freedom-or-copyright.html (11980B)
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? 7 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> 8 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/freedom-or-copyright.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!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--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 <h2>Freedom—or Copyright?</h2> 15 16 <address class="byline">by Richard Stallman</address> 17 18 <div class="infobox"> 19 <p><em>This essay addresses how the principles of software freedom 20 apply in some cases to other works of authorship and art. It's 21 included here since it involves the application of the ideas of free 22 software.</em></p> 23 </div> 24 <hr class="thin" /> 25 26 <p> 27 Copyright was established in the age of the printing press as an 28 industrial regulation on the business of writing and publishing. The 29 aim was to encourage the publication of a diversity of written works. 30 The means was to require publishers to get the author's permission to 31 publish recent writings. This enabled authors to get income from 32 publishers, which facilitated and encouraged writing. The general 33 reading public received the benefit of this, while losing little: 34 copyright restricted only publication, not the things an ordinary 35 reader could do. That made copyright arguably a beneficial system for 36 the public, and therefore arguably legitimate.</p> 37 38 <p> 39 Well and good—back then.</p> 40 41 <p> 42 Now we have a new way of distributing 43 information: computers and networks. Their benefit is that they 44 facilitate copying and 45 manipulating information, including software, musical recordings, 46 books, and movies. They offer the possibility of unlimited access to 47 all sorts of data—an information utopia.</p> 48 49 <p> 50 One obstacle stood in the way: copyright. Readers and listeners who 51 made use of their new ability to copy and share published information 52 were technically copyright infringers. The same law which had 53 formerly acted as a beneficial industrial regulation on publishers had 54 become a restriction on the public it was meant to serve.</p> 55 56 <p> 57 In a democracy, a law that prohibits a popular and useful activity is 58 usually soon relaxed. Not so where corporations have political power. 59 The publishers' lobby was determined to prevent the public from taking 60 advantage of the power of their computers, and found copyright a 61 handy weapon. Under their influence, rather than relaxing copyright 62 rules to suit the new circumstances, governments made them stricter than 63 ever, imposing harsh penalties on the practice of sharing. The latest 64 fashion in supporting the publishers against the citizens, known as 65 “three strikes,” is to cut off people's Internet connections if 66 they share.</p> 67 68 <p> 69 But that wasn't the worst of it. Computers can be powerful tools of 70 domination when software suppliers deny users the control of the 71 software they run. The 72 publishers realized that by publishing works in encrypted format, 73 which only specially authorized software could view, they could gain 74 unprecedented power: they could compel readers to pay, and identify 75 themselves, every time they read a book, listen to a song, or watch a 76 video. That is the publishers' dream: a pay-per-view universe.</p> 77 78 <p> 79 The publishers gained US government support for their dream with the 80 Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. This law gave publishers 81 power to write their own copyright rules, by implementing them in the 82 code of the authorized player software. Under this practice, called 83 Digital Restrictions Management, or DRM, even reading or listening 84 without authorization is forbidden.</p> 85 86 <p> 87 We still have the same old freedoms in using paper books and other 88 analog media. But if e-books replace printed books, those freedoms 89 will not transfer. Imagine: no more used book stores; no more lending 90 a book to your friend; no more borrowing one from the public 91 library—no more “leaks” that might give someone a 92 chance to read without paying. No more purchasing a book anonymously with 93 cash—you can only buy an e-book with a credit card. That is 94 the world the publishers want to impose on us. If you buy the Amazon 95 Kindle (we call it <a 96 href="/philosophy/why-call-it-the-swindle.html">the Swindle</a>) 97 or the Sony Reader (we 98 call it the Shreader for what it threatens to do to books), you pay to 99 establish that world.</p> 100 101 <p> 102 The Swindle even has an Orwellian back door that can be used to erase 103 books remotely. Amazon demonstrated this capability by erasing 104 copies, purchased from Amazon, of Orwell's book 1984. Evidently 105 Amazon's name for this product reflects the intention to burn our 106 books.</p> 107 108 <p> 109 Public anger against DRM is slowly growing, held back because 110 propaganda expressions such 111 as “<a href="/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html">protect 112 authors</a>” 113 and “<a href="/philosophy/not-ipr.html">intellectual 114 property</a>” have convinced readers that their rights do not 115 count. These terms implicitly assume that publishers deserve special 116 power in the name of the authors, that we are morally obliged to bow 117 to them, and that we have wronged someone if we see or hear 118 anything without paying for permission.</p> 119 120 <p> 121 The organizations that profit most from copyright legally exercise it 122 in the name of the authors (most of whom gain little). They would 123 have you believe that copyright is a natural right of authors, and 124 that we the public must suffer it no matter how painful it is. They 125 call sharing “piracy,” equating helping your neighbor with 126 attacking a ship.</p> 127 128 <p> 129 They also tell us that a War on Sharing is the only way to keep 130 art alive. Even if true, it would not justify the policy; but it 131 isn't true. Public sharing of copies is likely to increase the sales of 132 most works, and decrease sales only for big hits.</p> 133 134 <p> 135 Bestsellers can still do well without forbidding sharing. Stephen 136 King got hundreds of thousands of dollars selling an unencrypted 137 e-book serial with no obstacle to copying and sharing. (He was 138 dissatisfied with that amount and called the experiment a failure, but it looks 139 like a success to me.) Radiohead made millions in 2007 by inviting 140 fans to copy an album and pay what they wished, while it was also 141 shared on peer-to-peer networks. In 142 2008, <a href="https://boingboing.net/2008/03/05/nine-inch-nails-made.html"> 143 Nine Inch Nails released an album with permission to share copies</a> 144 and made $750,000 in a few days.</p> 145 146 <p> 147 The possibility of success without oppression is not limited to 148 bestsellers. Many artists of various levels of fame now make an 149 adequate living through <a href="https://www.techdirt.com/2010/01/25/future-music-business-models-those-who-are-already-there/">voluntary 150 support</a>: donations and merchandise purchases of their fans. 151 Kevin Kelly estimates the artist need only find around 152 <a href="https://kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/"> 153 1,000 true fans</a>. 154 </p> 155 156 <p> 157 When computer networks provide an easy anonymous method for sending 158 someone a small amount of money, without a credit card, it will be 159 easy to set up a much better system to support the arts. When you 160 view a work, there will be a button you can press saying, “Click 161 here to send the artist one dollar.” Wouldn't you press it, at 162 least once a week?</p> 163 164 <p> 165 Another good way to support music and the arts is with 166 <a href="/philosophy/dat.html">tax funds</a>—perhaps a tax on blank media 167 or on Internet connectivity. The state should 168 distribute the tax money entirely to the artists, not 169 waste it on corporate executives. But the state should not distribute 170 it in linear proportion to popularity, because that would give most of 171 it to a few superstars, leaving little to support all the other 172 artists. I therefore recommend using a cube-root function or 173 something similar. With linear proportion, superstar A with 1,000 174 times the popularity of a successful artist B will get 1,000 times as 175 much money as B. With the cube root, A will get 10 times as much as 176 B. Thus, each superstar gets a larger share than a less popular 177 artist, but most of the funds go to the artists who really need this 178 support. This system will use our tax money efficiently to support 179 the arts.</p> 180 181 <p> 182 The <a 183 href="https://stallman.org/mecenat/global-patronage.html">Global 184 Patronage</a> proposal combines aspects of those two systems, 185 incorporating mandatory payments with voluntary allocation among 186 artists.</p> 187 188 <!-- 189 <p> 190 In Spain, this tax system should replace the SGAE and its canon, 191 which could be eliminated.</p> --> 192 193 <p> 194 To make copyright fit the network age, we should legalize the 195 noncommercial copying and sharing of all published works, and prohibit 196 DRM. But until we win this battle, you must protect yourself: don't 197 buy any products with DRM unless you personally have the means to 198 break the DRM. Never use a product designed to attack your freedom 199 unless you can nullify the attack.</p> 200 </div> 201 202 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 203 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 204 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 205 <div class="unprintable"> 206 207 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <a 208 href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are also <a 209 href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and other 210 corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a 211 href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> 212 213 <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, 214 replace it with the translation of these two: 215 216 We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality 217 translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. 218 Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard 219 to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> 220 <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> 221 222 <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of 223 our web pages, see <a 224 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 225 README</a>. --> 226 Please see the <a 227 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for 228 information on coordinating and contributing translations of this article.</p> 229 </div> 230 231 <!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to 232 files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should 233 be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this 234 without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. 235 Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the 236 document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the 237 document was modified, or published. 238 239 If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. 240 Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying 241 years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable 242 year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including 243 being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). 244 245 There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers 246 Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> 247 248 <p>Copyright © 2008, 2010, 2022 Richard Stallman</p> 249 250 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" 251 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative 252 Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> 253 254 <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> 255 256 <p class="unprintable">Updated: 257 <!-- timestamp start --> 258 $Date: 2022/04/12 11:15:30 $ 259 <!-- timestamp end --> 260 </p> 261 </div> 262 </div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> 263 </body> 264 </html>