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diff --git a/docs/the-danger-of-ebooks.md b/docs/the-danger-of-ebooks.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..591c853 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/the-danger-of-ebooks.md @@ -0,0 +1,97 @@ +--- +Generator: 'texi2html 1.82' +description: Untitled Document +distribution: global +keywords: Untitled Document +resource-type: document +title: Untitled Document +... + +1. The Danger of E-Books {#the-danger-of-e-books .chapter} +======================== + +In an age where business dominates our governments and writes our laws, +every technological advance offers business an opportunity to impose new +restrictions on the public. Technologies that could have empowered us +are used to chain us instead. + +With printed books, + +- You can buy one with cash, anonymously. +- Then you own it. +- You are not required to sign a license that restricts your use + of it. +- The format is known, and no proprietary technology is needed to read + the book. +- You can give, lend or sell the book to another. +- You can, physically, scan and copy the book, and it’s sometimes + lawful under copyright. +- Nobody has the power to destroy your book. + +Contrast that with Amazon e-books (fairly typical): + +- Amazon requires users to identify themselves to get an e-book. +- In some countries, including the US, Amazon says the user cannot own + the e-book. +- Amazon requires the user to accept a restrictive license on use of + the e-book. +- The format is secret, and only proprietary user-restricting software + can read it at all. +- An ersatz “lending” is allowed for some books, for a limited time, + but only by specifying by name another user of the same system. No + giving or selling. +- To copy the e-book is impossible due to Digital Restrictions + Management[(1)](#FOOT1) in the player and prohibited by the license, + which is more restrictive than copyright law. +- Amazon can remotely delete the e-book using a back door. It used + this back door in 2009 to delete thousands of copies of George + Orwell’s 1984. + +@firstcopyingnotice{{@footnoterule @smallskip Copyright © 2011, 2014 +Richard Stallman\ + {This version of this essay is part of @fsfsthreecite} + +Even one of these infringements makes e-books a step backward from +printed books. We must reject e-books until they respect our freedom. + +The e-book companies say denying our traditional freedoms is necessary +to continue to pay authors. The current copyright system supports those +companies handsomely and most authors badly. We can support authors +better in other ways that don’t require curtailing our freedom, and even +legalize sharing. Two methods I’ve suggested are: + +- To distribute tax funds to authors based on the cube root of each + author’s popularity.[(2)](#FOOT2) +- To design players so users can send authors anonymous + voluntary payments. + +E-books need not attack our freedom (Project Gutenberg’s e-books don’t), +but they will if companies get to decide. It’s up to us to stop them. + +Join the fight: sign up at <http://DefectiveByDesign.org/ebooks.html>. + +<div class="footnote"> + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +### Footnotes + +### [(1)](#DOCF1) + +@raggedright See “The Right to Read” (@pageref{Right to Read}) for more +on this. @end raggedright + +### [(2)](#DOCF2) + +@raggedright See both “Copyright vs. Community in the Age of Computer +Networks” (@pageref{Copyright vs. Community}) and my 2012 open letter to +the President of the Brazilian Senate, Senator José Sarney, at +<https://stallman.org/articles/internet-sharing-license.en.html>, for +more on this. @end raggedright + +</div> + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +This document was generated by *tonghuix* on *March 25, 2016* using +[*texi2html 1.82*](http://www.nongnu.org/texi2html/).\ |