4 ms·
DRM is a concept to be taken seriously, and I often wonder who is the equivalent of RMS in the literature world (?). Imagine for a moment. Kindle books cost 57
by orsenthil 10y ago
DRM is a concept to be taken seriously, and I often wonder who is the equivalent of RMS in the literature world (?).
Imagine for a moment. Kindle books cost 57.59 dollars, only a few dollars cheaper than Hardcopy books. Along with hardcopy books, Kindle books have a concept of "renting", "monthly membership" to read it on your device at your home.
And at any moment, the document in the cloud can be wiped out with you knowing.
Writing software is a similar challenging task as writing a book and Fortunately, we do not face this problem in Software world, where high-quality software under various Free and Open Source licenses are available at all times.
RMS ensured that anything under GPL cannot be taken away in any form from the users.
We need an equivalent of RMS in the literature world so that we can have freedom to read anything, at any time, while at the same time, while ensuring the protection and credit for the author of the original work.
- igravious 10y agoTotally agree. Well I would say that Alexandra Elbakyan of Sci-Hub fame is in the vanguard in this respect. I'm not making an equivalence here because Stallman repurposed the tool that is copyright to make copyleft to underpin free software legally whereas Elbakyan is an out and out pirate as far as the law goes. I have used Sci-Hub and gen.lib.rus.ec countless times already even though I attend a "developed-world" academic institution and have access to a lot of the material that is shared on those sites. Sometimes it's a simple matter of convenience, sometimes I my institution does not have the required subscription. I suppose the Open Access model in the academic publishing world is the ideological equivalent to what Stallman was a part of building in the software world but it seems to be playing out a lot differently. In the wider world of literature I couldn't say.
- ashitlerferad 10y agoRMS could be that equivalent of RMS in the literature world: http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html