[Solar-general] How the Swedish Pirate Party Platform Backfires on Free Software

Sab Jul 25 21:33:50 CEST 2009

 Hola, pensaba escribirle a Stallman por diferentes motivos y temas entre
uno de ello era su opinión sobre el Pirat Partiet, el Partido Pirata Sueco.
Mi inglés no es muy bueno pero su opinión cumplio con mis expectativas. Aún
me queda pendiente enviarle un mail de agradecimiento por ayudarnos a todos.

Estoy reflexionando y los invitos a todos a debatir sobre el tema. También
lo estaré discutiendo en un grupo en que me han invitado:

Grupo de Yahoo:
*PPArgentina <http://ar.groups.yahoo.com/group/PPArgentina/?yguid=407409530>
*
Direcciones de correo electrónico del grupo Enlace relacionado:
http://partido-pirata.com.ar Enviar mensaje: PPArgentina en gruposyahoo.com.ar
Suscribirse: PPArgentina-subscribe en gruposyahoo.com.ar Cancelar suscripción:
PPArgentina-unsubscribe en gruposyahoo.com.ar Propietario:
PPArgentina-owner en gruposyahoo.com.ar

*Links:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/pirate-party.html
http://meneame.net/story/stallman-arremete-contra-partido-pirata-ing
http://twitter.com/partido_pirata/statuses/2835881115*

*Los que quieren pueden comunicarse con los integrantes del Pirat Partiet,
dejo los links por si llega RMS a leer la este mensaje:*

Los mail son públicos los pueden encontrar en los links, están los de Amelia
Andersdotten, Richard Stallman, Rick Falkvinge, entre otros:

http://www.ameliatillbryssel.se/espanol
http://www.gnu.org/people/speakers.es.html
http://press.piratpartiet.se/kontakt/
http://www.piratpartiet.se/styrelse
http://press.piratpartiet.se/about/
http://www.piratpartiet.se/medlemsservice

How the Swedish Pirate Party Platform Backfires on Free Software

by Richard Stallman <http://www.stallman.org/>

The bullying of the copyright industry in Sweden inspired the launch of the
first political party whose platform is to reduce copyright restrictions:
the Pirate Party. Its platform includes the prohibition of Digital
Restrictions Management, legalization of noncommercial sharing of published
works, and shortening of copyright for commercial use to a five-year period.
Five years after publication, any published work would go into the public
domain.

I support these changes, in general; but the specific combination chosen by
the Swedish Pirate Party backfires ironically in the special case of free
software. I'm sure that they did not intend to hurt free software, but
that's what would happen.

The GNU General Public License and other copyleft licenses use copyright law
to defend freedom for every user. The GPL permits everyone to publish
modified works, but only under the same license. Redistribution of the
unmodified work must also preserve the license. And all redistributors must
give users access to the software's source code.

How would the Swedish Pirate Party's platform affect copylefted free
software? After five years, its source code would go into the public domain,
and proprietary software developers would be able to include it in their
programs. But what about the reverse case?

Proprietary software is restricted by EULAs, not just by copyright, and the
users don't have the source code. Even if copyright permits noncommercial
sharing, the EULA may forbid it. In addition, the users, not having the
source code, do not control what the program does when they run it. To run
such a program is to surrender your freedom and give the developer control
over you.

So what would be the effect of terminating this program's copyright after 5
years? This would not require the developer to release source code, and
presumably most will never do so. Users, still denied the source code, would
still be unable to use the program in freedom. The program could even have a
“time bomb” in it to make it stop working after 5 years, in which case the
“public domain” copies would not run at all.

Thus, the Pirate Party's proposal would give proprietary software developers
the use of GPL-covered source code after 5 years, but it would not give free
software developers the use of proprietary source code, not after 5 years or
even 50 years. The Free World would get the bad, but not the good. The
difference between source code and object code and the practice of using
EULAs would give proprietary software an effective exception from the
general rule of 5-year copyright — one that free software does not share.

We also use copyright to partially deflect the danger of software patents.
We cannot make our programs safe from them — no program is ever safe from
software patents in a country which allows them — but at least we prevent
them from being used to make the program effectively non-free. The Swedish
Pirate Party proposes to abolish software patents, and if that is done, this
issue would go away. But until that is achieved, we must not lose our only
defense for protection from patents.

Once the Swedish Pirate Party had announced its platform, free software
developers noticed this effect and began proposing a special rule for free
software: to make copyright last longer for free software, so that it can
continue to be copylefted. This explicit exception for free software would
counterbalance the effective exception for proprietary software. Even ten
years ought to be enough, I think. However, the proposal met with resistance
from the Pirate Party's leaders, who objected to the idea of a longer
copyright for a special case.

I could support a law that would make GPL-covered software's source code
available in the public domain after 5 years, provided it has the same
effect on proprietary software's source code. After all, copyleft is a means
to an end (users' freedom), not an end in itself. And I'd rather not be an
advocate for a stronger copyright.

So I proposed that the Pirate Party platform require proprietary software's
source code to be put in escrow when the binaries are released. The escrowed
source code would then be released in the public domain after 5 years.
Rather than making free software an official exception to the 5-year
copyright rule, this would eliminate proprietary software's unofficial
exception. Either way, the result is fair.

A Pirate Party supporter proposed a more general variant of the first
suggestion: a general scheme to make copyright last longer as the public is
granted more freedoms in using the work. The advantage of this is that free
software becomes part of a general pattern of varying copyright term, rather
than a lone exception.

I'd prefer the escrow solution, but any of these methods would avoid a
prejudicial effect specifically against free software. There may be other
solutions that would also do the job. One way or another, the Pirate Party
of Sweden should avoid placing a handicap on a movement to defend the public
from marauding giants.

back to top <http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/pirate-party.html#header>

Please send FSF & GNU inquiries to <gnu en gnu.org> <gnu en gnu.org>. There are
also other ways to contact <http://www.gnu.org/contact/> the FSF.
Please send broken links and other corrections or suggestions to
<webmasters en gnu.org> <webmasters en gnu.org>.

Please see the Translations
README<http://www.gnu.org/server/standards/README.translations.html>for
information on coordinating and submitting translations of this
article.

Copyright © 2009 Richard Stallman

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative
Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/ or send a letter to
Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California,
94105, USA.
 Updated: $Date: 2009/07/24 07:25:52 $

*
Links:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/pirate-party.html
http://meneame.net/story/stallman-arremete-contra-partido-pirata-ing
http://twitter.com/partido_pirata/statuses/2835881115*

-- 
José Ignacio (Nacho) Pedrini, DuxJP.
Free Software activist.
Free Culture activist.
Pirate Party (Piratpartiet) activist.
Perfil, www.google.com/profiles/duxjipd
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