(S) SHARE-RIGHT
by Kevin Kelly

You may reproduce this material if your recipients may also reproduce it.

Sometime in the last year or so, announcements like the one above were being attached to computer network messages. Unlike communication in the public domain, which anyone can use for whatever commercial purpose, share-right limits its benefits to those willing to share the bounty in the same way they received it. Users can take it only if they pass it on with the same promise. As Jack Powers, one of the network riders, says, "I like this idea of rights which travel together with the merchandise." Although share-right was born on the networks, I envision it taking root in other decentralized, highly replicating communications, like xerox publishing, or tape duplicating. Howard Rheingold, a host on The Well, calls it, "a self-reproducing word virus that eats intellectual property."

As far as I know, the share-right concept first appeared at the junction of USENET and Stargate, two network systems of different politics. USENET, one of the most libertarian networks running, distributes and redistributes messages in an ad hoc style of complete non-ownership. You don't post something in USENET without expecting it to be copied all over the country, or the world. Stargate is a privately run network which beams netnews into space by hitching the messages to an unused area of information transmission in the "blink" between screens on cable TV broadcasts. It would bounce news off a satellite, down to distant pickup sites, and into local computers again. I'll let Erik Fair, a USENET engineer, tell the rest of the story:

"Stargate as originally envisioned was a cheap way to send
USENET news everywhere by true broadcast. Unfortunately, the
communication legalities were such that they could not claim to
be a common carrier (like telephone companies), and this led
directly into Stargate becoming a subscriber service instead
(like a publisher). Stargate has an agreement that prohibits
their subscribers from redistributing the articles they get
from Stargate because, of course, it would erode Stargate's
subscriber base if they did.

"Naturally, this caused a bit of a stink on the net, and the
result was the copyright notices which you see on some people's
articles. ("You can redistribute only if your recipients can"),
preventing Stargate from transmitting those articles unless
their subscribers can."

You, reader, are encouraged to duplicate this message, but only if your readers may also duplicate it.

(S) Share-right 1987

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Editor's note: The idea of Share-right is interesting in view
of the philosophy behind the porting of NETWEAVER and other ENA
material around the world. NETWEAVER was the first regular
publication to be distributed systematically through porting.
The Share-right idea is among a number of new ways of thinking
about publication, copyright, and distribution evoked by this
new technology. Readers are encouraged to comment on the
implications and extensions of Share-right. Kevin Kelly is
Editor of the _Whole Earth Review_. I picked up this message in
the Winter '87 issue. The theme of the issue is SIGNALS and it
is full of material which will be of interest to NETWEAVER
readers. Subscriptions are $20 from Whole Earth Review, P.O.
Box 15187, Santa Ana, CA 92705-9913. - Lisa Kimball