Informacija je moč. Toda tako kot je pri moči običajno, obstajajo tudi takšni, ki jo skušajo zadržati zase. Celotna znanstvena in kulturna dediščina sveta, zbrana skozi stoletja v knjigah in publikacijah, je sedaj množično digitalizirana in zaklenjena s strani peščice privatnih korporacij. Želite brati besedila, ki vsebujejo najbolj slavne znanstvene rezultate? Za to boste morali plačati velike vsote založnikom, kot je »Reed Elsevier«.
Mnogi si prizadevajo to spremeniti. »Gibanje za prosti dostop« se hrabro bori, da bi zagotovili, da znanstveniki ne bi metali svojih avtorskih pravic stran, ampak bi bilo njihovo delo objavljeno na internetu, pod pogoji, ki bi vsakemu omogočali dostop. Toda tudi v najboljšem primeru se to lahko nanaša na zadeve, ki bodo objavljene v prihodnosti. Vsa dela do zdaj, bi bila izgubljena.
To je gotovo previsoka cena. Vsiljevanje akademikom, da za branje del svojih sodelavcev morajo plačati? Skenirati celotne knjižnice in dovoliti, da jih prebirajo samo zaposleni v Googlu? Zagotavljanje znanstvenih člankov tistim na elitnih univerzah v »prvem svetu«, ne pa otrokom na »globalnem jugu«? To je nezaslišano in nesprejemljivo.
»Strinjam se«, pravijo mnogi, »ampak kaj lahko storimo? Podjetja posedujejo avtorske pravice in z zaračunavanjem za dostop zaslužijo ogromne vsote denarja, kar je povsem legalno – nič ne moremo storiti, da bi jih ustavili«. Vendar pa je nekaj, kar lahko naredimo, nekaj, kar je že preizkušeno: temu se lahko upremo.
Tisti, ki imate dostop do teh virov – študentje, knjižničarji, znanstveniki –, dan vam je privilegij. Lahko se »hranite« na tej »gostiji« znanja, medtem ko je ostali svet od tega izključen. Vendar vam ni treba – zares, moralno tega ne morete – imeti tega privilegija samo zase. Imate dolžnost, da to delite s svetom. Kaj lahko naredite: delite gesla za dostop s sodelavci, upoštevajte prošnje prijateljev za prenose.
Medtem pa tisti, ki so izključeni iz te igre, tudi ne sedijo križem rok. Tihotapijo se skozi »luknje« in plezajo čez »ograje«, osvobajajo informacije, ki jih založniki zaklepajo, in jih delijo s prijatelji.
Ampak vse te dejavnosti se dogajajo v temi, skrite v podzemlju. Temu se uradno reče kraja ali piratstvo, kot da bi bilo deljenje bogastva znanja moralni ekvivalent plenjenja ladje in poboja njene posadke. Toda delitev ni nekaj nemoralnega temveč je moralni imperativ. Le zaslepljeni od pohlepa bi svojemu prijatelju prepovedali narediti kopijo.
Velike korporacije so seveda zaslepljene s pohlepom. Zakoni po katerih delujejo, to od njih tudi zahtevajo – v nasprotnem primeru bi se njihovi delničarji uprli. In podkupljeni politiki jih pri tem podpirajo, sprejemajo zakone, ki jim dajejo izključne pristojnosti pri odločanju, kdo lahko dela kopije.
Ni pravice, če slediš nepravičnim zakonom. Čas je, da pridemo na svetlo in, v tradiciji državljanske nepokorščine, izrazimo svoje nasprotovanje tej zasebni kraji javne kulture.
Narediti moramo kopije informacij, ne glede na to kje so shranjene, in jih deliti s svetom. Stvari, ki jim je že potekla avtorska pravica, moramo pospraviti v arhive. Skrivne baze podatkov moramo odkupiti in jih objaviti na spletu. Prenesti moramo znanstvene revije in jih naložiti v omrežja za deljenje. Moramo se boriti za gverilo prostega dostopa.
Če nas bo po vsem svetu dovolj, s tem ne bomo samo poslali močnega sporočila, ki nasprotuje privatizaciji znanja, iz tega bomo naredili preteklost. Se nam boste pridružili?
julija 2008, Eremo, Italija
Guerilla Open Access Manifesto
Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for themselves. The world’s entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up by a handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You’ll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier.
There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement has fought valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it. But even under the best scenarios, their work will only apply to things published in the future. Everything up until now will have been lost.
That is too high a price to pay. Forcing academics to pay money to read the work of their colleagues? Scanning entire libraries but only allowing the folks at Google to read them? Providing scientific articles to those at elite universities in the First World, but not to children in the Global South? It’s outrageous and unacceptable.
“I agree,” many say, “but what can we do? The companies hold the copyrights, they make enormous amounts of money by charging for access, and it’s perfectly legal — there’s nothing we can do to stop them.” But there is something we can, something that’s already being done: we can fight back.
Those with access to these resources — students, librarians, scientists — you have been given a privilege. You get to feed at this banquet of knowledge while the rest of the world is locked out. But you need not — indeed, morally, you cannot — keep this privilege for yourselves. You have a duty to share it with the world. And you have: trading passwords with colleagues, filling download requests for friends.
Meanwhile, those who have been locked out are not standing idly by. You have been sneaking through holes and climbing over fences, liberating the information locked up by the publishers and sharing them with your friends.
But all of this action goes on in the dark, hidden underground. It’s called stealing or piracy, as if sharing a wealth of knowledge were the moral equivalent of plundering a ship and murdering its crew. But sharing isn’t immoral — it’s a moral imperative. Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy.
Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under which they operate require it — their shareholders would revolt at anything less. And the politicians they have bought off back them, passing laws giving them the exclusive power to decide who can make copies.
There is no justice in following unjust laws. It’s time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture.
We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that’s out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access.
With enough of us, around the world, we’ll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we’ll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us?
July 2008, Eremo, Italy