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1<!DOCTYPE html> 2<html lang="en"> 3<head> 4<meta charset="UTF-8"> 5<title> 6Copyright propaganda 7</title> 8<link rel="stylesheet" href="/static/style.css"> 9<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"> 10</head> 11<body> 12<header> 13<a href="#main" id="skip-link">Skip navigation</a> 14<nav> 15<ul> 16<li><a href="/">Home</a></li> 17<li><a href="/projects">Projects</a></li> 18<li><a href="/index">Index</a></li> 19<li><a href="/about">About</a></li> 20<li><a href="https://roundabout-host.com/roundabout">Roundabout-host</a></li> 21</ul> 22<ul> 23<li><a href="mailto:root@roundabout-host.com" id="mail-link">root@roundabout-host.com</a></li> 24</ul> 25</nav> 26</header> 27<main id="main"> 28 29<h1>Copyright propaganda</h1> 30<div id="article-date">2025-05-04</div> 31<p class="tags"> 32 33<a href="/index/copyright.html" class="tag">copyright</a> 34 35<a href="/index/free software.html" class="tag">free software</a> 36 37</p> 38 39<article class="content-area"> 40<p>Copyright ought to be rethought, now that computers and networks exist. Back 41when not anyone could make copies of books, it was reasonable to assume that 42if you were making copies, you were depriving the author of potential income. 43</p><p>I am not asking for everything to become libre. Reading a copyrighted novel 44isn't disrespectful to the reader, as running nonfree software is. But I believe 45that enforcing copyright through technological restrictions is not OK. As Steve 46Jobs said in <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20100208194544/http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughtsonmusic/">Thoughts on Music</a>, 47DRM (digital <strong class="emphasis-2">restrictions</strong> management) simply doesn't work. It only harms 48the legitimate users, as the illegitimate ones will find a way to bypass the 49DRM. 50</p><p>Copyright is unlike property, and the media and software companies call it 51'intellectual property' to make you associate it with physical property, which 52isn't true at all. When a work is copied, nothing disappears. 53</p><blockquote><p>"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then 54you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have 55an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas." 56</p><p><em class="emphasis-1">— George Bernard Shaw</em> 57</p></blockquote><p>Also check <a href="https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html.en">GNU's list of words to avoid</a>. 58</p><p>This also happens with software. Simply writing proprietary software is already 59not ideal, but it's not the biggest problem. A much bigger one is the DRM in 60devices that forces us to keep the proprietary software they shipped with. The 61main reason we can't run GNU/Linux on most Android phones is that they have DRM, 62and that DRM changes with every Android update. The manufacturers say this is to 63protect their copyright or increase security, these are all propaganda. It is just to 64increase their revenue by making certain features artificially exclusive to more 65expensive models. There's no reason it should exist, other than harming the user 66who paid for that device and now can't use it for anything. I think this should 67be illegal. 68</p><p>These companies hate general-purpose computers. They don't want general computers to exist 69for ordinary people, only for them, and they want you to treat them as some sort 70of deities. They want to sell you appliances. On these, you can't install your 71own software (if you can install software, it must be approved by the company), 72you can't bypass DRM or even use them for something not intended by the company. 73General computers are simply not profitable enough for that kind of greedy 74companies. And they think they should have a legal right <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Computer_Entertainment_America,_Inc._v._Hotz">to sue you</a> 75for that! 76</p><p>Copyright should be way more limited now: 77</p><ul><li><p>The term should be reduced drastically, to about 20-25 years. 78</p></li><li><p>Private copying (not sharing) should be considered fair use and DRM shouldn't 79be used. With computers, it is simply impossible to stop. 80</p></li><li><p>Copyright holders of software should not be allowed to claim any rights on its 81output. 82</p></li><li><p>Devices where the manufacturer can replace the software (it is not in ROM) 83should also allow the user to replace it. 84</p></li><li><p>Ideally, all released software should be free, like GNU likes. Of course, this 85isn't going to happen. 86</p></li></ul><p>Copyright was created to encourage authors to release works in exchange for a 87way to earn monetary compensation. When ordinary people couldn't copy, it was a 88good thing. However, now when everyone has a computer that can copy everything, 89it simply doesn't work anymore, and it needs to be completely redesigned. 90</p> 91</article> 92 93</main> 94<footer> 95<p>Page generated on Sunday, 4 May 2025 at 15:06:42</p> 96<p xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" >This work is marked with <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/?ref=chooser-v1" target="_blank" rel="license noopener noreferrer" style="display:inline-block;">CC0 1.0 Universal</a> (🄍). No rights reserved.</p> 97<p>Hosted at <a href="https://roundabout-host.com/roundabout">Roundabout-host</a> using the static site service, and generated with <a href="/projects/ampoule.html">Ampoule</a>.</p> 98<a href="#">Back to top</a> 99</footer> 100</body> 101</html>