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+1. The Right to Read {#the-right-to-read .chapter}
+====================
+
+@firstcopyingnotice{{ Copyright © 1996, 2002, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2014
+Richard Stallman\
+ {This essay was written in 1996 and was published as “The Right to
+Read: A Dystopian Short Story” in Communications of the ACM, vol. 40, n.
+2, February 1997. This version is part of @fsfsthreecite} *From <span
+class="roman">The Road to Tycho,</span> a collection of articles about
+the antecedents of the Lunarian Revolution, published in Luna City in
+2096.*\
+ For Dan Halbert, the road to Tycho began in college—when Lissa Lenz
+asked to borrow his computer. Hers had broken down, and unless she could
+borrow another, she would fail her midterm project. There was no one she
+dared ask, except Dan.
+
+This put Dan in a dilemma. He had to help her—but if he lent her his
+computer, she might read his books. Aside from the fact that you could
+go to prison for many years for letting someone else read your books,
+the very idea shocked him at first. Like everyone, he had been taught
+since elementary school that sharing books was nasty and wrong—something
+that only pirates would do.
+
+And there wasn’t much chance that the SPA—the Software Protection
+Authority—would fail to catch him. 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, to Central Licensing. (They used this
+information to catch reading pirates, but also to sell personal interest
+profiles to retailers.) The next time his computer was networked,
+Central Licensing would find out. He, as computer owner, would receive
+the harshest punishment—for not taking pains to prevent the crime.
+
+Of course, Lissa did not necessarily intend to read his books. She might
+want the computer only to write her midterm. But Dan knew she came from
+a middle-class family and could hardly afford the tuition, 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. (Ten percent of those fees went
+to the researchers who wrote the papers; since Dan aimed for an academic
+career, he could hope that his own research papers, if frequently
+referenced, would bring in enough to repay this loan.)
+
+Later on, Dan would learn there was a time when anyone could go to the
+library and read journal articles, and even books, without having to
+pay. There were independent scholars who read thousands of pages without
+government library grants. But in the 1990s, both commercial and
+nonprofit journal publishers had begun charging fees for access. By
+2047, libraries offering free public access to scholarly literature were
+a dim memory.
+
+There were ways, of course, to get around the SPA and Central Licensing.
+They were themselves illegal. Dan had had a classmate in software, Frank
+Martucci, who had obtained an illicit debugging tool, and used it to
+skip over the copyright monitor code when reading books. But he had told
+too many friends about it, and one of them turned him in to the SPA for
+a reward (students deep in debt were easily tempted into betrayal). In
+2047, Frank was in prison, not for pirate reading, but for possessing a
+debugger.
+
+Dan would later learn that there was a time when anyone could have
+debugging tools. There were even free debugging tools available on CD or
+downloadable over the net. But ordinary users started using them to
+bypass copyright monitors, and eventually a judge ruled that this had
+become their principal use in actual practice. This meant they were
+illegal; the debuggers’ developers were sent to prison.
+
+Programmers still needed debugging tools, of course, but debugger
+vendors in 2047 distributed numbered copies only, and only to officially
+licensed and bonded programmers. The debugger Dan used in software class
+was kept behind a special firewall so that it could be used only for
+class exercises.
+
+It was also possible to bypass the copyright monitors by installing a
+modified system kernel. Dan would eventually find out about the free
+kernels, even entire free operating systems, that had existed around the
+turn of the century. But not only were they illegal, like debuggers—you
+could not install one if you had one, without knowing your computer’s
+root password. And neither the FBI nor Microsoft Support would tell you
+that.
+
+Dan concluded that he couldn’t simply lend Lissa his computer. But he
+couldn’t refuse to help her, because he loved her. Every chance to speak
+with her 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
+read his books, Central Licensing would think he was reading them. It
+was still a crime, but the SPA would not automatically find out about
+it. They would only find out if Lissa reported him.
+
+Of course, if the school ever found out that he had given Lissa his own
+password, it would be curtains for both of them as students, regardless
+of what she had used it for. School policy was that any interference
+with their means of monitoring students’ computer use was grounds for
+disciplinary action. It didn’t matter whether you did anything
+harmful—the offense was making it hard for the administrators to check
+on you. They assumed this meant you were doing something else forbidden,
+and they did not need to know what it was.
+
+Students were not usually expelled for this—not directly. Instead they
+were banned from the school computer systems, and would inevitably fail
+all their classes.
+
+Later, Dan would learn that this kind of university policy started only
+in the 1980s, when university students in large numbers began using
+computers. Previously, universities maintained a different approach to
+student discipline; they punished activities that were harmful, not
+those that merely raised suspicion.
+
+Lissa did not report Dan to the SPA. His decision to help her led to
+their marriage, and also led them to question what they had been taught
+about piracy as children. The couple began reading about the history of
+copyright, about the Soviet Union and its restrictions on copying, and
+even the original United States Constitution. They moved to Luna, where
+they found others who had likewise gravitated away from the long arm of
+the SPA. When the Tycho Uprising began in 2062, the universal right to
+read soon became one of its central aims.
+
+### Author’s Notes {#authors-notes .subheading}
+
+-   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 propaganda. So it uses the terminology of that society. I have
+    tried to project it from today so as to sound even more oppressive.
+    See “Piracy,” on @pageref{Piracy}.
+-   The following note has been updated several times since the first
+    publication of the story.\
+     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.
+
+    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.”
+
+    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.
+
+    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.
+
+    Since then, the US has imposed similar requirements on countries
+    such as Australia and Mexico through bilateral “free trade”
+    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.
+
+    One of the ideas in the story was not proposed in reality
+    until 2002. This is the idea that the FBI and Microsoft will keep
+    the root passwords for your personal computers, and not let you
+    have them.
+
+    The proponents of this scheme have given it names such as “trusted
+    computing” and “Palladium.” We call it “treacherous
+    computing”[(1)](#FOOT1) 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 Windows Vista;[(2)](#FOOT2)
+    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.
+
+    What Microsoft keeps is not exactly a password in the traditional
+    sense; no person ever types it on a terminal. Rather, it is a
+    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.
+
+    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 Defective by Design campaign, at
+    [DefectiveByDesign.org](DefectiveByDesign.org).
+
+    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. 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.
+
+    The university security policies described above are not imaginary.
+    For example, a computer at one Chicago-area university displayed
+    this message upon login:
+
+    > This system is for the use of authorized users only. Individuals
+    > using this computer system without authority or in the excess of
+    > their authority are subject to having all their activities on this
+    > system monitored and recorded by system personnel. In the course
+    > of monitoring individuals improperly using this system or in the
+    > course of system maintenance, the activities of authorized user
+    > may also be monitored. Anyone using this system expressly consents
+    > to such monitoring and is advised that if such monitoring reveals
+    > possible evidence of illegal activity or violation of University
+    > regulations system personnel may provide the evidence of such
+    > monitoring to University authorities and/or law
+    > enforcement officials.
+
+    This is an interesting approach to the Fourth Amendment: pressure
+    most everyone to agree, in advance, to waive their rights under it.
+
+### Bad News {#bad-news .subheading}
+
+The battle for the right to read is already in progress. The enemy is is
+organized, while we are not, so it is going against us. Examples of bad
+things that have happened since the original publication of this article
+include:
+
+-   Today’s commercial e-books abolish readers’ traditional freedoms.
+    See “The Danger of E-Books” (@pageref{E-Books Danger}) for more
+    on this.
+-   The publication of a “biology textbook” web site[(3)](#FOOT3) that
+    you can access only by signing a contract not to lend it to anyone
+    else,[(4)](#FOOT4) which the publisher can revoke at will.
+-   Electronic publishing’s curtailment of user freedom.[(5)](#FOOT5)
+-   Books inside computers:[(6)](#FOOT6) software to control who can
+    read books and documents on a computer.
+
+If we want to stop the bad news and create some good news, we need to
+organize and fight. The FSF’s Defective by Design campaign has made a
+start; subscribe to the campaign’s mailing list to lend a hand. And join
+the FSF, at <http://my.fsf.org/join>, to help fund our work.
+
+### References {#references .subheading}
+
+-   @raggedright
+-   United States Patent and Trademark Office, Intellectual Property
+    \[*sic*\] and the National Information Infrastructure: The Report of
+    the Working Group on Intellectual Property \[*sic*\] Rights,
+    Washington, DC: GPO, 1995. (See “Did You Say ‘Intellectual
+    Property’? It’s a Seductive Mirage” (@pageref{Not IPR}) for why the
+    term “Intellectual Property” is incoherent and should never
+    be used.)
+-   Samuelson, Pamela, “The Copyright Grab,” *Wired,* January 1996,
+    4.01, <http://wired.com/wired/archive/4.01/white.paper_pr.html>.
+-   Boyle, James, “Sold Out,” *New York Times,* 31 March 1996, sec.
+    4, p. 15; also available at
+    <https://law.duke.edu/boylesite/sold_out.htm>.
+-   Editorial, *Washington Post,* “Public Data or Private Data,”
+    3 November 1996, sec. C, p. 6, [http://web.archive.org/web/\
+    20130508120533/http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/199611/msg00012.html](http://web.archive.org/web/%3Cbr%3E20130508120533/http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/199611/msg00012.html).
+-   Union for the Public Domain—an organization which aims to resist and
+    reverse the overextension of copyright and patent powers. @end
+    raggedright
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+### Footnotes
+
+### [(1)](#DOCF1)
+
+@raggedright See “Can You Trust Your Computer?” (@pageref{Can You
+Trust}) for more on “trusted computing.” @end raggedright
+
+### [(2)](#DOCF2)
+
+@raggedright See <http://badvista.fsf.org/> for our campaigns against
+Windows Vista. @end raggedright
+
+### [(3)](#DOCF3)
+
+@raggedright Nature America Inc., “Announcing Principles of Biology, an
+Interactive Textbook by Nature Education,”
+<http://nature.com/nature_education/biology.html>. @end raggedright
+
+### [(4)](#DOCF4)
+
+@raggedright Nature America Inc., “Principles of Science Privacy
+Notice,” accessed August 2015,
+<http://nature.com/principles/viewTermsOfUse>. @end raggedright
+
+### [(5)](#DOCF5)
+
+@raggedright See Don Clark’s article “Seybold Opens Chapter on Digital
+Books” (31 August 1999,
+[http://www.zdnet.com/article/seybold-opens-chapter-on-\
+digital-books/](http://www.zdnet.com/article/seybold-opens-chapter-on-%3Cbr%3Edigital-books/)),
+about distribution of books in electronic form and copyright issues
+affecting the right to read a copy. @end raggedright
+
+### [(6)](#DOCF6)
+
+@raggedright “Microsoft Announces New Software for Reading on Screen,”
+30 August 1999,
+<http://microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/1999/Aug99/SeyboldPR.aspx>. @end
+raggedright
+
+</div>
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+This document was generated by *tonghuix* on *March 25, 2016* using
+[*texi2html 1.82*](http://www.nongnu.org/texi2html/).\