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diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/ebooks.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/ebooks.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b7830ec --- /dev/null +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/ebooks.html @@ -0,0 +1,166 @@ +<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> +<!-- Parent-Version: 1.79 --> +<title>E-Books: Freedom Or Copyright +- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> +<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/ebooks.translist" --> +<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> +<h2>E-Books: Freedom Or Copyright</h2> + +<p>by <a href="http://www.stallman.org/"><strong>Richard +Stallman</strong></a></p> + +<p><em>This is a slightly modified version of an article published +in <cite>Technology Review</cite> in 2000.</em></p> + +<div class="announcement"> +<p>Also consider reading <a +href="/philosophy/ebooks-must-increase-freedom.html">E-books must +increase our freedom, not decrease it</a>.</p> +</div> +<hr /> + +<p>Once upon a time, in the age of the printing press, an industrial +regulation was established to cover the business of writing and +publishing. It was called copyright. Copyright's purpose, stated in +the US Constitution, was to “promote progress”—that +is, to encourage publication. The method used was to make publishers +get permission from authors for using recent works.</p> + +<p>Ordinary readers had little reason to disapprove, since copyright +restricted only publication, not the things a reader could do. If it +raised the price of a book a small amount, that was only money; it did +not contort readers' way of life. Copyright provided a public benefit, +as intended, with little burden on the public. It did its job +well—back then.</p> + +<p>Then a new way of distributing information came about: computers +and networks. The advantage of digital information technology is +that it facilitates copying and manipulating information, including +software, musical recordings and books. Networks offered the +possibility of unlimited access to all sorts of data, an +information utopia.</p> + +<p>But one obstacle stood in the way: copyright. Readers who +made use of their computers to share published information were +technically copyright infringers. The world had changed around this +law, so that what was once an industrial regulation on publishers +had become a restriction on the public it was meant to serve.</p> + +<p>In a system of real democracy, a law that prohibits a popular, +natural, and useful activity is usually soon relaxed. But the +powerful publishers' lobby was determined to prevent the public +from taking advantage of the power of their computers, and found +copyright a suitable weapon. Under their influence, rather than +relaxing copyright to suit the new circumstances, governments made +it stricter than ever, imposing harsh penalties on readers caught +sharing.</p> + +<p>But that wasn't the last of it. Computers can be powerful tools +of domination, when a few people control what other people's +computers do. The publishers realized that by forcing people to use +specially designated software to read e-books, they could gain +unprecedented power: they could compel readers to pay, and identify +themselves, every time they read a book! That is the publishers' +dream.</p> + +<p>So they prevailed upon the US government to give them the +Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, a law giving them total +legal power over almost anything a reader might do with an e-book. +Even reading it without authorization is a crime.</p> + +<p>We still have the same old freedoms in using paper books. But if +e-books replace printed books, that exception will do little good. +With “electronic ink”, which makes it possible to download +new text onto an apparently printed piece of paper, even newspapers +could become ephemeral. Imagine: no more used book stores; no more +lending a book to your friend; no more borrowing one from the public +library—no more “leaks” that might give someone a +chance to read without paying. And judging from the ads for Microsoft +Reader, no more anonymous purchasing of books. This is the world +publishers have in mind for us.</p> + +<p>Why is there so little public debate about these momentous changes? +Most citizens have not yet had occasion to come to grips with the +political issues raised by this futuristic technology. Besides, the +public has been taught that copyright exists to “protect” +the copyright holders, with the implication that the public's +interests do not count.</p> + +<p>But when the public at large begins to use e-books, and +discovers the regime that the publishers have prepared for them, +they will begin to resist. Humanity will not accept this yoke +forever.</p> + +<p>The publishers would have us believe that suppressive copyright +is the only way to keep art alive, but we do not need a War on +Copying to encourage a diversity of published works; as the +Grateful Dead showed, copying among fans is not a problem for the +artists. By legalizing the noncommercial copying of e-books, we can +turn copyright back into the industrial regulation it once was.</p> + +<p>For some kinds of writing, we should go even further. For +scholarly papers and monographs, everyone should be encouraged to +republish them verbatim online; this helps protect the scholarly +record while making it more accessible. For textbooks and most +reference works, publication of modified versions should be allowed +as well, since that encourages society to improve them.</p> + +<p>Eventually, when computer networks provide an easy way to send +someone a small amount of money, the whole rationale for restricting +verbatim copying will go away. If you like a book, and it pops up a +box saying, “Click here to give the author one dollar”, +wouldn't you click? Copyright for books and music, as it applies to +distributing verbatim unmodified copies, will be entirely obsolete. +And not a moment too soon!</p> + +<blockquote class="announcement"> +<p><a href="http://defectivebydesign.org/ebooks.html">Join our mailing +list about the dangers of eBooks</a>.</p> +</blockquote> + +</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> +<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> +<div id="footer"> +<div class="unprintable"> + +<p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <a +href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are also <a +href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and other +corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a +href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> + +<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, + replace it with the translation of these two: + + We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality + translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. + Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard + to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> + <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> + + <p>For information on coordinating and submitting translations of + our web pages, see <a + href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations + README</a>. --> +Please see the <a +href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for +information on coordinating and submitting translations of this article.</p> +</div> + +<p>Copyright © 2000, 2016 Richard Stallman</p> + +<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" +href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative +Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> + +<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> + +<p class="unprintable">Updated: +<!-- timestamp start --> +$Date: 2016/11/18 06:31:39 $ +<!-- timestamp end --> +</p> +</div> +</div> +</body> +</html> |