Crime and punishment. Copyright distopia.
Crime and punishment. Copyright distopia.
(translated from Russian. Translation and adaptation:Me
The original: http://www.naslednick.ru/archive/rubric/rubric_792.html)
2018 year, usual flat in Moscow.
- Dad, may I charge 1000$ from your credit card?
I need money to pay for the book.
- What`s book?
- "Crime and punishment" by Dostoevsky.
- What for? We have this book.
- Yeah? In which computer file?
- Not in file. On bookshelf.
- Phew! It is a paper book!
- So what? I readed this, then was same age as you.
- I can`t do text searching. I can`t even change size of font.
There is not animated images and soundtrack. Only pure text.
Are you serious? My friends from school will ridicule me!
- Okay. Then take this DVD. I bought this 15 years ago.
- It`s trash. I don`t have any device to read this DVD.
What`s next, punch cards?
- If you such egghead, then download the book from the Internet for free.
- Download a book for free !?
- Yes, it is in public domain, because the author died many years ago.
- Dad, are you crazy? Maybe in times of your youth was such thing as "public domain", but not in nowdays.
Now copyright on all books in "public domain" was transfered to American Association of Book Publishers in perpetuity.
Do you want I was jailed as follower of Dmitry Sklyarov(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Sklyarov) and sentenced
to life imprisonment?
- But Dostoevsky not American!
- Nobody cares. Are you antiglobalist?
- Of course not! Oh, miserable give 1000$ for just computer file. How about your friends from school? Maybe somebody let you make copy from own file?
- Then I would not able to read this copy.
- Why?
- Because you can read a book only on the computer, from that you bought the book.
Enough of stupid talks, give me bucks and I will buy the normal book.
- Ok. In time of my youth it was a lot of money. Take one-time password to withdraw 1000$ from my account.
- Thx. I downloaded the book.
- Sonny, what`s this? "Modern laser-shaped axes", "Crisis center "Porfiry", "RASKOLNIKOFF.COM: Calling playful old women".
- Banner ad. Without banners the book cost 6999$. Only with special eyeglasses you will be able to read book. Without eyeglasses you will be see only ads. Every e-book linked to personal eyeglasses of owner of book. Only the owner can use the eyeglasses. It have built-in retina scanner. Any questions?
- But why??
- Just imagine how it would be unfair! I paid for this book a ton of bucks and anyone can read it for free, just looking over my shoulder!
- Absurd!
- Please stop. I have to read this book right now. After 3 hours the book will self-destruct.
** Three hours later **
- Phew, I finished the book.
- How, the entire "Crime and punishment" just for three hours?!
- I could finish faster. But I was slow down by frequent interruptions for advertising.
- I don`t belive! Who is Sonia Marmeladova? Who is Luzhin?
- How can I know? It is "Home Edition". It says only about Raskolnikov. For all other characters you must buy "Professional Edition" or even "Enterprise Edition". We don`t have so much money.
- The world has gone mad!
- Too late.
Pardon, misprint, I mean "Copyright Dystopia"
Have look at this short story by rms:
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
quite similar topic
I had already read that story long time ago.
But I think my story much better.
This is very very nice and Because you can read a book only on the computer, from that you bought the book.
Enough of stupid talks, give me bucks and I will buy the normal book.
Thank you for this great story. I appreciate thatyou took the time to translate it for us. Unfortunately, things such as this have lately been becoming a reality. The most similar example is the new technology they are implementing in the evil Kinect 2 from Microsoft. They are making a face detection in the Kinect so when someone watches a movie they will be charged for the amount of people in the room. It is just scary to see how close we are to a no-sharing society.
This is a good example of why piracy (illegal sharing, bla bla bla, it's piracy) is bad for our society. We should reject the companies and people who choose to use their power against us by NOT USING their products and content. Trying to "out smart them" will only make things worse.
The future? Free/open standards on the web, free software, Creative Commons licenses, businesses that respect the end user and are also respected by the end user. The future? We are the future, and we will make it the way we want. We should sow what we want to reap.
And now, people will attack this comment because of the use of the word piracy and because I suggested that the end user should also respect the company that creates their content, etc etc.... I will not come back here to reply to anyone, I just wanted to pick this good story as an example of why piracy is bad. Those who agree, stop doing piracy and help make the future better, those who disagree... keep doing it until it comes back to bite you in the ass.
Bye.