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www/philosophy copyright-and-globalization.html
|
From: |
Yavor Doganov |
|
Subject: |
www/philosophy copyright-and-globalization.html |
|
Date: |
Mon, 02 Apr 2007 20:30:27 +0000 |
CVSROOT: /web/www
Module name: www
Changes by: Yavor Doganov <yavor> 07/04/02 20:30:27
Modified files:
philosophy : copyright-and-globalization.html
Log message:
* Templated.
* Fixed two typos:
+ "You could sent to Siberia" -> "You could be sent to Siberia"
+ "that stIIill apply" -> "that still apply"
* Corrected some minor punctuation errors.
* Added link to the Czech translation.
CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.11&r2=1.12
Patches:
Index: copyright-and-globalization.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.html,v
retrieving revision 1.11
retrieving revision 1.12
diff -u -b -r1.11 -r1.12
--- copyright-and-globalization.html 26 Sep 2005 21:15:02 -0000 1.11
+++ copyright-and-globalization.html 2 Apr 2007 20:30:11 -0000 1.12
@@ -1,36 +1,12 @@
-<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
-<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
- "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd";>
-<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"; xml:lang="en">
-
-<head>
-<title>Copyright and Globalization in the Age of Computer Networks - GNU
Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)</title>
-<meta http-equiv="content-type" content='text/html; charset=utf-8' />
-<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/gnu.css" />
-<link rev="made" href="mailto:address@hidden"; />
-</head>
-
-<!-- This document is in XML, and xhtml 1.0 -->
-<!-- Please make sure to properly nest your tags -->
-<!-- and ensure that your final document validates -->
-<!-- consistent with W3C xhtml 1.0 and CSS standards -->
-<!-- See validator.w3.org -->
-
-<body>
-
-<p><a href="#translations">Translations</a> of this page</p>
-
-<h3>Copyright and Globalization in the Age of Computer Networks</h3>
-
-<p>
-<a href="/graphics/agnuhead.html"><img src="/graphics/gnu-head-sm.jpg"
- alt=" [image of the Head of a GNU] "
- width="129" height="122" /></a>
-</p>
-
+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<title>Copyright and Globalization in the Age of Computer Networks -
+GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+<h2>Copyright and Globalization in the Age of Computer Networks</h2>
<p>
-<i>The following is an edited transcript from a speech given at MIT in
+<i>The following is an edited transcript from a speech given
+at <abbr title="Massachusetts Institute of Technology">MIT</abbr> in
the Communications Form on Thursday, April 19, 2001 from 5:00pm -
7:00pm</i></p>
@@ -38,17 +14,20 @@
<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 MIT professor told me that Stallman needs
-to be understood as a charismatic figure in a biblical parable - a kind
-of Old Testament anecdote-lesson. "Imagine," he said, "a Moses or a
-Jeremiah - better a Jeremiah." And I said, "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 - a kind of Old Testament
+anecdote-lesson. “Imagine,” he said, “a Moses or a
+Jeremiah - better a Jeremiah.” And I said, “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
-share the podium with him?" His answer: "Like Jeremiah or Moses, he
-would simply overwhelm me. I won't appear on the same panel him, but
-if you asked me to name five people alive in the world who have truly
-helped us all, Richard Stallman would be one of them."</p>
+share the podium with him?” His answer: “Like Jeremiah or
+Moses, he would simply overwhelm me. I won't appear on the same panel
+him, but if you asked me to name five people alive in the world who
+have truly helped us all, Richard Stallman would be one of
+them.”</p>
<p>
<b>RICHARD STALLMAN</b>: I should [begin by explaining why I have
refused to allow this Forum to be web cast], in case it wasn't clear
@@ -60,7 +39,7 @@
What it does is secret. You can't study it; you can't change it; and
you certainly can't publish it in your own modified version. And
those are among the freedoms that are essential in the definition of
-"free software."</p>
+“free software.”</p>
<p>
So if I am to be an honest advocate for free software, I can hardly go
around giving speeches, then put pressure on people to use non-free
@@ -69,26 +48,27 @@
them seriously.</p>
<p>
However, this speech is not about free software. After I'd been
-working on the free-software movement for several years and people
+working on the free software movement for several years and people
started using some of the pieces of the GNU operating system, I began
-getting invited to give speeches [at which] . . . people started
-asking me: "Well, how do the ideas about freedom for software users
-generalize to other kinds of things?"</p>
-<p>
-And, of course, people asked silly questions like, "Well, should
-hardware be free?" "Should this microphone be free?"</p>
+getting invited to give speeches [at which] … people started
+asking me: “Well, how do the ideas about freedom for software
+users generalize to other kinds of things?”</p>
+<p>
+And, of course, people asked silly questions like, “Well, should
+hardware be free?” “Should this microphone be
+free?”</p>
<p>
Well, what does that mean? Should you be free to copy it and change
it? Well, as for changing it, if you buy the microphone, nobody is
going to stop you from changing it. And as for copying it, nobody has
-a microphone copier. Outside of "Star Trek," those things don't
-exist. Maybe some day there'll be nanotechnological analyzers and
-assemblers, and it really will be possible to copy a physical object,
-and then these issues of whether you're free to do that will start
-being really important. We'll see agribusiness companies trying to
-stop people from copying food, and that will become a major political
-issue, if that technological capability will ever exist. I don't know
-if it will; it's just speculation at this point.</p>
+a microphone copier. Outside of “Star Trek,” those things
+don't exist. Maybe some day there'll be nanotechnological analyzers
+and assemblers, and it really will be possible to copy a physical
+object, and then these issues of whether you're free to do that will
+start being really important. We'll see agribusiness companies trying
+to stop people from copying food, and that will become a major
+political issue, if that technological capability will ever exist. I
+don't know if it will; it's just speculation at this point.</p>
<p>
But for other kinds of information, you can raise the issue because
any kind of information that can be stored on a computer, conceivably,
@@ -118,9 +98,9 @@
They knew, say, that this play was written by Sophocles but in between
writing a book and copying a book, there were other useful things you
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 "writing a commentary" -- that was a common thing
-to do - and these commentaries were appreciated.</p>
+some new words, copy some more and write some new words and on and on.
+This was called “writing a commentary” — that was a
+common thing to do - 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
@@ -153,8 +133,8 @@
people did this to get an especially beautiful copy that would show
how rich they were, and poor people did it because maybe they didn't
have enough money to buy a printed copy but they had the time to copy
-a book by hand. As the song says, "Time ain't money when all you got
-is time."</p>
+a book by hand. As the song says, “Time ain't money when all
+you got is time.”</p>
<p>
So hand-copying was still done to some extent. I think it was in the
1800s that printing actually got to be cheap enough that even poor
@@ -316,14 +296,14 @@
<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
-scientist and somebody was saying, "But, Doctor, there are some things
-Man was not meant to know." They must have watched their own films
-too much because they came to believe that the format of DVDs is
-something that Man was not meant to know. And they obtained a ruling
-for total censorship of the software for playing DVDs. Even making a
-link to a site where this information is legally available outside the
-U.S. has been prohibited. An appeal has been made against this
-ruling. I signed a friend-of-the-court brief in that appeal, I'm
+scientist and somebody was saying, “But, Doctor, there are some
+things Man was not meant to know.” They must have watched their
+own films too much because they came to believe that the format of
+DVDs is something that Man was not meant to know. And they obtained a
+ruling for total censorship of the software for playing DVDs. Even
+making a link to a site where this information is legally available
+outside the U.S. has been prohibited. An appeal has been made against
+this ruling. I signed a friend-of-the-court brief in that appeal, I'm
proud to say, although I'm playing a fairly small role in that
particular battle.</p>
<p>
@@ -349,7 +329,7 @@
stamp it out, they developed a series of methods: First, guards
watching every piece of copying equipment to check what people were
copying to prevent forbidden copying. Second, harsh punishments for
-anyone caught doing forbidden copying. You could sent to Siberia.
+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
@@ -394,15 +374,15 @@
court; your site just gets unplugged.</p>
<p>
And, finally, propaganda, starting in childhood. That's what the word
-"pirate" is used for. If you'll think back a few years, the term
-"pirate" was formerly applied to publishers that didn't pay the
-author. But now it's been turned completely around. It's now applied
-to members of the public who escape from the control of the
-publisher. It's being used to convince people that only a nasty enemy
-of the people would ever do this forbidden copying. It says that
-"sharing with your neighbor is the moral equivalent of attacking a
-ship." I hope that you don't agree with that and if you don't, I hope
-you will refuse to use the word in that way.</p>
+“pirate” is used for. If you'll think back a few years,
+the term “pirate” was formerly applied to publishers that
+didn't pay the author. But now it's been turned completely around.
+It's now applied to members of the public who escape from the control
+of the publisher. It's being used to convince people that only a
+nasty enemy of the people would ever do this forbidden copying. It
+says that “sharing with your neighbor is the moral equivalent of
+attacking a ship.” I hope that you don't agree with that and if
+you don't, I hope you will refuse to use the word in that way.</p>
<p>
So the publishers are purchasing laws to give themselves more power.
In addition, they're also extending the length of time the copyright
@@ -415,39 +395,43 @@
and any given copyright will nominally expire some day. But that
expiration will never be reached because every copyright will be
extended by 20 years every 20 years; thus no work will ever go into
-the public domain again. This has been called "perpetual copyright on
-the installment plan."</p>
+the public domain again. This has been called “perpetual
+copyright on the installment plan.”</p>
<p>
The law in 1998 that extended copyright by 20 years is known as the
-"Mickey Mouse Copyright Extension Act" because one of the main
-sponsors of this law was Disney. Disney realized that the copyright
-on Mickey Mouse was going to expire, and they don't want that to ever
-happen because they make a lot of money from that copyright.</p>
-<p>
-Now the original title of this talk was supposed to be "Copyright and
-Globalization." If you look at globalization, what you see is that
-it's carried out by a number of policies which are done in the name of
-economic efficiency or so-called free-trade treaties, which really are
-designed to give business power over laws and policies. They're not
-really about free trade. They're about a transfer of power: removing
-the power to decide laws from the citizens of any country who might
-conceivably consider their own interests and giving that power to
-businesses who will not consider the interests of those citizens.</p>
+“Mickey Mouse Copyright Extension Act” because one of the
+main sponsors of this law was Disney. Disney realized that the
+copyright on Mickey Mouse was going to expire, and they don't want
+that to ever happen because they make a lot of money from that
+copyright.</p>
+<p>
+Now the original title of this talk was supposed to be
+“Copyright and Globalization.” If you look at
+globalization, what you see is that it's carried out by a number of
+policies which are done in the name of economic efficiency or
+so-called free-trade treaties, which really are designed to give
+business power over laws and policies. They're not really about free
+trade. They're about a transfer of power: removing the power to
+decide laws from the citizens of any country who might conceivably
+consider their own interests and giving that power to businesses who
+will not consider the interests of those citizens.</p>
<p>
Democracy is the problem in their view, and these treaties are
-designed to put an end to the problem. For instance, NAFTA actually
-contains provisions, I believe, allowing companies to sue another
-government to get rid of a law that they believe is interfering with
-their profits in the other country. So foreign companies have more
-power than citizens of the country.</p>
-<p>
-There are attempts being made to extend this beyond NAFTA. For
-instance, this is one of the goals of the so-called free trade area of
-the Americas, to extend this principle to all the countries in South
-America and the Caribbean as well, and the multilateral agreement on
-investment was intended to spread it to the whole world.</p>
+designed to put an end to the problem. For instance,
+<abbr title="North American Free Trade Agreement">NAFTA</abbr>
+actually contains provisions, I believe, allowing companies to sue
+another government to get rid of a law that they believe is
+interfering with their profits in the other country. So foreign
+companies have more power than citizens of the country.</p>
+<p>
+There are attempts being made to extend this
+beyond <abbr>NAFTA</abbr>. For instance, this is one of the goals of
+the so-called free trade area of the Americas, to extend this
+principle to all the countries in South America and the Caribbean as
+well, and the multilateral agreement on investment was intended to
+spread it to the whole world.</p>
<p>
-One thing we've seen in the `90s is that these treaties begin to
+One thing we've seen in the '90s is that these treaties begin to
impose copyright throughout the world, and in more powerful and
restrictive ways. These treaties are not free-trade treaties.
They're actually corporate-controlled trade treaties being used to
@@ -536,10 +520,10 @@
has known this for hundreds of years. It's normal to make copies of
recipes and hand them out to other people, and it's also normal to
change a recipe. If you change the recipe and cook it for your
-friends and they like eating it, they might ask you, "Could I have the
-recipe?" Then maybe you'll write down your version and give them
-copies. That is exactly the same thing that we much later started
-doing in the free-software community.</p>
+friends and they like eating it, they might ask you, “Could I
+have the recipe?” Then maybe you'll write down your version and
+give them copies. That is exactly the same thing that we much later
+started doing in the free-software community.</p>
<p>
So that's one class of work. The second class of work is works whose
purpose is to say what certain people think. Talking about those
@@ -609,31 +593,33 @@
that verbatim copying of all these aesthetic works is permitted. But
they're written in such a way that when you are playing one or reading
one or watching one, a box appears on the side of your screen that
-says, "Click here to send a dollar to the author," or the musician or
-whatever. And it just sits there; it doesn't get in your way; it's on
-the side. It doesn't interfere with you, but it's there, reminding
-you that it's a good thing to support the writers and the musicians.</p>
+says, “Click here to send a dollar to the author,” or the
+musician or whatever. And it just sits there; it doesn't get in your
+way; it's on the side. It doesn't interfere with you, but it's there,
+reminding you that it's a good thing to support the writers and the
+musicians.</p>
<p>
So if you love the work that you're reading or listening to,
-eventually you're going to say, "Why shouldn't I give these people a
-dollar? It's only a dollar. What's that? I won't even miss it."
-And people will start sending a dollar. The good thing about this is
-that it makes copying the ally of the authors and musicians. When
-somebody e-mails a friend a copy, that friend might send a dollar,
-too. If you really love it, you might send a dollar more than once
-and that dollar is more than they're going to get today if you buy the
-book or buy the CD because they get a tiny fraction of the sale. The
-same publishers that are demanding total power over the public in the
-name of the authors and musicians are giving those authors and
-musicians the shaft all the time.</p>
-<p>
-I recommend you read Courtney Love's article in "Salon" magazine, an
-article about pirates that plan to use musicians' work without paying
-them. These pirates are the record companies that pay musicians 4% of
-the sales figures, on the average. Of course, the very successful
-musicians have more clout. They get more than 4% of their large sales
-figures, which means that the great run of musicians who have a record
-contract get less than 4% of their small sales figures.</p>
+eventually you're going to say, “Why shouldn't I give these
+people a dollar? It's only a dollar. What's that? I won't even miss
+it.” And people will start sending a dollar. The good thing
+about this is that it makes copying the ally of the authors and
+musicians. When somebody e-mails a friend a copy, that friend might
+send a dollar, too. If you really love it, you might send a dollar
+more than once and that dollar is more than they're going to get today
+if you buy the book or buy the CD because they get a tiny fraction of
+the sale. The same publishers that are demanding total power over the
+public in the name of the authors and musicians are giving those
+authors and musicians the shaft all the time.</p>
+<p>
+I recommend you read Courtney Love's article in “Salon”
+magazine, an article about pirates that plan to use musicians' work
+without paying them. These pirates are the record companies that pay
+musicians 4% of the sales figures, on the average. Of course, the
+very successful musicians have more clout. They get more than 4% of
+their large sales figures, which means that the great run of musicians
+who have a record contract get less than 4% of their small sales
+figures.</p>
<p>
Here's the way it works: The record company spends money on publicity
and they consider this expenditure as an advance to the musicians,
@@ -748,48 +734,52 @@
<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
-thoughts about the way in which what we'll call "traditional creators"
-would be protected under his copyright system.</p>
+thoughts about the way in which what we'll call “traditional
+creators” would be protected under his copyright system.</p>
<p>
-<b>STALLMAN</b>: First of all, I have to point out that we shouldn't use
-the term "protection" to describe what copyright does. Copyright
-restricts people. The term "protection" is a propaganda term of the
-copyright-owning businesses. The term "protection" means stopping
-something from being somehow destroyed. Well, I don't think a song is
-destroyed if there are more copies of it being played more. I don't
-think that a novel is destroyed if more people are reading copies of it,
-either. So I won't use that word. I think it leads people to identify
-with the wrong party.</p>
+<b>STALLMAN</b>: First of all, I have to point out that we shouldn't
+use the term “protection” to describe what copyright does.
+Copyright restricts people. The term “protection” is a
+propaganda term of the copyright-owning businesses. The term
+“protection“ means stopping something from being somehow
+destroyed. Well, I don't think a song is destroyed if there are more
+copies of it being played more. I don't think that a novel is
+destroyed if more people are reading copies of it, either. So I won't
+use that word. I think it leads people to identify with the wrong
+party.</p>
<p>
Also, it's a very bad idea to think about intellectual property for
two reasons: First, it prejudges the most fundamental question in the
area which is: How should these things be treated and should they be
-treated as a kind of property? To use the term "intellectual
-property" to describe the area is to presuppose the answer is "yes,"
-that that's the way to treat things, not some other way.</p>
+treated as a kind of property? To use the term “intellectual
+property” to describe the area is to presuppose the answer is
+“yes,” that that's the way to treat things, not some other
+way.</p>
<p>
Second, it encourages over-generalization. Intellectual property is a
catch-all for several different legal systems with independent origins
such as, copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets and some other
things as well. They are almost completely different; they have
-nothing in common. But people who hear the term "intellectual
-property" are led to a false picture where they imagine that there's a
-general principle of intellectual property that was applied to
-specific areas, so they assume that these various areas of the law are
-similar. This leads not only to confused thinking about what is right
-to do, it leads people to fail to understand what the law actually
-says because they suppose that the copyright law and patent law and
-trademark law are similar, when, in fact, they are totally different.</p>
+nothing in common. But people who hear the term “intellectual
+property” are led to a false picture where they imagine that
+there's a general principle of intellectual property that was applied
+to specific areas, so they assume that these various areas of the law
+are similar. This leads not only to confused thinking about what is
+right to do, it leads people to fail to understand what the law
+actually says because they suppose that the copyright law and patent
+law and trademark law are similar, when, in fact, they are totally
+different.</p>
<p>
So if you want to encourage careful thinking and clear understanding
-of what the law says, avoid the term "intellectual property." Talk
-about copyrights. Or talk about patents. Or talk about trademarks or
-whichever subject you want to talk about. But don't talk about
-intellectual property. Opinion about intellectual property almost has
-to be a foolish one. I don't have an opinion about intellectual
-property. I have opinions about copyrights and patents and
-trademarks, and they're different. I came to them through different
-thought processes because those systems of law are totally different.</p>
+of what the law says, avoid the term “intellectual
+property.” Talk about copyrights. Or talk about patents. Or
+talk about trademarks or whichever subject you want to talk about.
+But don't talk about intellectual property. Opinion about
+intellectual property almost has to be a foolish one. I don't have an
+opinion about intellectual property. I have opinions about copyrights
+and patents and trademarks, and they're different. I came to them
+through different thought processes because those systems of law are
+totally different.</p>
<p>
Anyway, I made that digression, but it's terribly important.</p>
<p>
@@ -818,16 +808,16 @@
And if that's small enough, why should it discourage you. We know,
though, that fans can really love musicians, and we know that
encouraging fans to copy and re-distribute the music has been done by
-some bands that were, and are, quite successful like the "Grateful
-Dead." They didn't have any trouble making a living from their music
-because they encouraged fans to tape it and copy the tapes. They
-didn't even lose their record sales.</p>
+some bands that were, and are, quite successful like the
+“Grateful Dead.” They didn't have any trouble making a
+living from their music because they encouraged fans to tape it and
+copy the tapes. They didn't even lose their record sales.</p>
<p>
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 stIIill apply to commercial sales of records ought to
+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>
@@ -842,11 +832,12 @@
maybe he was taking a step towards a world that is not based on trying
to maintain an iron grip on the public. Then I saw that he had
actually written to ask people to pay. To explain what he did, he was
-publishing a novel as a serial, by installments, and he said, "If I
-get enough money, I'll release more." But the request he wrote was
-hardly a request. It brow-beat the reader. It said, "If you don't
-pay, then you're evil. And if there are too many of you who are evil,
-then I'm just going to stop writing this."</p>
+publishing a novel as a serial, by installments, and he said,
+“If I get enough money, I'll release more.” But the
+request he wrote was hardly a request. It brow-beat the reader. It
+said, “If you don't pay, then you're evil. And if there are too
+many of you who are evil, then I'm just going to stop writing
+this.”</p>
<p>
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>
@@ -885,30 +876,30 @@
King refused to do - and might establish a personal relationship.</p>
<p>
<b>STALLMAN</b>: Well, they can and, in fact, this voluntary donation
-is one -</p>
+is one.</p>
<p>
<b>THORBURN</b>: You think of that as not involving going through a
publisher at all?</p>
<p>
-<b>STALLMAN</b>: Absolutely not. I hope it won't, you see, because the
-publishers exploit the authors terribly. When you ask the publishers'
-representatives about this, they say, "Well, yes, if an author or if a
-band doesn't want to go through us, they shouldn't be legally required
-to go through us." But, in fact, they're doing their utmost to set it
-up so that will not be feasible. For instance, they're proposing
-restricted copying media formats and in order to publish in these
-formats, you'll have to go through the big publishers because they
-won't tell anyone else how to do it. So they're hoping for a world
-where the players will play these formats, and in order to get
-anything that you can play on those players, it'll have to come
-through the publishers. So, in fact, while there's no law against an
-author or a musician publishing directly, it won't be feasible.
-There's also the lure of maybe hitting it rich. They say, "We'll
-publicize you and maybe you'll hit it as rich as the Beatles." Take
-your pick of some very successful group and, of course, only a tiny
-fraction of musicians are going to have that happen. But they may be
-drawn by that into signing contracts that will lock them down
-forever.</p>
+<b>STALLMAN</b>: Absolutely not. I hope it won't, you see, because
+the publishers exploit the authors terribly. When you ask the
+publishers' representatives about this, they say, “Well, yes, if
+an author or if a band doesn't want to go through us, they shouldn't
+be legally required to go through us.” But, in fact, they're
+doing their utmost to set it up so that will not be feasible. For
+instance, they're proposing restricted copying media formats and in
+order to publish in these formats, you'll have to go through the big
+publishers because they won't tell anyone else how to do it. So
+they're hoping for a world where the players will play these formats,
+and in order to get anything that you can play on those players, it'll
+have to come through the publishers. So, in fact, while there's no
+law against an author or a musician publishing directly, it won't be
+feasible. There's also the lure of maybe hitting it rich. They say,
+“We'll publicize you and maybe you'll hit it as rich as the
+Beatles.” Take your pick of some very successful group and, of
+course, only a tiny fraction of musicians are going to have that
+happen. But they may be drawn by that into signing contracts that
+will lock them down forever.</p>
<p>
Publishers tend to be very bad at respecting their contracts with
authors. For instance, book contracts typically have said that if a
@@ -942,49 +933,50 @@
the need for economic incentives in order to have these functional
works developed?</p>
<p>
-<b>STALLMAN</b>: Well, what we see is, first of all, that this economic
-incentive is a lot less necessary than people have been supposing.
-Look at the free software movement where we have over 100,000
-part-time volunteers developing free software. We also see that there
-are other ways to raise money for this which are not based on stopping
-the public from copying and modifying these works. That's the
-interesting lesson of the free software movement. Aside from the fact
-that it gives you a way you can use a computer and keep your freedom
-to share and cooperate with other people, it also shows us that this
-negative assumption that people would never do these things unless
-they are given special powers to force people to pay them is simply
-wrong. A lot of people will do these things. Then if you look at,
-say, the writing of monographs which serve as textbooks in many fields
-of science except for the ones that are very basic, the authors are
-not making money out of that. We now have a free encyclopedia project
-which is, in fact, a commercial-free encyclopedia project, and it's
-making progress. We had a project for a GNU encyclopedia but we
+<b>STALLMAN</b>: Well, what we see is, first of all, that this
+economic incentive is a lot less necessary than people have been
+supposing. Look at the free software movement where we have over
+100,000 part-time volunteers developing free software. We also see
+that there are other ways to raise money for this which are not based
+on stopping the public from copying and modifying these works. That's
+the interesting lesson of the free software movement. Aside from the
+fact that it gives you a way you can use a computer and keep your
+freedom to share and cooperate with other people, it also shows us
+that this negative assumption that people would never do these things
+unless they are given special powers to force people to pay them is
+simply wrong. A lot of people will do these things. Then if you look
+at, say, the writing of monographs which serve as textbooks in many
+fields of science except for the ones that are very basic, the authors
+are not making money out of that. We now have a free encyclopedia
+project which is, in fact, a commercial-free encyclopedia project, and
+it's making progress. We had a project for a GNU encyclopedia but we
merged it into the commercial project when they adopted our license.
In January, they switched to the GNU-free documentation license for
-all the articles in their encyclopedia. So we said, "Well, let's
-join forces with them and urge people to contribute to them." It's
-called "NUPEDIA," and you can find a link to it, if you look at
-http:// www.gnu.org/encyclopedia. So here we've extended the
-community development of a free base of useful knowledge from software
-to encyclopedia. I'm pretty confident now that in all these areas of
-functional work, we don't need that economic incentive to the point
-where we have to mess up the use of these works.</p>
+all the articles in their encyclopedia. So we said, “Well,
+let's join forces with them and urge people to contribute to
+them.” It's called “NUPEDIA,” and you can find a
+link to it, if you look at http://www.gnu.org/encyclopedia. So here
+we've extended the community development of a free base of useful
+knowledge from software to encyclopedia. I'm pretty confident now
+that in all these areas of functional work, we don't need that
+economic incentive to the point where we have to mess up the use of
+these works.</p>
<p>
<b>THORBURN</b>: Well, what about the other two categories.</p>
<p>
-<b>STALLMAN</b>: For the other two classes of work, I don't know. I don't
-know whether people will write some day novels without worrying about
-whether they make money from it. In a post-scarcity society, I guess
-they would. Maybe what we need to do in order to reach the
+<b>STALLMAN</b>: For the other two classes of work, I don't know. I
+don't know whether people will write some day novels without worrying
+about whether they make money from it. In a post-scarcity society, I
+guess they would. Maybe what we need to do in order to reach the
post-scarcity society is to get rid of the corporate control over the
economy and the laws. So, in effect, it's a chicken-or-the-egg
problem, you know. Which do we do first? How do we get the world
where people don't have to desperately get money except by removing
the control by business? And how can we remove the control by
-business except -- Anyway, I don't know, but that's why I'm trying to
-propose first a compromise copyright system and, second, the voluntary
-payment supported by a compromise copyright system as a way to provide
-a revenue stream to the people who write those works.</p>
+business except — Anyway, I don't know, but that's why I'm
+trying to propose first a compromise copyright system and, second, the
+voluntary payment supported by a compromise copyright system as a way
+to provide a revenue stream to the people who write those works.</p>
<p>
<b>QUESTION</b>: How would you really expect to implement this compromise
copyright system under the chokehold of corporate interests on
@@ -1014,8 +1006,8 @@
that, if you only go to a movie when you have some substantial reason
to think it's good, you'll take away a lot of their money.</p>
<p>
-<b>THORBURN</b>: One way to understand all of this discourse today, I think,
-is to recognize that whenever radical, potentially transforming
+<b>THORBURN</b>: One way to understand all of this discourse today, I
+think, is to recognize that whenever radical, potentially transforming
technologies appear in society, there's a struggle over who controls
them. We today are repeating what has happened in the past. So from
this angle, there may not be a reason for despair, or even pessimism,
@@ -1027,28 +1019,28 @@
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 "fair use." 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 the whole of
-our contemporary experience as a renewed version of a struggle over
-the control of technological resources that is a recurring principle
-of Western society.</p>
+intellectual inquiry and the the legal category of “fair
+use.” 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
+the whole of our contemporary experience as a renewed version of a
+struggle over the control of technological resources that is a
+recurring principle of Western society.</p>
<p>
It's also essential to understand that the history of older
technologies is itself a complicated matter. The impact of the
printing press in Spain, for example, is radically different from its
impact in England or in France.</p>
<p>
-<b>QUESTION</b>: One of the things that bothers me when I hear discussions
-of copyright is that often they start off with, "We want a 180-degree
-change. We want to do away with any sorts of control." It seems to
-me that part of what lay under the three categories that were
-suggested is an acknowledgement that there is some wisdom to
-copyright. Some of the critics of the way copyright is going now
-believe that, in fact, it ought to be backed up and function much more
-like patent and trademarks in terms of its duration. I wonder if our
-speaker would comment on that as a strategy.</p>
+<b>QUESTION</b>: One of the things that bothers me when I hear
+discussions of copyright is that often they start off with, “We
+want a 180-degree change. We want to do away with any sorts of
+control.” It seems to me that part of what lay under the three
+categories that were suggested is an acknowledgement that there is
+some wisdom to copyright. Some of the critics of the way copyright is
+going now believe that, in fact, it ought to be backed up and function
+much more like patent and trademarks in terms of its duration. I
+wonder if our speaker would comment on that as a strategy.</p>
<p>
<b>STALLMAN</b>: I agree that shortening the time span of copyright is a
good idea. There is absolutely no need in terms of encouraging
@@ -1065,9 +1057,9 @@
somewhere. Of course, in one of their movies, they had a time
machine. So maybe that's what affected their thinking.</p>
<p>
-<b>QUESTION</b>: Have you given thought to extending the concept of "fair
-use," and are there any nuances there that you might care to lay out
-for us?</p>
+<b>QUESTION</b>: Have you given thought to extending the concept of
+“fair use,” and are there any nuances there that you might
+care to lay out for us?</p>
<p>
<b>STALLMAN</b>: Well, the idea of giving everyone permission for
non-commercial verbatim copying of two kinds of works, certainly, may
@@ -1095,15 +1087,16 @@
convinced now that people should have the right to publicly
non-commercially, re-distributed, verbatim copies of everything.</p>
<p>
-<b>QUESTION</b>: One analogy that was recently suggested to me for the whole
-Napster question was the analogy of the public library. I suppose
-some of you who have heard the Napster arguments have heard this
-analogy. I'm wondering if you would comment on it. The defenders of
-people who say Napster should continue and there shouldn't be
-restrictions on it sometimes say something like this: "When folks go
-into the public library and borrow a book, they're not paying for it,
-and it can be borrowed dozens of times, hundreds of time, without any
-additional payment. Why is Napster any different?"</p>
+<b>QUESTION</b>: One analogy that was recently suggested to me for the
+whole Napster question was the analogy of the public library. I
+suppose some of you who have heard the Napster arguments have heard
+this analogy. I'm wondering if you would comment on it. The
+defenders of people who say Napster should continue and there
+shouldn't be restrictions on it sometimes say something like this:
+“When folks go into the public library and borrow a book,
+they're not paying for it, and it can be borrowed dozens of times,
+hundreds of time, without any additional payment. Why is Napster any
+different?”</p>
<p>
<b>STALLMAN</b>: Well, it's not exactly the same. But it should be pointed
out that the publishers want to transform public libraries into
@@ -1116,11 +1109,12 @@
<b>STALLMAN</b>: No, there's absolutely no similarity. The issues of
patents are totally different from the issues of copyrights. The idea
that they have something to do with each other is one of the
-unfortunate consequences of using the term "intellectual property" and
-encouraging people to try to lump these issues together because, as
-you've heard, I've been talking about issues in which the price of a
-copy is not the crucial thing. But what's the crucial issue about
-making AIDS drugs for Africa? It's the price, nothing but the price.</p>
+unfortunate consequences of using the term “intellectual
+property” and encouraging people to try to lump these issues
+together because, as you've heard, I've been talking about issues in
+which the price of a copy is not the crucial thing. But what's the
+crucial issue about making AIDS drugs for Africa? It's the price,
+nothing but the price.</p>
<p>
Now the issue I've been talking about arises because digital
information technology gives every user the ability to make copies.
@@ -1148,10 +1142,11 @@
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, "I didn't do that deliberately. The pollen blew,
-and the wind in those genes got into my stock of plants." And he was
-told that that doesn't matter; he has to destroy them anyway. It was
-an extreme example of how much government can side with a monopolist.</p>
+field and he said, “I didn't do that deliberately. The pollen
+blew, and the wind in those genes got into my stock of plants.”
+And he was told that that doesn't matter; he has to destroy them
+anyway. It was an extreme example of how much government can side
+with a monopolist.</p>
<p>
So I believe that, following the same principles that I apply to
copying things on your computer, farmers should have an unquestioned
@@ -1162,16 +1157,17 @@
<b>QUESTION</b>: There's more to making a model successful than just the
licensing. Can you speak to that?</p>
<p>
-<b>STALLMAN</b>: Absolutely. Well, you know, I don't know the answers. But
-part of what I believe is crucial for developing free, functional
-information is idealism. People have to recognize that it's important
-for this information to be free, that when the information is free,
-you can make full use of it. When it's restricted, you can't. You
-have to recognize that the non-free information is an attempt to
-divide them and keep them helpless and keep them down. Then they can
-get the idea, "Let's work together to produce the information we want
-to use, so that it's not under the control of some powerful person who
-can dictate to us what we can do."</p>
+<b>STALLMAN</b>: Absolutely. Well, you know, I don't know the
+answers. But part of what I believe is crucial for developing free,
+functional information is idealism. People have to recognize that
+it's important for this information to be free, that when the
+information is free, you can make full use of it. When it's
+restricted, you can't. You have to recognize that the non-free
+information is an attempt to divide them and keep them helpless and
+keep them down. Then they can get the idea, “Let's work
+together to produce the information we want to use, so that it's not
+under the control of some powerful person who can dictate to us what
+we can do.”</p>
<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,
@@ -1218,13 +1214,13 @@
<b>STALLMAN</b>: Well, it's true. And I didn't write a whole, free
operating system, either. I wrote some pieces and invited other
people to join me by writing other pieces. So I set an example. I
-said, "I'm going in this direction. Join me and we'll get there."
-And enough people joined in that we got there. So if you think in
-terms of, how am I going to get this whole gigantic job done, it can
-be daunting. So the point is, don't look at it that way. Think in
-terms of taking a step and realizing that after you've taken a step,
-other people will take more steps and, together, it will get the job
-done eventually.</p>
+said, “I'm going in this direction. Join me and we'll get
+there.” And enough people joined in that we got there. So if
+you think in terms of, how am I going to get this whole gigantic job
+done, it can be daunting. So the point is, don't look at it that way.
+Think in terms of taking a step and realizing that after you've taken
+a step, other people will take more steps and, together, it will get
+the job done eventually.</p>
<p>
Assuming that humanity doesn't wipe itself out, the work we do today
to produce the free educational infrastructure, the free learning
@@ -1239,52 +1235,15 @@
<h4>This speech is published in <a href="/doc/book13.html"><cite>Free Software,
Free Society: The Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman</cite></a>.</h4>
-<h4><a href="/philosophy/philosophy.html">Other Texts to Read</a></h4>
-<hr />
-
-
-<!-- All pages on the GNU web server should have the section about -->
-<!-- verbatim copying. Please do NOT remove this without talking -->
-<!-- with the webmasters first. -->
-<!-- Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the document -->
-<!-- and that it is like this "2001, 2002" not this "2001-2002." -->
-
-<div class="translations">
-<p><a id="translations"></a>
-<b>Translations of this page</b>:<br />
-
-<!-- Please keep this list alphabetical, and in the original -->
-<!-- language if possible, otherwise default to English -->
-<!-- If you do not have it English, please comment what the -->
-<!-- English is. If you add a new language here, please -->
-<!-- advise address@hidden and add it to -->
-<!-- - in /home/www/bin/nightly-vars either TAGSLANG or WEBLANG -->
-<!-- - in /home/www/html/server/standards/README.translations.html -->
-<!-- one of the lists under the section "Translations Underway" -->
-<!-- - if there is a translation team, you also have to add an alias -->
-<!-- to mail.gnu.org:/com/mailer/aliases -->
-<!-- Please also check you have the 2 letter language code right versus -->
-<!-- http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm -->
-
-[
- <a href="/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.html">English</a>
-| <a href="/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.es.html">Español</a>
<!-- Spanish -->
-| <a href="/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.fr.html">French</a> <!--
French -->
-| <a href="/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.it.html">Italiano</a>
<!-- Italian -->
-| <a
href="/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.pt.html">Português</a>
<!-- Portuguese -->
-]
-</p>
</div>
-<div class="copyright">
-<p>
-Return to the <a href="/home.html">GNU Project home page</a>.
-</p>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
+<div id="footer">
<p>
Please send FSF & GNU inquiries to
<a href="mailto:address@hidden";><em>address@hidden</em></a>.
-There are also <a href="/home.html#ContactInfo">other ways to contact</a>
+There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
the FSF.
<br />
Please send broken links and other corrections (or suggestions) to
@@ -1293,26 +1252,58 @@
<p>
Please see the
-<a href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+<a href="/server/standards/README.translations">Translations
README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting
translations of this article.
</p>
<p>
-Copyright (C) 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
-51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110, USA
-<br />
-Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is
+Copyright © 2001, 2007 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
permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.
</p>
<p>
Updated:
<!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2005/09/26 21:15:02 $ $Author: taz $
+$Date: 2007/04/02 20:30:11 $
<!-- timestamp end -->
</p>
</div>
+<div id="translations">
+<h3>Translations of this page:</h3>
+
+<!-- Please keep this list alphabetical. -->
+<!-- Comment what the language is for each type, i.e. de is Deutsch.-->
+<!-- If you add a new language here, please -->
+<!-- advise address@hidden and add it to -->
+<!-- - /home/www/bin/nightly-vars either TAGSLANG or WEBLANG -->
+<!-- - /home/www/html/server/standards/README.translations.html -->
+<!-- - one of the lists under the section "Translations Underway" -->
+<!-- - if there is a translation team, you also have to add an alias -->
+<!-- to mail.gnu.org:/com/mailer/aliases -->
+<!-- Please also check you have the 2 letter language code right versus -->
+<!-- <URL:http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/ert/iso639.htm> -->
+<!-- Please use W3C normative character entities -->
+
+<ul class="translations-list">
+<!-- Czech -->
+<li><a
href="/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.cs.html">Česky</a> [cs]</li>
+<!-- English -->
+<li><a
href="/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.html">English</a> [en]</li>
+<!-- Spanish -->
+<li><a
href="/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.es.html">Español</a> [es]</li>
+<!-- French -->
+<li><a
href="/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.fr.html">French</a> [fr]</li>
+<!-- Italian -->
+<li><a
href="/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.it.html">Italiano</a> [it]</li>
+<!-- Portuguese -->
+<li><a
href="/philosophy/copyright-and-globalization.pt.html">Português</a> [pt]</li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+</div>
</body>
</html>
- www/philosophy copyright-and-globalization.html,
Yavor Doganov <=