Neel Smith: Apr. 2, 2005
The legacy of classical culture, including the Greek and Latin texts that have come down to us today, belongs to the world. We possess that heritage in part because our predecessors have been free to make use of it, and pass it along to us; anyone today should be free to use that heritage in ways that enrich their own lives and those of others.
Digital information technologies have the potential to extend the reach of that freedom -- or to restrict it. Are our texts free (in the sense of "liberty," not of "cost")? As we increasingly rely on digital resources, one helpful schema for analyzing the freedom of our texts is Richard Stallman's four levels of freedom for software: the freedoms to run, study, redistribute and improve software. (See the Free Software Foundation's definition of free sofware.) Each of Stallman's four kinds of freedom offers a close analogy to a freedom to use classical texts:
Further, Stallman's general observations about free software apply equally well to free texts:
In order for these freedoms to be real, they must be irrevocable as long as you do nothing wrong ...
However, certain kinds of rules about the manner of distributing free software [or free texts] are acceptable, when they don't conflict with the central freedoms. For example, copyleft (very simply stated) is the rule that when redistributing the program [or text], you cannot add restrictions to deny other people the central freedoms. This rule does not conflict with the central freedoms; rather it protects them.
You may have paid money to get copies of free software, or you may have obtained copies at no charge. But regardless of how you got your copies, you always have the freedom to copy and change the software [or texts], even to sell copies.
If you use digital versions of Greek and Latin texts, are they free?
If you create digital versions of Greek and Latin texts, can you liberate them for others to use freely?