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www/philosophy copyright-and-globalization.html


From: Yavor Doganov
Subject: www/philosophy copyright-and-globalization.html
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 16:17:23 +0000

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Yavor Doganov <yavor>   08/03/21 16:17:23

Modified files:
        philosophy     : copyright-and-globalization.html 

Log message:
        Fix a few typos and misspellings.  Use mdash.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.16&r2=1.17

Patches:
Index: copyright-and-globalization.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.html,v
retrieving revision 1.16
retrieving revision 1.17
diff -u -b -r1.16 -r1.17
--- copyright-and-globalization.html    20 Mar 2008 13:56:37 -0000      1.16
+++ copyright-and-globalization.html    21 Mar 2008 16:16:50 -0000      1.17
@@ -14,12 +14,12 @@
 <b>DAVID THORBURN, moderator</b>: Our speaker today, Richard Stallman,
 is a legendary figure in the computing world, and my experience in
 trying to find a respondent to share the podium with him was
-instructive. One distinguished <abbr>MIT</abbr> professor told me that
-Stallman needs to be understood as a charismatic figure in a biblical
-parable - a kind of Old Testament
-anecdote-lesson. &ldquo;Imagine,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;a Moses or a
-Jeremiah - better a Jeremiah.&rdquo; And I said, &ldquo;Well, that's
-very admirable.</p>
+instructive.  One distinguished <abbr>MIT</abbr> professor told me
+that Stallman needs to be understood as a charismatic figure in a
+biblical parable &mdash; a kind of Old Testament anecdote-lesson.
+&ldquo;Imagine,&rdquo; he said, &ldquo;a Moses or a Jeremiah &mdash;
+better a Jeremiah.&rdquo; And I said, &ldquo;Well, that's very
+admirable.</p>
 <p>
 That sounds wonderful.  It confirms my sense of the kind of
 contribution he has made to the world.  Then why are you reluctant to
@@ -100,7 +100,8 @@
 could do.  For instance, you could copy a part of a book, then write
 some new words, copy some more and write some new words and on and on.
 This was called &ldquo;writing a commentary&rdquo; &mdash; that was a
-common thing to do - and these commentaries were appreciated.</p>
+common thing to do &mdash; and these commentaries were
+appreciated.</p>
 <p>
 You could also copy a passage out of one book, then write some other
 words, and copy a passage from another book and write some more and so
@@ -189,13 +190,13 @@
 <p>
 Now, is this an advantageous trade?  Well, when the general public
 can't make copies because they can only be efficiently made on
-printing presses - and most people don't own printing presses - the
-result is that the general public is trading away a freedom it is
-unable to exercise, a freedom that is of no practical value.  So if
-you have something that is a byproduct of your life and it's useless
-and you have the opportunity to exchange it for something else of any
-value, you're gaining.  So that's why copyright may have been an
-advantageous trade for the public in that time.</p>
+printing presses &mdash; and most people don't own printing presses
+&mdash; the result is that the general public is trading away a
+freedom it is unable to exercise, a freedom that is of no practical
+value.  So if you have something that is a byproduct of your life and
+it's useless and you have the opportunity to exchange it for something
+else of any value, you're gaining.  So that's why copyright may have
+been an advantageous trade for the public in that time.</p>
 <p>
 But the context is changing, and that has to change our ethical
 evaluation of copyright.  Now the basic principles of ethics are not
@@ -226,9 +227,9 @@
 priority.  Copyright was easy to enforce because it was a restriction
 only on publishers who were easy to find and what they published was
 easy to see.  Now the copyright is a restriction on each and everyone
-of you.  To enforce it requires surveillance - an intrusion - and
-harsh punishments, and we are seeing these being enacted into law in
-the U.S. and other countries.</p>
+of you.  To enforce it requires surveillance &mdash; an intrusion
+&mdash; and harsh punishments, and we are seeing these being enacted
+into law in the U.S. and other countries.</p>
 <p>
 And copyright used to be, arguably, an advantageous trade for the
 public to make because the public was trading away freedoms it
@@ -261,9 +262,9 @@
 Clearly, this kind of campaign comes from somebody paying for it.  Now
 why are they doing that?  I think I know.  The reason is that e-books
 are the opportunity to take away some of the residual freedoms that
-readers of printed books have always had and still have - the freedom,
-for instance, to lend a book to your friend or borrow it from the
-public library or sell a copy to a used bookstore or buy a copy
+readers of printed books have always had and still have &mdash; the
+freedom, for instance, to lend a book to your friend or borrow it from
+the public library or sell a copy to a used bookstore or buy a copy
 anonymously, without putting a record in the database of who bought
 that particular book.  And maybe even the right to read it twice.</p>
 <p>
@@ -282,17 +283,17 @@
 <p>
 We see at the same time efforts to take away people's freedom in using
 other kinds of published works.  For instance, movies that are on DVDs
-are published in an encrypted format that used to be secret - it was
-meant to be secret - and the only way the movie companies would tell
-you the format, so that you could make a DVD player, was if you signed
-a contract to build certain restrictions into the player, with the
-result that the public would be stopped even from fully exercising
-their legal rights.  Then a few clever programmers in Europe figured
-out the format of DVDs and they wrote a free software package that
-would read a DVD.  This made it possible to use free software on top
-of the GNU Plus Linux operating system to watch the DVD that you had
-bought, which is a perfectly legitimate thing to do.  You ought to be
-able to do that with free software.</p>
+are published in an encrypted format that used to be secret &mdash; it
+was meant to be secret &mdash; and the only way the movie companies
+would tell you the format, so that you could make a DVD player, was if
+you signed a contract to build certain restrictions into the player,
+with the result that the public would be stopped even from fully
+exercising their legal rights.  Then a few clever programmers in
+Europe figured out the format of DVDs and they wrote a free software
+package that would read a DVD.  This made it possible to use free
+software on top of the GNU+Linux operating system to watch the DVD
+that you had bought, which is a perfectly legitimate thing to do.  You
+ought to be able to do that with free software.</p>
 <p>
 But the movie companies objected and they went to court.  You see, the
 movie companies used to make a lot of films where there was a mad
@@ -312,9 +313,9 @@
 Act was passed in the first place.  The reason is the campaign finance
 system that we have in the U.S., which is essentially legalized
 bribery where the candidates are bought by business before they even
-get elected.  And, of course, they know who their master is - they
-know whom they're working for - and they pass the laws to give
-business more power.</p>
+get elected.  And, of course, they know who their master is &mdash;
+they know whom they're working for &mdash; and they pass the laws to
+give business more power.</p>
 <p>
 What will happen with that particular battle, we don't know.  But
 meanwhile Australia has passed a similar law and Europe is almost
@@ -332,9 +333,9 @@
 anyone caught doing forbidden copying. You could be sent to Siberia.
 Third, soliciting informers, asking everyone to rat on their neighbors
 and co-workers to the information police.  Fourth, collective
-responsibility - You!  You're going to watch that group!  If I catch
-any of them doing forbidden copying, you are going to prison.  So
-watch them hard.  And, fifth, propaganda, starting in childhood to
+responsibility &mdash; You!  You're going to watch that group!  If I
+catch any of them doing forbidden copying, you are going to prison.
+So watch them hard.  And, fifth, propaganda, starting in childhood to
 convince everyone that only a horrible enemy of the people would ever
 do this forbidden copying.</p>
 <p>
@@ -538,22 +539,22 @@
 The next question is:  Should people have the right to do commercial
 verbatim copying?  Or is non-commercial enough?  You see, these are
 two different activities we can distinguish, so that we can consider
-the questions separately - the right to do non-commercial verbatim
-copying and the right to do commercial verbatim copying.  Well, it
-might be a good compromise policy to have copyright cover commercial
-verbatim copying but allow everyone the right to do non-commercial
-verbatim copying.  This way, the copyright on the commercial verbatim
-copying, as well as on all modified versions - only the author could
-approve a modified version - would still provide the same revenue
-stream that it provides now to fund the writing of these works, to
-whatever extent it does.</p>
+the questions separately &mdash; the right to do non-commercial
+verbatim copying and the right to do commercial verbatim copying.
+Well, it might be a good compromise policy to have copyright cover
+commercial verbatim copying but allow everyone the right to do
+non-commercial verbatim copying.  This way, the copyright on the
+commercial verbatim copying, as well as on all modified versions
+&mdash; only the author could approve a modified version &mdash; would
+still provide the same revenue stream that it provides now to fund the
+writing of these works, to whatever extent it does.</p>
 <p>
 By allowing the non-commercial verbatim copying, it means the
 copyright no longer has to intrude into everybody's home. It becomes
 an industrial regulation again, easy to enforce and painless, no
-longer requiring Draconian punishments and informers for the sake of
-its enforcement.  So we get most of the benefit - and avoid most of
-the horror - of the current system.</p>
+longer requiring draconian punishments and informers for the sake of
+its enforcement.  So we get most of the benefit &mdash; and avoid most
+of the horror &mdash; of the current system.</p>
 <p>
 The third category of works is aesthetic or entertaining works, where
 the most important thing is just the sensation of looking at the
@@ -722,15 +723,15 @@
 But I think I detect another theme that lies beneath what Stallman has
 been saying and that isn't really directly about computers at all, but
 more broadly about questions of democratic authority and the power
-that government and corporations increasingly exercise over our
-lives.  This populist and anti-corporate side to Stallman's discourse
-is nourishing but also reductive, potentially simplifying.  And it is
-also perhaps overly idealistic.   For example, how  would a  a
-novelist or a poet or a songwriter or a musician or the author of an
-academic textbook surivive in this brave new world where people are
-encouraged but not required to pay authors.  In other words, it seems
-to me, the gap between existing practice and  the  visionary
-possibilities Stallman speculates about is still immensely wide.</p>
+that government and corporations increasingly exercise over our lives.
+This populist and anti-corporate side to Stallman's discourse is
+nourishing but also reductive, potentially simplifying.  And it is
+also perhaps overly idealistic.  For example, how would a novelist or
+a poet or a songwriter or a musician or the author of an academic
+textbook survive in this brave new world where people are encouraged
+but not required to pay authors.  In other words, it seems to me, the
+gap between existing practice and the visionary possibilities Stallman
+speculates about is still immensely wide.</p>
 <p>
 So I'll conclude by asking if Stallman would like to expand a bit on
 certain aspects of his talk and, specifically, whether he has further
@@ -796,10 +797,11 @@
 The other thing is, we do not have this digital cash payment system;
 so we can't really try it today.  You could try to do something a
 little bit like it.  There are services you can sign up for where you
-can pay money to someone - things like Pay Pal.  But before you can
-pay anyone through Pay Pal, you have to go through a lot of rigmarole
-and give them personal information about you, and they collect records
-of whom you pay.  Can you trust them not to misuse that?</p>
+can pay money to someone &mdash; things like Pay Pal.  But before you
+can pay anyone through Pay Pal, you have to go through a lot of
+rigmarole and give them personal information about you, and they
+collect records of whom you pay.  Can you trust them not to misuse
+that?</p>
 <p>
 So the dollar might not discourage you, but the trouble it takes to
 pay might discourage you.  The whole idea of this is that it should be
@@ -816,10 +818,11 @@
 We are gradually moving from the age of the printing press to the age
 of the computer network, but it's not happening in a day.  People are
 still buying lots of records, and that will probably continue for many
-years - maybe forever.  As long as that continues, simply having
-copyrights that still apply to commercial sales of records ought to
-do about as good a job of supporting musicians as it does today.  Of
-course, that's not very good, but, at least, it won't get any worse.</p>
+years &mdash; maybe forever.  As long as that continues, simply having
+copyrights that still apply to commercial sales of records ought to do
+about as good a job of supporting musicians as it does today.  Of
+course, that's not very good, but, at least, it won't get any
+worse.</p>
 <p>
 <b>DISCUSSION</b>:</p>
 <p>
@@ -842,14 +845,15 @@
 Well, clearly, that's not the way to make the public feel like sending
 you money.  You've got to make them love you, not fear you.</p>
 <p>
-<b>SPEAKER</b>: The details were that he required a certain percentage -
-I don't know the exact percentage, around 90% sounds correct. - of
-people to send a certain amount of money, which, I believe, was a dollar
-or two dollars, or somewhere in that order of magnitude You had to type
-in your name and your e-mail address and some other information to get
-to download it and if that percentage of people was not reached after
-the first chapter, he said that he would not release another chapter.
-It was very antagonistic to the public downloading it.</p>
+<b>SPEAKER</b>: The details were that he required a certain percentage
+&mdash; I don't know the exact percentage, around 90% sounds correct
+&mdash; of people to send a certain amount of money, which, I believe,
+was a dollar or two dollars, or somewhere in that order of magnitude.
+You had to type in your name and your e-mail address and some other
+information to get to download it and if that percentage of people was
+not reached after the first chapter, he said that he would not release
+another chapter.  It was very antagonistic to the public downloading
+it.</p>
 <p>
 <b>QUESTION</b>:  Isn't the scheme where there's no copyright but people are
 asked to make voluntary donations open to abuse by people
@@ -869,11 +873,12 @@
 saying that everything should be permitted.  I'm proposing to reduce
 copyright powers, not abolish them.</p>
 <p>
-<b>THORBURN</b>:  I guess one question that occurred to me while you were
-speaking, Richard, and, again, now when you're responding here to this
-question is why you don't consider the ways in which the computer,
-itself, eliminates the middle men completely - in the way that Stephen
-King refused to do - and might establish a personal relationship.</p>
+<b>THORBURN</b>: I guess one question that occurred to me while you
+were speaking, Richard, and, again, now when you're responding here to
+this question is why you don't consider the ways in which the
+computer, itself, eliminates the middle men completely &mdash; in the
+way that Stephen King refused to do &mdash; and might establish a
+personal relationship.</p>
 <p>
 <b>STALLMAN</b>:  Well, they can and, in fact, this voluntary donation
 is one.</p>
@@ -1018,8 +1023,8 @@
 years in a way that had never been in place before.  If I write an
 essay in which I want to use still images, even from films, they are
 much harder to get permission to use, and the prices charged to use
-those still images are much higher - even when I make arguments about
-intellectual inquiry and the the legal category of &ldquo;fair
+those still images are much higher &mdash; even when I make arguments
+about intellectual inquiry and the the legal category of &ldquo;fair
 use.&rdquo; So I think, in this moment of extended transformation, the
 longer-term prospects may, in fact, not be as disturbing as what's
 happening in the shorter term.  But in any case, we need to understand
@@ -1132,14 +1137,15 @@
 issue.  There's just one area where an issue arises with patents that
 is actually similar to these issues of freedom to copy, and that is in
 the area of agriculture.  Because there are certain patented things
-that can be copies, more or less - namely, living things.  They copy
-themselves when they reproduce.  It's not necessarily exact copying;
-they re-shuffle the genes.  But the fact is, farmers for millennia
-have been making use of this capacity of the living things they grow
-to copy themselves.  Farming is, basically, copying the things that
-you grew and you keep copying them every year.  When plant and animal
-varieties get patented, when genes are patented and used in them, the
-result is that farmers are being prohibited from doing this.</p>
+that can be copies, more or less &mdash; namely, living things.  They
+copy themselves when they reproduce.  It's not necessarily exact
+copying; they re-shuffle the genes.  But the fact is, farmers for
+millennia have been making use of this capacity of the living things
+they grow to copy themselves.  Farming is, basically, copying the
+things that you grew and you keep copying them every year.  When plant
+and animal varieties get patented, when genes are patented and used in
+them, the result is that farmers are being prohibited from doing
+this.</p>
 <p>
 There is a farmer in Canada who had a patented variety growing on his
 field and he said, &ldquo;I didn't do that deliberately.  The pollen
@@ -1171,19 +1177,20 @@
 <p>
 This tremendously boosts it.  But I don't know how much it will work
 in various different areas, but I think that in the area of education,
-when you're looking for textbooks, I think I see a way it can be
-done.  There are a lot of teachers in the world, teachers who are not
-at prestigious universities - maybe they're in high-school; maybe
-they're in college - where they don't write and publish a lot of
+when you're looking for textbooks, I think I see a way it can be done.
+There are a lot of teachers in the world, teachers who are not at
+prestigious universities &mdash; maybe they're in high-school; maybe
+they're in college &mdash; where they don't write and publish a lot of
 things and there's not a tremendous demand for them.  But a lot of
 them are smart.  A lot of them know their subjects well and they could
 write textbooks about lots of subjects and share them with the world
 and receive a tremendous amount of appreciation from the people who
 will have learned from them.</p>
 <p>
-<b>QUESTION</b>:  That's what I proposed.  But the funny thing is, I do know
-the history of education.  That's what I do - educational, electronic
-media projects.  I couldn't find an example.  Do you know of one?</p>
+<b>QUESTION</b>: That's what I proposed.  But the funny thing is, I do
+know the history of education.  That's what I do &mdash; educational,
+electronic media projects.  I couldn't find an example.  Do you know
+of one?</p>
 <p>
 <b>STALLMAN</b>:  No, I don't.  I started proposing this free encyclopedia
 and learning resource a couple of years ago, and I thought it would
@@ -1246,7 +1253,7 @@
 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 
 the FSF.
 <br />
-Please send broken links and other corrections (or suggestions) to
+Please send broken links and other corrections or suggestions to
 <a href="mailto:address@hidden";><em>address@hidden</em></a>.
 </p>
 
@@ -1258,7 +1265,7 @@
 </p>
 
 <p>
-Copyright &copy; 2001, 2007 Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
+Copyright &copy; 2001, 2007, 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
 </p>
 <address>51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110, USA</address>
 <p>Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
@@ -1268,7 +1275,7 @@
 <p>
 Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2008/03/20 13:56:37 $
+$Date: 2008/03/21 16:16:50 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>




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