The Right To Read
Synopsis
In a chillingly plausible near-future, “The Right to Read” tells the powerful and thought-provoking story of Dan Halbert, a college student whose small act of compassion becomes a turning point in both his life and the broader battle for digital freedom. Based on the short story by free software pioneer Richard Stallman, this video explores themes of digital rights, surveillance, censorship, and the fundamental human right to knowledge.
The story begins in the year 2047, when college students like Dan live in a society where reading is heavily restricted by copyright enforcement technologies. Books are no longer freely shared or stored on personal devices — instead, they are rented or licensed, monitored by centralized systems that track what you read, when you read it, and who reads it. In this world, even lending someone your computer is a dangerous act, since unauthorized reading can carry severe criminal penalties — not just for the reader, but for the device owner.
Dan faces this dilemma when Lissa, a fellow student whom he admires, asks to borrow his computer after hers breaks down. Without it, she’ll fail her midterm project. He wants to help her, but he's haunted by the possibility that she might access his licensed books. This wouldn’t just violate copyright law — it would trigger alarms in the Software Protection Authority (SPA), a watchdog agency that enforces digital restrictions. The SPA would trace the violation to Dan and could prosecute him as a pirate, a crime taken as seriously as physical theft or espionage.
Dan knows the risks. He’s learned in his software classes how every digital book is fitted with copyright monitors that report access details to a central licensing authority. These systems are also used to compile detailed user profiles sold to advertisers — another chilling example of privacy loss in the digital age.
Still, Dan recognizes the economic inequality embedded in this system. He comes from a modest background and knows firsthand how difficult it is to afford the fees required to read research papers, even as a student. For those pursuing academic careers, the system seems like a trap: borrowing money to pay for reading, in the hope that one day your own papers will generate royalties.
Driven by both compassion and love, Dan makes a risky choice: he not only lends Lissa his computer, but gives her his root password, making it appear as if he is the one reading the books. This act defies everything he has been taught — that sharing is piracy, and piracy is immoral. It also exposes a deep hypocrisy in the system: helping someone learn becomes a crime.
As their relationship deepens, Dan and Lissa begin to question the restrictive system they grew up in. They study the history of copyright and discover that earlier generations had free access to libraries, scholarly papers, and even debugging tools — all things now criminalized. Once-common technologies like free software, open-source kernels, and basic digital freedoms have been systematically outlawed in the name of intellectual property protection.
Eventually, the couple moves to Luna, a lunar colony beyond the reach of the SPA, where they meet others who have rejected Earth’s surveillance-heavy control over information. Their values evolve, and when the Tao Uprising begins in 2062, Dan and Lissa are among its most committed supporters. One of the movement’s primary goals: restore the universal right to read — a right denied to generations through digital DRM, copyright monitors, and legal fear.
“The Right to Read” is more than speculative fiction — it’s a warning about what could happen if we continue down a path where technology is used to limit freedom rather than empower it. It challenges viewers to think critically about ownership, sharing, access to knowledge, and the cost of convenience in a digital world increasingly controlled by corporations and state agencies.
This video adaptation is a call to action, asking us to consider: will we let the future of reading be locked behind surveillance and paywalls — or will we fight for a world where knowledge is a right, not a crime?