The Right to Read - Richard M. Stallman

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by Richard M. Stallman

Copyright 1996 Richard Stallman

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The Right to Read - GNU Project - Free SoftwareFoundation (FSF)

The Right to Read

by Richard Stallman


Verbatim copying and distribution of this entirearticle is permitted in any medium, provided thisotice is preserved.

Table of Contents

Author's Note References Other Texts to Read

This article appeared in the February 1997 issue o

Communications of the ACM (Volume 40, Number


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).

The Right to Read

by Richard Stallman




from "The Road To Tycho", a collection of articlesabout the antecedents of the Lunarian Revolution,

published in Luna City in 2096)

For Dan Halbert, the road to Tycho began inollege--when Lissa Lenz asked to borrow his

omputer. Hers had broken down, and unless sheould borrow another, she would fail her midterm

project. There was no one she dared ask, exceptDan.

This put Dan in a dilemma. He had to help her--but


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f he lent her his computer, she might read his

books. Aside from the fact that you could go toprison for many years for letting someone else read

our books, the very idea shocked him at first. Like

everyone, he had been taught since elementarychool that sharing books was nasty and wrong--omething that only pirates would do.

And there wasn't much chance that the SPA--the

Software Protection Authority--would fail to catchim. In his software class, Dan had learned that

each book had a copyright monitor that reported

when and where it was read, and by whom, toCentral Licensing. (They used this information to

atch reading pirates, but also to sell personalnterest profiles to retailers.) The next time his

omputer was networked, Central Licensing wouldnd out. He, as computer owner, would receive the

arshest punishment--for not taking pains to prevenhe crime.

Of course, Lissa did not necessarily intend to read

is books. She might want the computer only towrite her midterm. But Dan knew she came from a

middle-class famil and could hardl afford the


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uition, let alone her reading fees. Reading his

books might be the only way she could graduate.He understood this situation; he himself had had to

borrow to pay for all the research papers he read.

10% of those fees went to the researchers whowrote the papers; since Dan aimed for anacademic career, he could hope that his own

esearch papers, if frequently referenced, wouldbring in enough to repay this loan.)

Later on, Dan would learn there was a time when

anyone could go to the library and read journalarticles, and even books, without having to pay.

There were independent scholars who readhousands of pages without government library

rants. But in the 1990s, both commercial andonprofit journal publishers had begun charging

ees for access. By 2047, libraries offering free

public access to scholarly literature were a dimmemory.

There were ways, of course, to get around the SPA

and Central Licensing. They were themselves

legal. Dan had had a classmate in software, Fran


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Martucci, who had obtained an illicit debugging too

and used it to skip over the copyright monitor codewhen reading books. But he had told too many

riends about it, and one of them turned him in to th

SPA for a reward (students deep in debt wereeasily tempted into betrayal). In 2047, Frank was inprison, not for pirate reading, but for possessing a

ebugger.

Dan would later learn that there was a time whenanyone could have debugging tools. There wereeven free debugging tools available on CD or

ownloadable over the net. But ordinary userstarted using them to bypass copyright monitors,

and eventually a judge ruled that this had becomeheir principal use in actual practice. This meant

hey were illegal; the debuggers' developers wereent to prison.

Programmers still needed debugging tools, ofourse, but debugger vendors in 2047 distributedumbered copies only, and only to officially license

and bonded programmers. The debugger Dansed in software class was kept behind a special

rewall so that it could be used onl for class


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exercises.

was also possible to bypass the copyright

monitors by installing a modified system kernel.

Dan would eventually find out about the free kernelseven entire free operating systems, that had existearound the turn of the century. But not only were the

legal, like debuggers--you could not install one ifou had one, without knowing your computer's root

password. And neither the FBI nor MicrosoftSupport would tell you that.

Dan concluded that he couldn't simply lend Lissais computer. But he couldn't refuse to help her,

because he loved her. Every chance to speak wither filled him with delight. And that she chose him to

ask for help, that could mean she loved him too.

Dan resolved the dilemma by doing something

even more unthinkable--he lent her the computer,and told her his password. This way, if Lissa readis books, Central Licensing would think he was

eading them. It was still a crime, but the SPA wouldot automatically find out about it. They would only

nd out if Lissa re orted him.


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Of course, if the school ever found out that he hadiven Lissa his own password, it would be curtains

or both of them as students, regardless of what sh

ad used it for. School policy was that anynterference with their means of monitoringtudents' computer use was grounds for disciplinar

action. It didn't matter whether you did anythingarmful--the offense was making it hard for the

administrators to check on you. They assumed thismeant you were doing something else forbidden,

and they did not need to know what it was.

Students were not usually expelled for this--not

irectly. Instead they were banned from the schoolomputer systems, and would inevitably fail all theilasses.

Later, Dan would learn that this kind of university

policy started only in the 1980s, when universitytudents in large numbers began using computers.

Previously, universities maintained a different

approach to student discipline; they punishedactivities that were harmful, not those that merely

aised sus icion.


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Lissa did not report Dan to the SPA. His decision t

elp her led to their marriage, and also led them touestion what they had been taught about piracy as

hildren. The couple began reading about theistory of copyright, about the Soviet Union and its

estrictions on copying, and even the original UniteStates Constitution. They moved to Luna, where

hey found others who had likewise gravitated awa

rom the long arm of the SPA. When the TychoUprising began in 2062, the universal right to readoon became one of its central aims.

Author's Note

The right to read is a battle being fought today.Although it may take 50 years for our present way o

fe to fade into obscurity, most of the specific lawsand practices described above have already been

proposed--either by the Clinton Administration or bpublishers.

There is one exception: the idea that the FBI andMicrosoft will keep the root passwords for persona

omputers. This is an extrapolation from the Clippe


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hip and similar Clinton Administration key-escrow

proposals, together with a long-term trend:omputer systems are increasingly set up to give

absentee operators control over the people actuall

sing the computer system.

The SPA, which actually stands for SoftwarePublisher's Association, is not today an official

police force. Unofficially, it acts like one. It invites

people to inform on their coworkers and friends; likhe Clinton Administration, it advocates a policy ofollective responsibility whereby computer owners

must actively enforce copyright or be punished.

The SPA is currently threatening small Internetervice providers, demanding they permit the SPA

o monitor all users. Most ISPs surrender whenhreatened, because they cannot afford to fight bac

n court. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1 Oct 96,

D3.) At least one ISP, Community ConneXion inOakland CA, refused the demand and was actuallyued. The SPA is said to have dropped this suit

ecently, but they are sure to continue the campaignn various other ways.


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The university security policies described above

are not imaginary. For example, a computer at oneChicago-area university prints this message when

ou log in (quotation marks are in the original):

This system is for the use of authorized users only

ndividuals using this computer system withoutauthority or in the excess of their authority are

ubject to having all their activities on this system

monitored and recorded by system personnel. In thourse of monitoring individuals improperly usinghis system or in the course of system maintenance

he activities of authorized user may also bemonitored. Anyone using this system expressly

onsents to such monitoring and is advised that ifuch monitoring reveals possible evidence of illega

activity or violation of University regulations systempersonnel may provide the evidence of such

monitoring to University authorities and/or lawenforcement officials."

This is an interesting approach to the Fourth

Amendment: pressure most everyone to agree, in

advance, to waive their rights under it.


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References

The administration's "White Paper": Information

nfrastructure Task Force, Intellectual Property andhe National Information Infrastructure: The Report o

he Working Group on Intellectual Property Rights1995). An explanation of the White Paper: The

Copyright Grab, Pamela Samuelson, Wired, Jan.

996

Sold Out, James Boyle, New York Times, 31 March

996

Public Data or Private Data, Washington Post, 4Nov 1996 Union for the Public Domain--a neworganization which aims to resist and reverse the

overextension of intellectual property powers.

For Other Texts to Read Return to GNU's homepage [www.gnu.org]

FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to

[email protected]. Other ways to contact the FSF.


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Comments on these web pages [email protected], send other questions

o [email protected].




Updated:

2 Feb markg

The Right to Read - GNU Project - Free Software

Foundation (FSF)

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