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+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<!-- Parent-Version: 1.86 -->
+<title>Science must &ldquo;push copyright aside&rdquo;
+- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/push-copyright-aside.translist" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<h2>Science must push copyright aside</h2>
+
+<p>by <strong>Richard M. Stallman</strong></p>
+
+<p><em>Many points that lead to a conclusion that software freedom must be
+universal often apply to other forms of expressive works, albeit in
+different ways. This essay concerns the application of principles
+related to software freedom to the area of literature.
+Generally, such issues are orthogonal to software freedom, but we
+include essays like this here since many people interested in Free
+Software want to know more about how the principles can be applied to
+areas other than software.</em></p>
+
+<p>(This article appeared in <em>Nature</em> magazine's
+<b>web</b>debates forum in 2001.)</p>
+
+<p>It should be a truism that the scientific literature exists to
+disseminate scientific knowledge, and that scientific journals exist
+to facilitate the process. It therefore follows that rules for use of
+the scientific literature should be designed to help achieve that
+goal.</p>
+
+<p>The rules we have now, known as copyright, were established in the
+age of the printing press, an inherently centralized method of
+mass-production copying. In a print environment, copyright on journal
+articles restricted only journal publishers&mdash;requiring them to
+obtain permission to publish an article&mdash;and would-be
+plagiarists. It helped journals to operate and disseminate knowledge,
+without interfering with the useful work of scientists or students,
+either as writers or readers of articles. These rules fit that system
+well.</p>
+
+<p>The modern technology for scientific publishing, however, is the
+World Wide Web. What rules would best ensure the maximum
+dissemination of scientific articles, and knowledge, on the web?
+Articles should be distributed in nonproprietary formats, with open
+access for all. And everyone should have the right to
+&ldquo;mirror&rdquo; articles&mdash;that is, to republish them verbatim
+with proper attribution.</p>
+
+<p>These rules should apply to past as well as future articles, when
+they are distributed in electronic form. But there is no crucial need
+to change the present copyright system as it applies to paper
+publication of journals because the problem is not in that domain.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, it seems that not everyone agrees with the truisms
+that began this article. Many journal publishers appear to believe
+that the purpose of scientific literature is to enable them to publish
+journals so as to collect subscriptions from scientists and
+students. Such thinking is known as &ldquo;confusion of the means with
+the ends&rdquo;.</p>
+
+<p>Their approach has been to restrict access even to read the
+scientific literature to those who can and will pay for it. They use
+copyright law, which is still in force despite its inappropriateness
+for computer networks, as an excuse to stop scientists from choosing
+new rules.</p>
+
+<p>For the sake of scientific cooperation and humanity's future, we
+must reject that approach at its root&mdash;not merely the
+obstructive systems that have been instituted, but the mistaken
+priorities that inspired them.</p>
+
+<p>Journal publishers sometimes claim that online access requires
+expensive high-powered server machines, and that they must charge
+access fees to pay for these servers. This &ldquo;problem&rdquo; is a
+consequence of its own &ldquo;solution.&rdquo; Give everyone the
+freedom to mirror, and libraries around the world will set up mirror
+sites to meet the demand. This decentralized solution will reduce
+network bandwidth needs and provide faster access, all the while
+protecting the scholarly record against accidental loss.</p>
+
+<p>Publishers also argue that paying the editors requires charging for
+access. Let us accept the assumption that editors must be paid; this
+tail need not wag the dog. The cost of editing for a typical paper is
+between 1 percent and 3 percent of the cost of funding the research to produce
+it. Such a small percentage of the cost can hardly justify obstructing
+the use of the results.</p>
+
+<p>Instead, the cost of editing could be recovered, for example,
+through page charges to the authors, who can pass these on to the
+research sponsors. The sponsors should not mind, given that they
+currently pay for publication in a more cumbersome way, through
+overhead fees for the university library's subscription to the
+journal. By changing the economic model to charge editing costs to the
+research sponsors, we can eliminate the apparent need to restrict
+access. The occasional author who is not affiliated with an
+institution or company, and who has no research sponsor, could be
+exempted from page charges, with costs levied on institution-based
+authors.</p>
+
+<p>Another justification for access fees to online publications is to
+fund conversion of the print archives of a journal into online
+form. That work needs to be done, but we should seek alternative ways
+of funding it that do not involve obstructing access to the
+result. The work itself will not be any more difficult, or cost any
+more. It is self-defeating to digitize the archives and waste the
+results by restricting access.</p>
+
+<p>The US Constitution says that copyright exists &ldquo;to promote
+the Progress of Science&rdquo;. When copyright impedes the progress of
+science, science must push copyright out of the way.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+Later developments:
+
+<p>Some universities have adopted policies to thwart the journal
+publishers' power. For instance, here is MIT's.<br/>
+<a href="https://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/mit-open-access/open-access-policy/">
+https://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/mit-open-access/open-access-policy/</a>.
+Stronger policies are needed, however, as this one permits individual
+authors to "opt out" (i.e., cave in).</p>
+
+<p>The US government has imposed a requirement known as "public
+access" on some funded research. This requires publication within a
+certain period in a site that allows anyone to view the article. This
+requirement is a positive step, but inadequate because it does not
+include freedom to redistribute the article.</p>
+
+<p>Curiously, the concept of "open access" in the 2002 Budapest Open
+Access Initiative did include freedom to redistribute. I signed that
+declaration, despite my distaste for the word "open", because the
+substance of the position was right.</p>
+
+<p>However, the word "open" had the last laugh: influential
+campaigners for "open access" subsequently dropped freedom to
+redistribute from their goals. I stand by the position of
+the <a href="http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/">BOAI</a>, but now that
+"open access" means something else, I refer to it as "redistributable
+publication" or "free-to-mirror publication".</p>
+
+</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 &amp; GNU inquiries to
+<a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org">&lt;gnu@gnu.org&gt;</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">&lt;webmasters@gnu.org&gt;</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">
+ &lt;web-translators@gnu.org&gt;</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>
+
+<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to
+ files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should
+ be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this
+ without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first.
+ Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the
+ document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the
+ document was modified, or published.
+
+ If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too.
+ Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying
+ years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable
+ year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including
+ being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system).
+
+ There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers
+ Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. -->
+
+<p>Copyright &copy; 2001, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 Richard M. 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: 2018/12/15 14:02:38 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+</div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include -->
+</body>
+</html>