teacher, I am a disciple. He is the one who knows, not I." - MN. 70 Kitagiri Sutta

Path Press - Ñāṇavīra Thera Dhamma Page - Ajahn Nyanamoli's Dhamma talks
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Re: Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

Post by pink_trike »

BlackBird wrote:Hello Individual
Individual wrote: Furthermore, the Five Precepts are misunderstood as moral absolutes and better understood as guidelines which ought to be enforced not blindly, based on their technical wording, but based on insight about the issue at hand. If the present circumstances make a particular precept irrelevant, it violates the spirit of the law to follow it.
Could you please show me a Canonical reference which supports your point?
I'm just a blind man, but I have always taken the precepts to be absolute. After all, what is the meaning of abstinence? To abstain, not to engage in the act where one feels justified as to the circumstance. Opening the precepts to interpretation is a bit like opening a pandora's box in my opinion.
Nearly all of my teachers over 3 decades have said that precepts are not rules, they are guidelines. There are no absolute rules to be found anywhere in the Universe, including in the Dharma. The phenomenal world is relational, which means that everything is relative.
Vision is Mind
Mind is Empty
Emptiness is Clear Light
Clear Light is Union
Union is Great Bliss

- Dawa Gyaltsen

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Re: Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

Post by pink_trike »

tiltbillings wrote:
BlackBird wrote:
Individual wrote: I've said this before, by the way, in past discussions on this, but it's worth saying every time: The wide proliferation of Buddhist texts from Pali to Sanskrit, to Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Thai, would not have happened if translations were commercially restricted the way they are now.

You have a good point, but it's a red herring.
The interesting things that the "proliferation" of the various texts were paid for by either rich laity or by the land holdings of the monasteries or by royal patronage. Someone paid for it.
And someone profited by it. Inexpensive electronic publication changes all that - which is why there is much resistance to it.
Vision is Mind
Mind is Empty
Emptiness is Clear Light
Clear Light is Union
Union is Great Bliss

- Dawa Gyaltsen

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Disclaimer: I'm a non-religious practitioner of Theravada, Mahayana/Vajrayana, and Tibetan Bon Dzogchen mind-training.
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Re: Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

Post by pink_trike »

mikenz66 wrote:
tiltbillings wrote: The interesting things that the "proliferation" of the various texts were paid for by either rich laity or by the land holdings of the monasteries or by royal patronage. Someone paid for it.
This is something that it is easy for for westerners who don't interact with real-life Buddhist institutions to overlook. If it is free someone else has paid... I have a number of Dhamma books that have been printed and freely distributed because various generous individuals have paid for them. If I chose I could (but don't) go on retreats to my local Wat without paying a cent due to the generosity of the lay people.

All this stuff costs money, whether there is a fee charged or not.

It's not clear to me that non-profit publishers such as BPS, PTS, and Wisdom could continue to disseminate high-quality translations if they didn't have some sort of market model. It may be possible. Would those who complain about having to pay a few dollars for thousands of pages of high-quality translated text like to volunteer to set up such an institution?

My suggestion is that those who don't want to buy anything simply don't, quit complaining, and rejoice in what is freely available, which is quite a lot...

Mike
Hi Mike,

My point isn't about not wanting to buy...it's about broadening access to the greatest number of people. Buddhist organizations could slash their publication costs and enormously expand their reach through electronic publication. The future of publication is electronic for many reasons, but a huge one is the issues of physical resources which are running out and becoming prohibitively expensive (not to mention the high toxicity of the chems in the paper, glues, and inks used in traditional publishing that end up in the land fill and the water supply). Amazon's Kindle and Sony's version of same aren't just quaint toys...they are the future of publication and they can't produce them fast enough to keep up with demand. Kindle books cost 1/3 to 1/2 the price of paper and are significantly greener. The publishing industry is well aware that electronic books will be shared, but they don't care because they're still making the same amount of money or more.

I recently terminated a publishing contract with Random (because they wouldn't allow me to release the book in electronic format on file sharing networks for free) and I'll be releasing the book in Kindle format sometime next year with a simultaneous networking strategy. A friend of mine who had published 4 previous books with the big publishing houses released his 5th print book (this one green self-published) in electronic format on the file sharing networks for free, and as a result the print book has outsold previous sales for all 4 of the previous print books combined with their expensive ad campaigns that only benefited the publishing houses. Like me, his next book will be all electronic, kindle-ized and also free on the networks. Paper is a walking dead format...it's just a matter of time.
Vision is Mind
Mind is Empty
Emptiness is Clear Light
Clear Light is Union
Union is Great Bliss

- Dawa Gyaltsen

---

Disclaimer: I'm a non-religious practitioner of Theravada, Mahayana/Vajrayana, and Tibetan Bon Dzogchen mind-training.
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Re: Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

Post by mikenz66 »

Hi Pink,
pink_trike wrote: My point isn't about not wanting to buy...it's about broadening access to the greatest number of people. Buddhist organizations could slash their publication costs and enormously expand their reach through electronic publication. The future of publication is electronic for many reasons, ...
I agree. The communication from our friend from BPS indicates that they basically agree with this. However if I were running BPS or PTS I would want to make sure I had a sustainable operation, so I wouldn't rush to post scans of everything on the internet without having a sustainable long-term strategy.

Their current/past model is presumably to make enough from sales to be able to continue editing and publishing future books. It would certainly be possible to run a model where an organisation allocates enough money to a project to get to high-quality electronic copy, perhaps print a few thousand copies for free distribution, plus keep something back for maintenance (as they will undoubtedly have to change formats in the future and in any case they need to host the PDFs, etc, etc.).

But of course, that needs some up-front money...
pink_trike wrote: I recently terminated a publishing contract with Random (because they wouldn't allow me to release the book in electronic format on file sharing networks for free) ...
That's great. You are putting your resources where your mouth is... :anjali:

Mike
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Re: Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

Post by Individual »

tiltbillings wrote: The interesting things that the "proliferation" of the various texts were paid for by either rich laity or by the land holdings of the monasteries or by royal patronage. Someone paid for it.
There is a difference, however, between relative wealth and absolute wealth. To demonstrate this point, you can ask any average person a simple question: Would you rather be a middle-class person today or the richest person in the world 2,000 years ago?

Most people would choose the former, because although their position is one of lower relative wealth (wealth with respect to the standard of wealth at the time), it is much higher in absolute value, because of technology. Whereas ancient kings would spend their riches extravagantly to have many easily spoiled goods delivered promptly and used by chefs to prepare cuisine, today, we have modern refrigerators, canning, grocery stores, TV dinners, and restaurants, many things that would've been considered luxiries in the past, like ketchup. Whereas kings would have dancers, jesters, magicians, and so on, today, we have television and the internet. So, a single middle-class person today has at their fingertips all the resources of a pre-historical king, if not more..

This being the case, today, with computers and Pali resources, it doesn't require a king's riches to translate and publish the Tipitaka. In fact, when I've pointed out the difficulty of acquiring a full Tipitaka, I've been told by people to simply learn Pali, as Pali versions are available online for free. And yet: If it's so simple for someone like ME to learn Pali and translate it for myself, is there not a single person out there, at BPS or anywhere else, who is capable of the same task? ...At least when it comes to the most important texts.

But as it is so far, there's no serious attempt by these institutions to provide an easily accessible, free translation, for the sake of protecting the institutions themselves. Although I am glad to see the Visuddhimagga be made available for free soon. I only hope it's definitely going to be the entire Visuddhimagga and not with certain important portions missing.
mikenz66 wrote:
tiltbillings wrote: The interesting things that the "proliferation" of the various texts were paid for by either rich laity or by the land holdings of the monasteries or by royal patronage. Someone paid for it.
This is something that it is easy for for westerners who don't interact with real-life Buddhist institutions to overlook.
That's a bit condescending, don't you think? To counter that, I could say that people who don't have experience with NPOs automatically assume that they are efficient and benevolent.
mikenz66 wrote: All this stuff costs money, whether there is a fee charged or not.
Again, as I said, of course a traditional publishing company costs money. You have to pay translators, editors, and you have to pay for the ink and paper, obviously. But I'm not advocating that people provide paperback copies of the Tipitaka for free. I am talking about voluntary online collaboration, which clearly has a minimal cost. You look, for instance, at the size of Wikipedia. Only a few people fluent in Pali over a few years couldn't fully translate the Tipitaka? Come on. And the PTS, they've existed for so long, has it really been impossible to create a reliable public domain Tipitaka, over all these years? Of the translations they've made that are now public domain, they can't publish them online, because they have to keep tinkering with them to somehow make them better?
mikenz66 wrote: It's not clear to me that non-profit publishers such as BPS, PTS, and Wisdom could continue to disseminate high-quality translations if they didn't have some sort of market model. It may be possible. Would those who complain about having to pay a few dollars for thousands of pages of high-quality translated text like to volunteer to set up such an institution?
Let's look to the future: Would it be desirable or undesirable for there to be a free, easily accessible, and reliable Tipitaka? From the perspective of humanity, of course, since the interests of humanity and the interests of protecting the financial stability of a non-profit organization aren't necessarily the same.

It seems plausible to me that within the next 10 years, such an edition will be made by someone, regardless. When it happens, will organizations like BPS continue to hold out, touting their copyrighted version of the Tipitaka as "better" and slandering the hard work of others? I've seen people make such remarks about Metta.lk's Tipitaka before. So, why not help release a better one? How is the financial security of a certain organization more beneficial or valuable than the greater proliferation of Buddhist texts? I mean, the goal is the proliferation of Buddhist texts...

Once you've got one really good translation of the Tipitaka digitized, upload it to the internet -- you're done -- no more work required, no need for any institution of any kind, right? It's not something that requires regular maintenance... Once the work is completed, you put it out there, and the world can see it. Unless you copyright it. Because then that limits the amount of people that actually will see it.
The best things in life aren't things.

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tiltbillings
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Re: Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

Post by tiltbillings »

Individual wrote: If it's so simple for someone like ME to learn Pali and translate it for myself, is there not a single person out there, at BPS or anywhere else, who is capable of the same task? ...At least when it comes to the most important texts.
Of course it is not easy. Are you willing to support, be a patron, of a scholar who would be willing to do this?
there's no serious attempt by these institutions to provide an easily accessible, free translation, for the sake of protecting the institutions themselves.
Are you willing to support these institutions so that the can do this?
>> Do you see a man wise [enlightened/ariya] in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.<< -- Proverbs 26:12

This being is bound to samsara, kamma is his means for going beyond. -- SN I, 38.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?” HPatDH p.723
Individual
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Re: Why isn't the Visuddhimagga free?

Post by Individual »

tiltbillings wrote:
Individual wrote: If it's so simple for someone like ME to learn Pali and translate it for myself, is there not a single person out there, at BPS or anywhere else, who is capable of the same task? ...At least when it comes to the most important texts.
Of course it is not easy. Are you willing to support, be a patron, of a scholar who would be willing to do this?
there's no serious attempt by these institutions to provide an easily accessible, free translation, for the sake of protecting the institutions themselves.
Are you willing to support these institutions so that the can do this?
...if I had either the time, skill, or the resources. How is that relevant?
The best things in life aren't things.

The Diamond Sutra
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