“It’s a mistake to transfer answers from one thing to another”, says Stallman, contrasting songs with software programs. “The right approach is to look at each type of work and see what conclusion you get”.
When it comes to copyrighted works, Stallman says he divides the world into three categories. The first category involves “functional” works-e.g., software programs, dictionaries, and textbooks. The second category involves works that might best be described as “testimonial”-e.g., scientific papers and historical documents. Such works serve a purpose that would be undermined if subsequent readers or authors were free to modify the work at will. The final category involves works of personal expression-e.g., diaries, journals, and autobiographies. To modify such documents would be to alter a person’s recollections or point of view-action Stallman considers ethically unjustifiable.
Of the three categories, the first should give users the unlimited right to make modified versions, while the second and third should regulate that right according to the will of the original author. Regardless of category, however, the freedom to copy and redistribute noncommercially should remain unabridged at all times, Stallman insists. If that means giving Internet users the right to generate a hundred copies of an article, image, song, or book and then email the copies to a hundred strangers, so be it. “It’s clear that private occasional redistribution must be permitted, because only a police state can stop that”, Stallman says. “It’s antisocial to come between people and their friends. Napster has convinced me that we also need to permit, must permit, even noncommercial redistribution to the public for the fun of it. Because so many people want to do that and find it so useful”.
When I ask whether the courts would accept such a permissive outlook, Stallman cuts me off.
“That’s the wrong question”, he says. “I mean now you’ve changed the subject entirely from one of ethics to one of interpreting laws. And those are two totally different questions in the same field. It’s useless to jump from one to the other. How the courts would interpret the existing laws is mainly in a harsh way, because that’s the way these laws have been bought by publishers”.
The comment provides an insight into Stallman’s political philosophy: just because the legal system currently backs up businesses’ ability to treat copyright as the software equivalent of land title doesn’t mean computer users have to play the game according to those rules. Freedom is an ethical issue, not a legal issue. “I’m looking beyond what the existing laws are to what they should be”, Stallman says. “I’m not trying to draft legislation. I’m thinking about what should the law do? I consider the law prohibiting the sharing of copies with your friend the moral equivalent of Jim Crow. It does not deserve respect”.
The invocation of Jim Crow prompts another question. How much influence or inspiration does Stallman draw from past political leaders? Like the civil-rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, his attempt to drive social change is based on an appeal to timeless values: freedom, justice, and fair play.
Stallman divides his attention between my analogy and a particularly tangled strand of hair. When I stretch the analogy to the point where I’m comparing Stallman with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Stallman, after breaking off a split end and popping it into his mouth, cuts me off.
“I’m not in his league, but I do play the same game”, he says, chewing.
I suggest Malcolm X as another point of comparison. Like the former Nation of Islam spokesperson, Stallman has built up a reputation for courting controversy, alienating potential allies, and preaching a message favoring self-sufficiency over cultural integration.
Chewing on another split end, Stallman rejects the comparison. “My message is closer to King’s message”, he says. “It’s a universal message. It’s a message of firm condemnation of certain practices that mistreat others. It’s not a message of hatred for anyone. And it’s not aimed at a narrow group of people. I invite anyone to value freedom and to have freedom”.
Even so, a suspicious attitude toward political alliances remains a fundamental Stallman character trait. In the case of his well-publicized distaste for the term “open source”, the unwillingness to participate in recent coalition-building projects seems understandable. As a man who has spent the last two decades stumping on the behalf of free software, Stallman’s political capital is deeply invested in the term. Still, comments such as the “Han Solo” wisecrack at the 1999 LinuxWorld have only reinforced the Stallman’s reputation in the software industry as a disgrunted mossback unwilling to roll with political or marketing trends.
“I admire and respect Richard for all the work he’s done”, says Red Hat president Robert Young, summing up Stallman’s paradoxical political nature. “My only critique is that sometimes Richard treats his friends worse than his enemies”.
Stallman’s unwillingness to seek alliances seems equally perplexing when you consider his political interests outside of the free software movement. Visit Stallman’s offices at MIT, and you instantly find a clearinghouse of left-leaning news articles covering civil-rights abuses around the globe. Visit his web site, and you’ll find diatribes on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the War on Drugs, and the World Trade Organization.
Given his activist tendencies, I ask, why hasn’t Stallman sought a larger voice? Why hasn’t he used his visibility in the hacker world as a platform to boost rather than reduce his political voice.
Stallman lets his tangled hair drop and contemplates the question for a moment.
“I hesitate to exaggerate the importance of this little puddle of freedom”, he says. “Because the more well-known and conventional areas of working for freedom and a better society are tremendously important. I wouldn’t say that free software is as important as they are. It’s the responsibility I undertook, because it dropped in my lap and I saw a way I could do something about it. But, for example, to end police brutality, to end the war on drugs, to end the kinds of racism we still have, to help everyone have a comfortable life, to protect the rights of people who do abortions, to protect us from theocracy, these are tremendously important issues, far more important than what I do. I just wish I knew how to do something about them”.
Once again, Stallman presents his political activity as a function of personal confidence. Given the amount of time it has taken him to develop and hone the free software movement’s core tenets, Stallman is hesitant to jump aboard any issues or trends that might transport him into uncharted territory.
“I wish I knew I how to make a major difference on those bigger issues, because I would be tremendously proud if I could, but they’re very hard and lots of people who are probably better than I am have been working on them and have gotten only so far”, he says. “But as I see it, while other people were defending against these big visible threats, I saw another threat that was unguarded. And so I went to defend against that threat. It may not be as big a threat, but I was the only one there”.
Chewing a final split end, Stallman suggests paying the check. Before the waiter can take it away, however, Stallman pulls out a white-colored dollar bill and throws it on the pile. The bill looks so clearly counterfeit, I can’t help but pick it up and read it. Sure enough, it is counterfeit. Instead of bearing the image of a George Washington or Abe Lincoln, the bill’s front side bears the image of a cartoon pig. Instead of the United States of America, the banner above the pig reads “United Swines of Avarice”. The bill is for zero dollars, and when the waiter picks up the money, Stallman makes sure to tug on his sleeve.