pirate-party.html (9003B)
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 upholding action" --> 5 <!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" --> 6 <title>How the Swedish Pirate Party Platform Backfires on Free Software 7 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> 8 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/pirate-party.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!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--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>How the Swedish Pirate Party Platform Backfires on Free Software</h2> 15 16 <address class="byline">by <a href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard 17 Stallman</a></address> 18 19 <div class="introduction"> 20 <p> 21 Note: each Pirate Party has its own platform. They all call for 22 reducing copyright power, but the specifics vary. This issue may 23 not apply to the other parties' positions. 24 </p> 25 </div> 26 27 <p>The bullying of the copyright industry in Sweden inspired the 28 launch of the first political party whose platform is to reduce 29 copyright restrictions: the Pirate Party. Its platform includes the 30 prohibition of Digital Restrictions Management, legalization of 31 noncommercial sharing of published works, and shortening of copyright 32 for commercial use to a five-year period. Five years after 33 publication, any published work would go into the public domain.</p> 34 35 <p>I support these changes, in general; but the specific combination 36 chosen by the Swedish Pirate Party backfires ironically in the special 37 case of free software. I'm sure that they did not intend to hurt free 38 software, but that's what would happen.</p> 39 40 <p>The GNU General Public License and other copyleft licenses use 41 copyright law to defend freedom for every user. The GPL permits 42 everyone to publish modified works, but only under the same license. 43 Redistribution of the unmodified work must also preserve the license. 44 And all redistributors must give users access to the software's source 45 code.</p> 46 47 <p>How would the Swedish Pirate Party's platform affect copylefted 48 free software? After five years, its source code would go into the 49 public domain, and proprietary software developers would be able to 50 include it in their programs. But what about the reverse case?</p> 51 52 <p>Proprietary software is restricted by EULAs, not just by copyright, 53 and the users don't have the source code. Even if copyright permits 54 noncommercial sharing, the EULA may forbid it. In addition, the 55 users, not having the source code, do not control what the program 56 does when they run it. To run such a program is to surrender your 57 freedom and give the developer control over you.</p> 58 59 <p>So what would be the effect of terminating this program's copyright 60 after 5 years? This would not require the developer to release source 61 code, and presumably most will never do so. Users, still denied the 62 source code, would still be unable to use the program in freedom. The 63 program could even have a “time bomb” in it to make it 64 stop working after 5 years, in which case the “public 65 domain” copies would not run at all.</p> 66 67 <p>Thus, the Pirate Party's proposal would give proprietary software 68 developers the use of GPL-covered source code after 5 years, but it 69 would not give free software developers the use of proprietary source 70 code, not after 5 years or even 50 years. The Free World would get 71 the bad, but not the good. The difference between source code and 72 object code and the practice of using EULAs would give proprietary 73 software an effective exception from the general rule of 5-year 74 copyright—one that free software does not share.</p> 75 76 <p>We also use copyright to partially deflect the danger of software 77 patents. We cannot make our programs safe from them—no 78 program is ever safe from software patents in a country which allows 79 them—but at least we prevent them from being used to make the 80 program effectively nonfree. The Swedish Pirate Party proposes to 81 abolish software patents, and if that is done, this issue would go 82 away. But until that is achieved, we must not lose our only defense 83 for protection from patents.</p> 84 85 <p>Once the Swedish Pirate Party had announced its platform, free 86 software developers noticed this effect and began proposing a special 87 rule for free software: to make copyright last longer for free 88 software, so that it can continue to be copylefted. This explicit 89 exception for free software would counterbalance the effective 90 exception for proprietary software. Even ten years ought to be 91 enough, I think. However, the proposal met with resistance from the 92 Pirate Party's leaders, who objected to the idea of a longer copyright 93 for a special case.</p> 94 95 <p>I could support a law that would make GPL-covered software's source 96 code available in the public domain after 5 years, provided it has the 97 same effect on proprietary software's source code. After all, 98 copyleft is a means to an end (users' freedom), not an end in itself. 99 And I'd rather not be an advocate for a stronger copyright.</p> 100 101 <p>So I proposed that the Pirate Party platform require proprietary 102 software's source code to be put in escrow when the binaries are 103 released. The escrowed source code would then be released in the 104 public domain after 5 years. Rather than making free software an 105 official exception to the 5-year copyright rule, this would eliminate 106 proprietary software's unofficial exception. Either way, the result 107 is fair.</p> 108 109 <p>A Pirate Party supporter proposed a more general variant of the 110 first suggestion: a general scheme to make copyright last longer as 111 the public is granted more freedoms in using the work. The advantage 112 of this is that free software becomes part of a general pattern of 113 varying copyright term, rather than a lone exception.</p> 114 115 <p>I'd prefer the escrow solution, but any of these methods would 116 avoid a prejudicial effect specifically against free software. There 117 may be other solutions that would also do the job. One way or 118 another, the Pirate Party of Sweden should avoid placing a handicap on 119 a movement to defend the public from marauding giants.</p> 120 </div> 121 122 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 123 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 124 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 125 <div class="unprintable"> 126 127 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to 128 <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. 129 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 130 the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent 131 to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> 132 133 <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, 134 replace it with the translation of these two: 135 136 We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality 137 translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. 138 Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard 139 to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> 140 <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> 141 142 <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of 143 our web pages, see <a 144 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 145 README</a>. --> 146 Please see the <a 147 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 148 README</a> for information on coordinating and contributing translations 149 of this article.</p> 150 </div> 151 152 <!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to 153 files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should 154 be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this 155 without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. 156 Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the 157 document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the 158 document was modified, or published. 159 160 If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. 161 Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying 162 years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable 163 year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including 164 being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). 165 166 There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers 167 Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> 168 169 <p>Copyright © 2009, 2012, 2021 Richard Stallman</p> 170 171 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" 172 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative 173 Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> 174 175 <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> 176 177 <p class="unprintable">Updated: 178 <!-- timestamp start --> 179 $Date: 2021/09/19 16:26:24 $ 180 <!-- timestamp end --> 181 </p> 182 </div> 183 </div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> 184 </body> 185 </html>