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+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<!-- Parent-Version: 1.90 -->
+<title>The Danger of E-Books
+- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/the-danger-of-ebooks.translist" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<h2>The Danger of E-Books</h2>
+
+<p class="comment">In an age where business dominates our governments and writes our laws,
+every technological advance offers business an opportunity to impose new
+restrictions on the public. Technologies that could have empowered us are
+used to chain us instead.</p>
+
+<p>With printed books,</p>
+<ul>
+<li>You can buy one with cash, anonymously.</li>
+<li>Then you own it.</li>
+<li>You are not required to sign a license that restricts your use of it.</li>
+<li>The format is known, and no proprietary technology is needed to read the
+book.</li>
+<li>You can give, lend or sell the book to another.</li>
+<li>You can, physically, scan and copy the book, and it's sometimes lawful
+under copyright.</li>
+<li>Nobody has the power to destroy your book.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>Contrast that with Amazon e-books (fairly typical):</p>
+<ul>
+<li>Amazon requires users to identify themselves to get an e-book.</li>
+<li>In some countries, including the US, Amazon says the user cannot
+own the e-book.</li>
+<li>Amazon requires the user to accept a restrictive license on use of the
+e-book.</li>
+<li>The format is secret, and only proprietary user-restricting software can
+read it at all.</li>
+<li>An ersatz &ldquo;lending&rdquo; is allowed for some books, for a limited time, but
+only by specifying by name another user of the same system. No giving or
+selling.</li>
+<li>To copy the e-book is impossible due to
+<a href="/philosophy/right-to-read.html">Digital Restrictions Management</a>
+in the player and prohibited by the license, which is more restrictive than
+copyright law.</li>
+<li>Amazon can remotely delete the e-book using a back door. It used this
+back door in 2009 to delete thousands of copies of George Orwell's 1984.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>Even one of these infringements makes e-books a step backward from
+printed books. We must reject e-books until they respect our freedom&nbsp;[<a href="#footnote2">2</a>].</p>
+
+<p>The e-book companies say denying our traditional freedoms is
+necessary to continue to pay authors. The current copyright system
+supports those companies handsomely and most authors badly. We can
+support authors better in other ways that don't require curtailing our
+freedom, and even legalize sharing. Two methods I've suggested
+are:</p>
+
+<ul>
+<li>To distribute tax funds to authors based on the cube root of each
+author's popularity&nbsp;[<a href="#footnote1">1</a>].</li>
+<li>To design players so users can send authors anonymous voluntary payments.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>E-books need not attack our freedom (Project Gutenberg's e-books don't),
+but they will if companies get to decide. It's up to us to stop them.</p>
+
+<blockquote class="announcement">
+<p>Join the fight: sign up
+at <a href="http://DefectiveByDesign.org/ebooks.html">
+http://DefectiveByDesign.org/ebooks.html</a>.</p>
+</blockquote>
+
+<div class="column-limit"></div>
+<h3 style="font-size: 1.2em">Footnotes</h3>
+<ol>
+<li id="footnote1">See both my speech
+<a href="/philosophy/copyright-versus-community.html">&ldquo;Copyright
+versus Community in the Age of Computer Networks&rdquo;</a>
+and <a href="http://stallman.org/articles/internet-sharing-license.en.html">my
+2012 open letter to the President of the Brazilian Senate</a>, Senator
+José Sarney, for more on this.</li>
+<li id="footnote2">[2019] To show our rejection of Amazon's e-book reader,
+we call it <a href="/philosophy/why-call-it-the-swindle.html">the
+Swindle</a>.</li>
+</ol>
+
+</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
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+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
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+
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+
+ There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers
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+
+<p>Copyright &copy; 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2019 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: 2019/12/30 11:28:30 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</body>
+</html>