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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>Science Must Push Copyright Aside 7 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> 8 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/push-copyright-aside.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!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--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>Science Must Push Copyright Aside</h2> 15 16 <address class="byline">by Richard Stallman</address> 17 18 <div class="introduction"> 19 <p><em>Many points that lead to a conclusion that software freedom must be 20 universal often apply to other forms of expressive works, albeit in 21 different ways. This essay concerns the application of principles 22 related to software freedom to the area of literature. 23 Generally, such issues are orthogonal to software freedom, but we 24 include essays like this here since many people interested in Free 25 Software want to know more about how the principles can be applied to 26 areas other than software.</em></p> 27 </div> 28 29 <p>It should be a truism that the scientific literature exists to 30 disseminate scientific knowledge, and that scientific journals exist 31 to facilitate the process. It therefore follows that rules for use of 32 the scientific literature should be designed to help achieve that 33 goal.</p> 34 35 <p>The rules we have now, known as copyright, were established in the 36 age of the printing press, an inherently centralized method of 37 mass-production copying. In a print environment, copyright on journal 38 articles restricted only journal publishers—requiring them to 39 obtain permission to publish an article—and would-be 40 plagiarists. It helped journals to operate and disseminate knowledge, 41 without interfering with the useful work of scientists or students, 42 either as writers or readers of articles. These rules fit that system 43 well.</p> 44 45 <p>The modern technology for scientific publishing, however, is the 46 World Wide Web. What rules would best ensure the maximum 47 dissemination of scientific articles, and knowledge, on the web? 48 Articles should be distributed in nonproprietary formats, with open 49 access for all. And everyone should have the right to 50 “mirror” articles—that is, to republish them verbatim 51 with proper attribution.</p> 52 53 <p>These rules should apply to past as well as future articles, when 54 they are distributed in electronic form. But there is no crucial need 55 to change the present copyright system as it applies to paper 56 publication of journals because the problem is not in that domain.</p> 57 58 <p>Unfortunately, it seems that not everyone agrees with the truisms 59 that began this article. Many journal publishers appear to believe 60 that the purpose of scientific literature is to enable them to publish 61 journals so as to collect subscriptions from scientists and 62 students. Such thinking is known as “confusion of the means with 63 the ends.”</p> 64 65 <p>Their approach has been to restrict access even to read the 66 scientific literature to those who can and will pay for it. They use 67 copyright law, which is still in force despite its inappropriateness 68 for computer networks, as an excuse to stop scientists from choosing 69 new rules.</p> 70 71 <p>For the sake of scientific cooperation and humanity's future, we 72 must reject that approach at its root—not merely the 73 obstructive systems that have been instituted, but the mistaken 74 priorities that inspired them.</p> 75 76 <p>Journal publishers sometimes claim that online access requires 77 expensive high-powered server machines, and that they must charge 78 access fees to pay for these servers. This “problem” is a 79 consequence of its own “solution.” Give everyone the 80 freedom to mirror, and libraries around the world will set up mirror 81 sites to meet the demand. This decentralized solution will reduce 82 network bandwidth needs and provide faster access, all the while 83 protecting the scholarly record against accidental loss.</p> 84 85 <p>Publishers also argue that paying the editors requires charging for 86 access. Let us accept the assumption that editors must be paid; this 87 tail need not wag the dog. The cost of editing for a typical paper is 88 between 1 percent and 3 percent of the cost of funding the research to produce 89 it. Such a small percentage of the cost can hardly justify obstructing 90 the use of the results.</p> 91 92 <p>Instead, the cost of editing could be recovered, for example, 93 through page charges to the authors, who can pass these on to the 94 research sponsors. The sponsors should not mind, given that they 95 currently pay for publication in a more cumbersome way, through 96 overhead fees for the university library's subscription to the 97 journal. By changing the economic model to charge editing costs to the 98 research sponsors, we can eliminate the apparent need to restrict 99 access. The occasional author who is not affiliated with an 100 institution or company, and who has no research sponsor, could be 101 exempted from page charges, with costs levied on institution-based 102 authors.</p> 103 104 <p>Another justification for access fees to online publications is to 105 fund conversion of the print archives of a journal into online 106 form. That work needs to be done, but we should seek alternative ways 107 of funding it that do not involve obstructing access to the 108 result. The work itself will not be any more difficult, or cost any 109 more. It is self-defeating to digitize the archives and waste the 110 results by restricting access.</p> 111 112 <p>The US Constitution says that copyright exists “to promote 113 the Progress of Science.” When copyright impedes the progress of 114 science, science must push copyright out of the way.</p> 115 116 <hr class="column-limit" /> 117 118 <h3 class="footnote">Later developments</h3> 119 120 <p>Some universities have adopted policies to thwart the journal 121 publishers' power. For instance, look at the 122 <a href="https://libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/mit-open-access/open-access-policy/"> 123 MIT Faculty Open Access Policy</a>. 124 Stronger policies are needed, however, as this one permits individual 125 authors to “opt out” (i.e., cave in).</p> 126 127 <p>The US government has imposed a requirement known as “public 128 access” on some funded research. This requires publication within a 129 certain period in a site that allows anyone to view the article. This 130 requirement is a positive step, but inadequate because it does not 131 include freedom to redistribute the article.</p> 132 133 <p>Curiously, the concept of “open access” in the 2002 Budapest Open 134 Access Initiative did include freedom to redistribute. I signed that 135 declaration, despite my distaste for the word “open,” because the 136 substance of the position was right.</p> 137 138 <p>However, the word “open” had the last laugh: influential 139 campaigners for “open access” subsequently dropped freedom to 140 redistribute from their goals. I stand by the position of 141 the <a href="https://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/">BOAI</a>, but now that 142 “open access” means something else, I refer to it as “redistributable 143 publication” or “free-to-mirror publication.”</p> 144 145 <div class="infobox extra" role="complementary"> 146 <hr /> 147 <p>This article appeared in <a 148 href="https://web.archive.org/web/20050729110347/http://www.nature.com/nature/debates/e-access/Articles/stallman.html"> 149 <cite>Nature WebDebates</cite></a> in 2001.</p> 150 </div> 151 </div> 152 153 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 154 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 155 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 156 <div class="unprintable"> 157 158 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to 159 <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. 160 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 161 the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent 162 to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> 163 164 <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, 165 replace it with the translation of these two: 166 167 We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality 168 translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. 169 Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard 170 to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> 171 <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> 172 173 <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of 174 our web pages, see <a 175 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 176 README</a>. --> 177 Please see the <a 178 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 179 README</a> for information on coordinating and contributing translations 180 of this article.</p> 181 </div> 182 183 <!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to 184 files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should 185 be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this 186 without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. 187 Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the 188 document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the 189 document was modified, or published. 190 191 If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. 192 Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying 193 years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable 194 year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including 195 being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). 196 197 There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers 198 Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> 199 200 <p>Copyright © 2001, 2010-2012, 2021 Richard Stallman</p> 201 202 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" 203 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative 204 Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> 205 206 <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> 207 208 <p class="unprintable">Updated: 209 <!-- timestamp start --> 210 $Date: 2021/10/02 11:25:45 $ 211 <!-- timestamp end --> 212 </p> 213 </div> 214 </div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> 215 </body> 216 </html>