Richard Stallman's "The Right to Read" (flash fiction, copyrights, free)

Science fiction can be found in mmm... unexpected places. Yes, the author is the Richard Stallman, man behind GNU. And don't even try guessing the place of original publication - Communications of the ACM!!

This is an activists' story - the kind that now-a-days is associated with Cory Doctorow. A copyright dystopia where each reading of an ebook on a computer may requires a small payment, & only pre-authenticated people can read it!

Story is of the dilemma of Dan Halbert, a university student, who needs to respond to his girlfriend's request to lend her his computer because hers has broken down.

Fact sheet.

First published: Communications of the ACM, Volume 40, No 2 (February 1997).
Rating: A.
Download full text from GNU. [via Swapnil Bhartiya at indiansciencefiction Yahoo group]
Related: Stories dealing with copyrights & patents.