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www/philosophy right-to-read.html
|
From: |
Richard M. Stallman |
|
Subject: |
www/philosophy right-to-read.html |
|
Date: |
Wed, 13 Jul 2016 17:04:49 +0000 (UTC) |
CVSROOT: /web/www
Module name: www
Changes by: Richard M. Stallman <rms> 16/07/13 17:04:49
Modified files:
philosophy : right-to-read.html
Log message:
Major rewrite of author's note.
CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/right-to-read.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.92&r2=1.93
Patches:
Index: right-to-read.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/right-to-read.html,v
retrieving revision 1.92
retrieving revision 1.93
diff -u -b -r1.92 -r1.93
--- right-to-read.html 30 Jun 2016 09:26:07 -0000 1.92
+++ right-to-read.html 13 Jul 2016 17:04:49 -0000 1.93
@@ -166,64 +166,79 @@
<ul>
<li>This story is supposedly a historical article that will be written in
the future by someone else, describing Dan Halbert's youth under a
-repressive society shaped by the enemies that use “pirate” as
+repressive society shaped by the unjust forces that use “pirate” as
propaganda. So it uses the terminology of that society.
-I have tried to project it from today so as to sound even more
+I have tried to project it forwards into something more visibly
oppressive. See <a
href="/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Piracy">“Piracy”</a>.
</li>
<li>
+Computer-enforced restrictions on lending or reading books (and other
+kinds of published works) are known as <abbr>DRM</abbr>, short for
+“Digital Restrictions Management”. To
+eliminate <abbr>DRM</abbr>, the Free Software Foundation has
+established the <a href="http://DefectiveByDesign.org";>Defective by
+Design</a> campaign. We ask for your support.</p>
+</li>
+
+<li>
<p>The following note has been updated several times since the first
publication of the story.</p>
<p>
-The right to read is a battle being fought today. Although it may
-take 50 years for our present way of life to fade into obscurity, most
-of the specific laws and practices described above have already been
-proposed; many have been enacted into law in the US and elsewhere. In
-the US, the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) established the legal
-basis to restrict the reading and lending of computerized books (and
-other works as well). The European Union imposed similar restrictions
-in a 2001 copyright directive. In France, under the DADVSI law
-adopted in 2006, mere possession of a copy of DeCSS, the free program
-to decrypt video on a DVD, is a crime.</p>
-
-<p>
-In 2001, Disney-funded Senator Hollings proposed a bill called the
-SSSCA that would require every new computer to have mandatory
-copy-restriction facilities that the user cannot bypass. Following
-the Clipper chip and similar US government key-escrow proposals, this
-shows a long-term trend: computer systems are increasingly set up to
-give absentees with clout control over the people actually using the
-computer system. The SSSCA was later renamed to the unpronounceable
-CBDTPA, which was glossed as the “Consume But Don't Try
-Programming Act”.
-</p>
-
-<p>
-The Republicans took control of the US senate shortly thereafter.
-They are less tied to Hollywood than the Democrats, so they did not
-press these proposals. Now that the Democrats are back in control,
-the danger is once again higher.</p>
-
-<p>
-In 2001 the US began attempting to use the proposed “Free Trade”
Area of
-the Americas (FTAA) treaty to impose the same rules on all the countries in
-the Western Hemisphere. The FTAA is one of the so-called free
-trade treaties, which are actually designed to give business
-increased power over democratic governments; imposing laws like the
-DMCA is typical of this spirit. The FTAA was effectively killed by
-Lula, President of Brazil, who rejected the DMCA requirement and
-others.</p>
+The battle for the right to read is already being fought. Although it
+may take 50 years for our past freedoms to fade into obscurity, most
+of the specific repressive laws and practices described above have
+already been proposed; some have been enacted into law in the US and
+elsewhere. In the US, the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act
+(<abbr>DMCA</abbr>) gave explicit government backing to the
+computer-enforced restrictions known as DRM, by making the
+distribution of programs that can break DRM a crime. The European
+Union imposed similar restrictions in a 2001 copyright directive, in a
+form not quite as strong.</p>
+
+<p>
+The US campaigns to impose such rules on the rest of the world through
+so-called “free trade” treaties.
+<a href="https://stallman.org/business-supremacy-treaties.html";>
+Business-supremacy treaties</a> is a more fitting term for them, since
+they are designed to give business dominion over nominally democratic
+states. The <abbr>DMCA</abbr>'s policy of criminalizing programs that
+break DRM is one of many unjust policies that these treaties impose
+across a wide range of fields.</p>
<p>
-Since then, the US has imposed similar requirements on countries such
-as Australia and Mexico through bilateral “free trade”
+The US has imposed <abbr>DMCA</abbr> requirements on Australia, New
+Zealand, Panama, Colombia and South Korea through bilateral
agreements, and on countries such as Costa Rica through another
-treaty, CAFTA. Ecuador's President Correa refused to sign a
-“free trade” agreement with the US, but I've heard Ecuador
-had adopted something like the DMCA in 2003.</p>
+treaty, <abbr>CAFTA</abbr>. Obama has escalated the campaign with two
+new proposed treaties, the TPP and the TTIP. The <abbr>TPP</abbr>
+would impose the DMCA, along with many other wrongs, on 12 countries
+on the Pacific Ocean. The <abbr>TTIP</abbr> would impose similar
+strictures on Europe. Americans should demand their congressional
+representatives reject the attempt to approve the <abbr>TPP</abbr> in
+the lame-duck session after the 2016 election.</p>
+
+<p>
+With Windows Vista, Microsoft admitted it had built in a back door:
+Microsoft can use it to forcibly install software
+“upgrades,” even if users consider them rather to be
+downgrades. It can also order all machines running Vista to refuse to
+run a certain device driver. The main purpose of Vista's clampdown on
+users was to impose DRM that users can't overcome.</p>
+
+<p>
+Even the World Wide Web Consortium has fallen under the shadow of the
+copyright industry; it is on the verge of approving a DRM system as an
+official part of the web specifications.</p>
+
+<p>
+Nonfree software tends to have <a href="/proprietary/">abusive
+features of many kinds</a>, which support the conclusion that
+<a href="/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html">you can
+never trust a nonfree program</a>. We must insist on free (libre)
+software only, and reject nonfree programs.</p>
<p>
One of the ideas in the story was not proposed in reality until 2002.
@@ -232,15 +247,9 @@
them.</p>
<p>
-The proponents of this scheme have given it names such as
-“trusted computing” and “Palladium”. We call
-it <a href="/philosophy/can-you-trust.html">“treacherous
-computing”</a> because the effect is to make your computer obey
-companies even to the extent of disobeying and defying you. This was
-implemented in 2007 as part of <a href="http://badvista.org/";>Windows
-Vista</a>; we expect Apple to do something similar. In this scheme,
-it is the manufacturer that keeps the secret code, but
-the FBI would have little trouble getting it.</p>
+The proponents of this scheme gave early versions names such as
+“trusted computing” and “Palladium”, but as
+ultimately put into use, it is called “secure boot”.</p>
<p>
What Microsoft keeps is not exactly a password in the traditional
@@ -248,34 +257,37 @@
signature and encryption key that corresponds to a second key stored
in your computer. This enables Microsoft, and potentially any web
sites that cooperate with Microsoft, the ultimate control over what
-the user can do on his own computer.</p>
-
-<p>
-Vista also gives Microsoft additional powers; for instance, Microsoft
-can forcibly install upgrades, and it can order all machines running
-Vista to refuse to run a certain device driver. The main purpose of
-Vista's many restrictions is to impose DRM (Digital Restrictions
-Management) that users can't overcome. The threat of DRM is why we
-have established the <a href="http://DefectiveByDesign.org";>
-Defective by Design</a> campaign.</p>
-
-<p>
-When this story was first written, the SPA was threatening small
-Internet service providers, demanding they permit the SPA to monitor
-all users. Most ISPs surrendered when threatened, because they cannot
-afford to fight back in court. One ISP, Community ConneXion in
-Oakland, California, refused the demand and was actually sued. The
-SPA later dropped the suit, but obtained the DMCA, which gave them the
-power they sought.</p>
-
-<p>
-The SPA, which actually stands for Software Publishers Association,
-has been replaced in its police-like role by the Business
-Software Alliance. The BSA is not, today, an official police force;
-unofficially, it acts like one. Using methods reminiscent of the
-erstwhile Soviet Union, it invites people to inform on their coworkers
-and friends. A BSA terror campaign in Argentina in 2001 made
-slightly veiled threats that people sharing software would be raped.</p>
+the user can do on per own computer. Microsoft is likely to use that
+control on behalf of the <abbr>FBI</abbr> when asked: it
+already <a href="http://gnu.org/proprietary/malware-microsoft.html";>shows
+the <abbr>NSA</abbr> security bugs in Windows</a> to exploit.</p>
+
+<p>
+Secure boot can be implemented in a way that permits the user to
+specify the signature key and decide what software to sign. In
+practice, PCs designed for Windows 10 carry only Microsoft's key, and
+whether the machine's owner can install any other system (such as
+GNU/Linux) is under Microsoft's control. We call this <em>restricted
+boot</em>.</p>
+
+<p>
+In 1997, when this story was first published, the <abbr>SPA</abbr> was
+threatening small Internet service providers, demanding they permit
+the <abbr>SPA</abbr> to monitor all users. Most ISPs surrendered when
+threatened, because they could not afford to fight back in court. One
+ISP, Community ConneXion in Oakland, California, refused the demand
+and was actually sued. The <abbr>SPA</abbr> later dropped the suit,
+but the <abbr>DMCA</abbr> gave it the power it sought.</p>
+
+<p>
+The <abbr>SPA</abbr>, which actually stands for Software Publishers
+Association, has been replaced in its police-like role by the Business
+Software Alliance. The <abbr>BSA</abbr> is not, today, an official
+police force; unofficially, it acts like one. Using methods
+reminiscent of the erstwhile Soviet Union, it invites people to inform
+on their coworkers and friends. A <abbr>BSA</abbr> terror campaign in
+Argentina in 2001 made slightly veiled threats that people sharing
+software would be raped in prison.</p>
<p>
The university security policies described above are not imaginary.
@@ -307,26 +319,42 @@
<p>
The battle for the right to read is already in progress,
The enemy is organized, while we are not, so it is going against us.
-Here are articles about bad things that have happened since the
-original publication of this article.</p>
+</p>
+
+Today's commercial
+ebooks <a href="/philosophy/the-danger-of-ebooks.html"> abolish
+readers' traditional freedoms.</a> Amazon's e-book reader product,
+which I call the “Amazon Swindle” because it's designed to
+swindle readers out of the traditional freedoms of readers of books,
+is run by software with several
+demonstrated <a
href="http://gnu.org/proprietary/malware-kindle-swindle.html";>Orwellian
+functionalities</a>. Any one of them calls for rejecting the product
+completely:</p>
<ul>
-<li>Today's commercial ebooks <a href="/philosophy/the-danger-of-ebooks.html">
- abolish readers' traditional freedoms.</a></li>
-<li><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature_education/biology.html";>
- A "biology textbook" web site</a> that you can access only by signing
- a <a href="http://www.nature.com/principles/viewTermsOfUse";>
- contract not to lend it to anyone else</a>, which the publisher can
- revoke at will.</li>
-<li><a
href="http://www.zdnet.com/article/seybold-opens-chapter-on-digital-books/";>Electronic
- Publishing:</a> An article about distribution of books in
- electronic form, and copyright issues affecting the right to read
- a copy.</li>
-<li><a
href="http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/1999/Aug99/SeyboldPR.aspx";>Books
- inside Computers:</a> Software to control who can read
- books and documents on a PC.</li>
+<li><p>It spies on everything the user does: it reports which book the
+user is reading, and which page, and it reports when the user highlights
+text, and any notes the user enters.</p></li>
+
+<li><p>It has <abbr>DRM</abbr>, which is intended to block users from
+sharing copies.</p></li>
+
+<li><p>It has a back door with which Amazon can remotely erase any book.
+In 2009, it erased thousands of copies of 1984, by George Orwell.</p></li>
+
+<li><p>In case all that isn't Orwellian enough, there is a universal
+back door with which Amazon can remotely change the software, and
+introduce any other form of nastiness.</p></li>
</ul>
+<p>Amazon's e-book distribution is oppressive, too. It identifies the
+user and records what books the user obtains. It also also requires
+users to agree to an antisocial contract that they won't share copies
+with others. My conscience tells me that, if I had agreed to such a
+contract, that the lesser evil would be to defy it and share copies
+anyway; however, to be entirely good, we should not agree to it in the
+first place.</p>
+
<p>If we want to stop the bad news and create some good news, we need
to organize and fight. The
FSF's <a href="http://defectivebydesign.org";> Defective by Design</a>
@@ -432,7 +460,7 @@
<p class="unprintable">Updated:
<!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2016/06/30 09:26:07 $
+$Date: 2016/07/13 17:04:49 $
<!-- timestamp end -->
</p>
</div>
- www/philosophy right-to-read.html,
Richard M. Stallman <=
- www/philosophy right-to-read.html, Pavel Kharitonov, 2016/07/13
- www/philosophy right-to-read.html, Pavel Kharitonov, 2016/07/13
- www/philosophy right-to-read.html, Pavel Kharitonov, 2016/07/14
- www/philosophy right-to-read.html, Therese Godefroy, 2016/07/14
- www/philosophy right-to-read.html, Richard M. Stallman, 2016/07/15