Copyright developed in the age of the printing press, and was designed to fit with the system of centralized copying imposed by the printing press. But the copyright system does not fit well with computer networks, and only draconian punishments can enforce it.

The global corporations that profit from copyright are lobbying for draconian punishments, and to increase their copyright powers, while suppressing public access to technology. But if we seriously hope to serve the only legitimate purpose of copyright -- to promote progress, for the benefit of the public -- then we must make changes in the other direction.

This talk by Richard M. Stallman is broken into two parts: the main talk and the question and answer sessions following the talk. Both are available in only Ogg/Theora format in keeping with Stallman's wishes. They are available under the Creative Commons NoDerivs 1.0 license.

BitTorrent: Talk (Ogg/Theora) | Q&A (Ogg/Theora)

HTTP (web browser): Talk (Ogg/Theora) | Q&A (Ogg/Theora)

Q&A

Download the question and answers section for answers to questions such as:

• What do you do when no free alternatives for a proprietary program exist?
• If we are to treat works used for practical purposes differently from those used for entertainment, how do you treat works such as video games that fall in both categories?
• If most of the computing industry and the US Copyright Board don't disagree with your views on copyright, how come no one has gone to change things?