freedom-or-copyright-old.html (9467B)
1 <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> 2 <!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 --> 3 <!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> 4 <!--#set var="TAGS" value="essays laws copyright" --> 5 <!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" --> 6 <title>Freedom—or Copyright? (Old Version) 7 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> 8 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/freedom-or-copyright-old.translist" --> 9 <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> 10 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" --> 11 <!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--> 12 <!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" --> 13 <div class="article reduced-width"> 14 15 <h2>Freedom—or Copyright? (Old Version)</h2> 16 17 <address class="byline">by Richard Stallman</address> 18 19 <div class="infobox"> 20 <p>There is an <a 21 href="/philosophy/freedom-or-copyright.html"> updated version</a> of 22 this article.</p> 23 </div> 24 <hr class="thin" /> 25 26 <div class="introduction"> 27 <p> 28 The brave new world of e-books: no more used book stores, no more 29 lending a book to your friend, no more borrowing one from the public 30 library, no purchasing a book except with a credit card that 31 identifies what you read. Even reading an e-book without 32 authorization is a crime. 33 </p> 34 </div> 35 36 <p> 37 Once upon a time, in the age of the printing press, an industrial 38 regulation was established for the business of writing and 39 publishing. It was called copyright. Copyright's purpose was to 40 encourage the publication of a diversity of written 41 works. Copyright's method was to make publishers get permission 42 from authors to reprint recent writings.</p> 43 44 <p> 45 Ordinary readers had little reason to disapprove, since copyright 46 restricted only publication, not the things a reader could do. If it 47 raised the price of a book a small amount, that was only 48 money. Copyright provided a public benefit, as intended, with little 49 burden on the public. It did its job well—back then.</p> 50 51 <p> 52 Then a new way of distributing information came about: computers and 53 networks. The advantage of digital information technology is that it 54 facilitates copying and manipulating information, including software, 55 musical recordings and books. Networks offered the possibility of 56 unlimited access to all sorts of data—an information utopia.</p> 57 58 <p> 59 But one obstacle stood in the way: copyright. Readers who made use of 60 their computers to share published information were technically 61 copyright infringers. The world had changed, and what was once an 62 industrial regulation on publishers had become a restriction on the 63 public it was meant to serve.</p> 64 65 <p> 66 In a democracy, a law that prohibits a popular, natural and useful 67 activity is usually soon relaxed. But the powerful publishers' 68 lobby was determined to prevent the public from taking advantage of 69 the power of their computers, and found copyright a suitable 70 weapon. Under their influence, rather than relaxing copyright to suit 71 the new circumstances, governments made it stricter than ever, 72 imposing harsh penalties on readers caught sharing.</p> 73 74 <p> 75 But that wasn't the last of it. Computers can be powerful tools of 76 domination when a few people control what other people's computers 77 do. The publishers realized that by forcing people to use specially 78 designated software to watch videos and read e-books, they can gain 79 unprecedented power: they can compel readers to pay, and identify 80 themselves, every time they read a book!</p> 81 82 <p> 83 That is the publishers' dream, and they prevailed upon the 84 U.S. government to enact the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 85 1998. This law gives them total legal power over almost anything a 86 reader might do with an e-book, as long as they publish the book in 87 encrypted form. Even reading the book without authorization is a 88 crime.</p> 89 90 <p> 91 We still have the same old freedoms in using paper books. But if 92 e-books replace printed books, that exception will do little 93 good. With “electronic ink,” which makes it possible to 94 download new text onto an apparently printed piece of paper, even 95 newspapers could become ephemeral. Imagine: no more used book stores; 96 no more lending a book to your friend; no more borrowing one from the 97 public library—no more “leaks” that might give someone a 98 chance to read without paying. (And judging from the ads for Microsoft 99 Reader, no more anonymous purchasing of books either.) This is the 100 world publishers have in mind for us.</p> 101 102 <p> 103 Why is there so little public debate about these momentous changes? 104 Most citizens have not yet had occasion to come to grips with the 105 political issues raised by this futuristic technology. Besides, the 106 public has been taught that copyright exists to “protect” 107 the copyright holders, with the implication that the public's 108 interests do not count. (The biased term 109 “<a href="/philosophy/not-ipr.html">intellectual 110 property</a>” also promotes that view; in addition, it 111 encourages the mistake of trying to treat several laws that are almost 112 totally different—such as copyright law and patent law—as 113 if they were a single issue.)</p> 114 115 <p> 116 But when the public at large begins to use e-books, and discovers the 117 regime that the publishers have prepared for them, they will begin to 118 resist. Humanity will not accept this yoke forever.</p> 119 120 <p> 121 The publishers would have us believe that suppressive copyright is the 122 only way to keep art alive, but we do not need a War on Copying to 123 encourage a diversity of published works; as the Grateful Dead showed, 124 private copying among fans is not necessarily a problem for 125 artists. (In 2007, Radiohead made millions by inviting fans to copy an 126 album and pay whatever amount they wish; a few years before, Stephen King 127 got hundreds of thousands for an e-book which people could copy.) By 128 legalizing the copying of e-books among friends, we can turn copyright 129 back into the industrial regulation it once was.</p> 130 131 <p> 132 For some kinds of writing, we should go even further. For scholarly 133 papers and monographs, everyone should be encouraged to republish them 134 verbatim online; this helps protect the scholarly record while making 135 it more accessible. For textbooks and most reference works, 136 publication of modified versions should be allowed as well, since that 137 encourages improvement.</p> 138 139 <p> 140 Eventually, when computer networks provide an easy way to send someone 141 a small amount of money, the whole rationale for restricting verbatim 142 copying will go away. If you like a book, and a box pops up on your 143 computer saying “Click here to give the author one 144 dollar,” wouldn't you click? Copyright for books and music, as 145 it applies to distributing verbatim unmodified copies, will be 146 entirely obsolete. And not a moment too soon!</p> 147 </div> 148 149 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 150 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 151 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 152 <div class="unprintable"> 153 154 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <a 155 href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are also <a 156 href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and other 157 corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a 158 href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> 159 160 <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, 161 replace it with the translation of these two: 162 163 We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality 164 translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. 165 Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard 166 to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> 167 <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> 168 169 <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of 170 our web pages, see <a 171 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 172 README</a>. --> 173 Please see the <a 174 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for 175 information on coordinating and contributing translations of this article.</p> 176 </div> 177 178 <!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to 179 files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should 180 be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this 181 without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. 182 Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the 183 document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the 184 document was modified, or published. 185 186 If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. 187 Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying 188 years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable 189 year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including 190 being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). 191 192 There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers 193 Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> 194 195 <p>Copyright © 1999, 2021 Richard Stallman</p> 196 197 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" 198 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative 199 Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> 200 201 <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> 202 203 <p class="unprintable">Updated: 204 <!-- timestamp start --> 205 $Date: 2021/09/16 16:56:20 $ 206 <!-- timestamp end --> 207 </p> 208 </div> 209 </div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> 210 </body> 211 </html>