Abstract

By 1789 the French Enlightenment had alreadyestablished that the rights of citizensincluded the right to speak, write, and printfreely. This right has since been enshrined invarious national and international documents,but remains elusive in much of the world. Oneway to consider these freedoms is to look notjust across the world comparing nations thathave or don''t have freedom, but back throughtime at the first effort to promulgate thesenew rights – the French Revolution. When theFrench Revolution created freedom of the pressin 1789, the French book publishing industrywas noted for five attributes: completecensorship of all publications, a rigidlyenforced printing monopoly, copyrightprotection for all authors, fossilized content,and the proliferation of illegal presses. Digital technology is enabling a second dawn ofpress freedoms, but the five problems found inFrance two centuries ago can still be seen invarious forms, especially in the massivemonopoly of book publishing by a few countries. The answers created by France in 1810 present apartial basis for how current governments couldrespond to contemporary problems with freedomof the press. Rightly used, new digitaltechnology also has an opportunity to finallyfacilitate one of civilization''s fundamentalfreedoms.