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<title>Censoring My Software |
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- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> |
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<div class="article reduced-width"> |
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<h2>Censoring My Software</h2> |
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|
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<address class="byline">by <a href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard |
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Stallman</a></address> |
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|
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<p> |
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Last summer, a few clever legislators proposed a bill to |
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“prohibit pornography” on the Internet. Last fall, the |
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right-wing Christians made this cause their own. Last week, President |
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Clinton signed the bill. This week, I'm censoring GNU Emacs.</p> |
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<p> |
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No, GNU Emacs does not contain pornography. It's a software package, |
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an award-winning extensible and programmable text editor. But the law |
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that was passed applies to far more than pornography. It prohibits |
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“indecent” speech, which can include anything from famous |
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poems, to masterpieces hanging in the Louvre, to advice about safe sex |
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… to software.</p> |
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<p> |
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Naturally, there was a lot of opposition to this bill. Not only from |
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people who use the Internet and people who appreciate erotica, but |
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from everyone who cares about freedom of the press.</p> |
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<p> |
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But every time we tried to tell the public what was at stake, the |
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forces of censorship responded with a lie: They told the public that |
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the issue was simply pornography. By embedding this lie as a |
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presupposition in their other statements about the issue, they |
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succeeded in misinforming the public. So now I am censoring my |
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software.</p> |
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<p> |
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You see, Emacs contains a version of the famous “doctor |
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program,” a.k.a. Eliza, originally developed by Professor |
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Weizenbaum at <abbr title="Massachusetts Institute of |
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Technology">MIT</abbr>. This is the program that imitates a Rogerian |
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psychotherapist. The user talks to the program, and the program |
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responds—by playing back the user's own statements, and by |
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recognizing a long list of particular words.</p> |
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<p> |
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The Emacs doctor program was set up to recognize many common curse |
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words and respond with an appropriately cute message such as, |
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“Would you please watch your tongue?” or “Let's not |
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be vulgar.” In order to do this, it had to have a list of curse |
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words. That means the source code for the program was indecent.</p> |
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<p> |
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So this week I removed that feature. The new version of the doctor |
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doesn't recognize the indecent words; if you curse at it, it replays |
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the curse back to you—for lack of knowing better. (When the new |
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version starts up, it announces that it has been censored for your |
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protection.)</p> |
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<p> |
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Now that Americans face the threat of two years in prison for indecent |
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network postings, it would be helpful if they could access precise |
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rules for avoiding imprisonment via the Internet. However, this is |
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impossible. The rules would have to mention the forbidden words, so |
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posting them on the Internet would violate those same rules.</p> |
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<p> |
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Of course, I'm making an assumption about just what |
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“indecent” means. I have to do this, because nobody knows |
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for sure. The most obvious possible meaning is the meaning it has for |
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television, so I'm using that as a tentative assumption. However, |
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there is a good chance that our courts will reject that interpretation |
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of the law as unconstitutional.</p> |
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<p> |
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We can hope that the courts will recognize the Internet as a medium of |
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publication like books and magazines. If they do, they will entirely |
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reject any law prohibiting “indecent” publications on the |
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Internet.</p> |
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<p> |
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What really worries me is that the courts might choose a muddled |
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half-measure—by approving an interpretation of |
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“indecent” that permits the doctor program or a statement |
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of the decency rules, but prohibits some of the books that any child |
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can browse through in the public library. Over the years, as the |
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Internet replaces the public library, some of our freedom of speech |
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will be lost.</p> |
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<p> |
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Just a few weeks ago, another country imposed censorship on the |
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Internet. That was China. We don't think well of China in this |
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country—its government doesn't respect basic freedoms. But how |
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well does our government respect them? And do you care enough to |
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preserve them here?</p> |
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|
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<p> |
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[This paragraph is obsolete:] |
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</p> |
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|
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<p> |
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If you care, stay in touch with the Voters Telecommunications Watch. |
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Look in their Web site http://www.vtw.org/ for background information |
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and political action recommendations. Censorship won in February, but |
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we can beat it in November.</p> |
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|
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<div class="infobox extra" role="complementary"> |
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<hr /> |
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<p>From <cite>Datamation</cite>, March 1 1996</p> |
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<p>Copyright © 1996, 2021 Richard Stallman</p> |
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