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acaf905b | 1 | Copyright (C) 1985, 1993, 2001-2012 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
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2 | |
3 | Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies | |
4 | of this document, in any medium, provided that the copyright notice and | |
5 | permission notice are preserved, and that the distributor grants the | |
6 | recipient permission for further redistribution as permitted by this | |
7 | notice. | |
8 | ||
9 | Modified versions may not be made. | |
10 | ||
11 | The GNU Manifesto | |
12 | ***************** | |
13 | ||
14 | The GNU Manifesto which appears below was written by Richard | |
15 | Stallman at the beginning of the GNU project, to ask for | |
16 | participation and support. For the first few years, it was | |
17 | updated in minor ways to account for developments, but now it | |
18 | seems best to leave it unchanged as most people have seen it. | |
19 | ||
20 | Since that time, we have learned about certain common | |
21 | misunderstandings that different wording could help avoid. | |
22 | Footnotes added in 1993 help clarify these points. | |
23 | ||
24 | For up-to-date information about the available GNU software, | |
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25 | please see www.gnu.org. For software tasks to work on, see |
26 | http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/tasklist. For other ways | |
27 | to contribute, see http://www.gnu.org/help. | |
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28 | |
29 | What's GNU? Gnu's Not Unix! | |
30 | ============================ | |
31 | ||
32 | GNU, which stands for Gnu's Not Unix, is the name for the complete | |
33 | Unix-compatible software system which I am writing so that I can give it | |
34 | away free to everyone who can use it.(1) Several other volunteers are | |
35 | helping me. Contributions of time, money, programs and equipment are | |
36 | greatly needed. | |
37 | ||
38 | So far we have an Emacs text editor with Lisp for writing editor | |
39 | commands, a source level debugger, a yacc-compatible parser generator, | |
40 | a linker, and around 35 utilities. A shell (command interpreter) is | |
41 | nearly completed. A new portable optimizing C compiler has compiled | |
42 | itself and may be released this year. An initial kernel exists but | |
43 | many more features are needed to emulate Unix. When the kernel and | |
44 | compiler are finished, it will be possible to distribute a GNU system | |
45 | suitable for program development. We will use TeX as our text | |
46 | formatter, but an nroff is being worked on. We will use the free, | |
47 | portable X window system as well. After this we will add a portable | |
48 | Common Lisp, an Empire game, a spreadsheet, and hundreds of other | |
49 | things, plus on-line documentation. We hope to supply, eventually, | |
50 | everything useful that normally comes with a Unix system, and more. | |
51 | ||
52 | GNU will be able to run Unix programs, but will not be identical to | |
53 | Unix. We will make all improvements that are convenient, based on our | |
54 | experience with other operating systems. In particular, we plan to | |
55 | have longer file names, file version numbers, a crashproof file system, | |
56 | file name completion perhaps, terminal-independent display support, and | |
57 | perhaps eventually a Lisp-based window system through which several | |
58 | Lisp programs and ordinary Unix programs can share a screen. Both C | |
59 | and Lisp will be available as system programming languages. We will | |
60 | try to support UUCP, MIT Chaosnet, and Internet protocols for | |
61 | communication. | |
62 | ||
63 | GNU is aimed initially at machines in the 68000/16000 class with | |
64 | virtual memory, because they are the easiest machines to make it run | |
65 | on. The extra effort to make it run on smaller machines will be left | |
66 | to someone who wants to use it on them. | |
67 | ||
68 | To avoid horrible confusion, please pronounce the `G' in the word | |
69 | `GNU' when it is the name of this project. | |
70 | ||
71 | Why I Must Write GNU | |
72 | ==================== | |
73 | ||
74 | I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I | |
75 | must share it with other people who like it. Software sellers want to | |
76 | divide the users and conquer them, making each user agree not to share | |
77 | with others. I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this | |
78 | way. I cannot in good conscience sign a nondisclosure agreement or a | |
79 | software license agreement. For years I worked within the Artificial | |
80 | Intelligence Lab to resist such tendencies and other inhospitalities, | |
81 | but eventually they had gone too far: I could not remain in an | |
82 | institution where such things are done for me against my will. | |
83 | ||
84 | So that I can continue to use computers without dishonor, I have | |
85 | decided to put together a sufficient body of free software so that I | |
86 | will be able to get along without any software that is not free. I | |
87 | have resigned from the AI lab to deny MIT any legal excuse to prevent | |
88 | me from giving GNU away. | |
89 | ||
90 | Why GNU Will Be Compatible with Unix | |
91 | ==================================== | |
92 | ||
93 | Unix is not my ideal system, but it is not too bad. The essential | |
94 | features of Unix seem to be good ones, and I think I can fill in what | |
95 | Unix lacks without spoiling them. And a system compatible with Unix | |
96 | would be convenient for many other people to adopt. | |
97 | ||
98 | How GNU Will Be Available | |
99 | ========================= | |
100 | ||
101 | GNU is not in the public domain. Everyone will be permitted to | |
102 | modify and redistribute GNU, but no distributor will be allowed to | |
103 | restrict its further redistribution. That is to say, proprietary | |
104 | modifications will not be allowed. I want to make sure that all | |
105 | versions of GNU remain free. | |
106 | ||
107 | Why Many Other Programmers Want to Help | |
108 | ======================================= | |
109 | ||
110 | I have found many other programmers who are excited about GNU and | |
111 | want to help. | |
112 | ||
113 | Many programmers are unhappy about the commercialization of system | |
114 | software. It may enable them to make more money, but it requires them | |
115 | to feel in conflict with other programmers in general rather than feel | |
116 | as comrades. The fundamental act of friendship among programmers is the | |
117 | sharing of programs; marketing arrangements now typically used | |
118 | essentially forbid programmers to treat others as friends. The | |
119 | purchaser of software must choose between friendship and obeying the | |
120 | law. Naturally, many decide that friendship is more important. But | |
121 | those who believe in law often do not feel at ease with either choice. | |
122 | They become cynical and think that programming is just a way of making | |
123 | money. | |
124 | ||
125 | By working on and using GNU rather than proprietary programs, we can | |
126 | be hospitable to everyone and obey the law. In addition, GNU serves as | |
127 | an example to inspire and a banner to rally others to join us in | |
128 | sharing. This can give us a feeling of harmony which is impossible if | |
129 | we use software that is not free. For about half the programmers I | |
130 | talk to, this is an important happiness that money cannot replace. | |
131 | ||
132 | How You Can Contribute | |
133 | ====================== | |
134 | ||
135 | I am asking computer manufacturers for donations of machines and | |
136 | money. I'm asking individuals for donations of programs and work. | |
137 | ||
138 | One consequence you can expect if you donate machines is that GNU | |
139 | will run on them at an early date. The machines should be complete, | |
140 | ready to use systems, approved for use in a residential area, and not | |
141 | in need of sophisticated cooling or power. | |
142 | ||
143 | I have found very many programmers eager to contribute part-time | |
144 | work for GNU. For most projects, such part-time distributed work would | |
145 | be very hard to coordinate; the independently-written parts would not | |
146 | work together. But for the particular task of replacing Unix, this | |
147 | problem is absent. A complete Unix system contains hundreds of utility | |
148 | programs, each of which is documented separately. Most interface | |
149 | specifications are fixed by Unix compatibility. If each contributor | |
150 | can write a compatible replacement for a single Unix utility, and make | |
151 | it work properly in place of the original on a Unix system, then these | |
152 | utilities will work right when put together. Even allowing for Murphy | |
153 | to create a few unexpected problems, assembling these components will | |
154 | be a feasible task. (The kernel will require closer communication and | |
155 | will be worked on by a small, tight group.) | |
156 | ||
157 | If I get donations of money, I may be able to hire a few people full | |
158 | or part time. The salary won't be high by programmers' standards, but | |
159 | I'm looking for people for whom building community spirit is as | |
160 | important as making money. I view this as a way of enabling dedicated | |
161 | people to devote their full energies to working on GNU by sparing them | |
162 | the need to make a living in another way. | |
163 | ||
164 | Why All Computer Users Will Benefit | |
165 | =================================== | |
166 | ||
167 | Once GNU is written, everyone will be able to obtain good system | |
168 | software free, just like air.(2) | |
169 | ||
170 | This means much more than just saving everyone the price of a Unix | |
171 | license. It means that much wasteful duplication of system programming | |
172 | effort will be avoided. This effort can go instead into advancing the | |
173 | state of the art. | |
174 | ||
175 | Complete system sources will be available to everyone. As a result, | |
176 | a user who needs changes in the system will always be free to make them | |
177 | himself, or hire any available programmer or company to make them for | |
178 | him. Users will no longer be at the mercy of one programmer or company | |
179 | which owns the sources and is in sole position to make changes. | |
180 | ||
181 | Schools will be able to provide a much more educational environment | |
182 | by encouraging all students to study and improve the system code. | |
183 | Harvard's computer lab used to have the policy that no program could be | |
184 | installed on the system if its sources were not on public display, and | |
185 | upheld it by actually refusing to install certain programs. I was very | |
186 | much inspired by this. | |
187 | ||
188 | Finally, the overhead of considering who owns the system software | |
189 | and what one is or is not entitled to do with it will be lifted. | |
190 | ||
191 | Arrangements to make people pay for using a program, including | |
192 | licensing of copies, always incur a tremendous cost to society through | |
193 | the cumbersome mechanisms necessary to figure out how much (that is, | |
194 | which programs) a person must pay for. And only a police state can | |
195 | force everyone to obey them. Consider a space station where air must | |
196 | be manufactured at great cost: charging each breather per liter of air | |
197 | may be fair, but wearing the metered gas mask all day and all night is | |
198 | intolerable even if everyone can afford to pay the air bill. And the | |
199 | TV cameras everywhere to see if you ever take the mask off are | |
200 | outrageous. It's better to support the air plant with a head tax and | |
201 | chuck the masks. | |
202 | ||
203 | Copying all or parts of a program is as natural to a programmer as | |
204 | breathing, and as productive. It ought to be as free. | |
205 | ||
206 | Some Easily Rebutted Objections to GNU's Goals | |
207 | ============================================== | |
208 | ||
209 | "Nobody will use it if it is free, because that means they can't | |
210 | rely on any support." | |
211 | ||
212 | "You have to charge for the program to pay for providing the | |
213 | support." | |
214 | ||
215 | If people would rather pay for GNU plus service than get GNU free | |
216 | without service, a company to provide just service to people who have | |
217 | obtained GNU free ought to be profitable.(3) | |
218 | ||
219 | We must distinguish between support in the form of real programming | |
220 | work and mere handholding. The former is something one cannot rely on | |
221 | from a software vendor. If your problem is not shared by enough | |
222 | people, the vendor will tell you to get lost. | |
223 | ||
224 | If your business needs to be able to rely on support, the only way | |
225 | is to have all the necessary sources and tools. Then you can hire any | |
226 | available person to fix your problem; you are not at the mercy of any | |
227 | individual. With Unix, the price of sources puts this out of | |
228 | consideration for most businesses. With GNU this will be easy. It is | |
229 | still possible for there to be no available competent person, but this | |
230 | problem cannot be blamed on distribution arrangements. GNU does not | |
231 | eliminate all the world's problems, only some of them. | |
232 | ||
233 | Meanwhile, the users who know nothing about computers need | |
234 | handholding: doing things for them which they could easily do | |
235 | themselves but don't know how. | |
236 | ||
237 | Such services could be provided by companies that sell just | |
238 | hand-holding and repair service. If it is true that users would rather | |
239 | spend money and get a product with service, they will also be willing | |
240 | to buy the service having got the product free. The service companies | |
241 | will compete in quality and price; users will not be tied to any | |
242 | particular one. Meanwhile, those of us who don't need the service | |
243 | should be able to use the program without paying for the service. | |
244 | ||
245 | "You cannot reach many people without advertising, and you must | |
246 | charge for the program to support that." | |
247 | ||
248 | "It's no use advertising a program people can get free." | |
249 | ||
250 | There are various forms of free or very cheap publicity that can be | |
251 | used to inform numbers of computer users about something like GNU. But | |
252 | it may be true that one can reach more microcomputer users with | |
253 | advertising. If this is really so, a business which advertises the | |
254 | service of copying and mailing GNU for a fee ought to be successful | |
255 | enough to pay for its advertising and more. This way, only the users | |
256 | who benefit from the advertising pay for it. | |
257 | ||
258 | On the other hand, if many people get GNU from their friends, and | |
259 | such companies don't succeed, this will show that advertising was not | |
260 | really necessary to spread GNU. Why is it that free market advocates | |
261 | don't want to let the free market decide this?(4) | |
262 | ||
263 | "My company needs a proprietary operating system to get a | |
264 | competitive edge." | |
265 | ||
266 | GNU will remove operating system software from the realm of | |
267 | competition. You will not be able to get an edge in this area, but | |
268 | neither will your competitors be able to get an edge over you. You and | |
269 | they will compete in other areas, while benefiting mutually in this | |
270 | one. If your business is selling an operating system, you will not | |
271 | like GNU, but that's tough on you. If your business is something else, | |
272 | GNU can save you from being pushed into the expensive business of | |
273 | selling operating systems. | |
274 | ||
275 | I would like to see GNU development supported by gifts from many | |
276 | manufacturers and users, reducing the cost to each.(5) | |
277 | ||
278 | "Don't programmers deserve a reward for their creativity?" | |
279 | ||
280 | If anything deserves a reward, it is social contribution. | |
281 | Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so far as society | |
282 | is free to use the results. If programmers deserve to be rewarded for | |
283 | creating innovative programs, by the same token they deserve to be | |
284 | punished if they restrict the use of these programs. | |
285 | ||
286 | "Shouldn't a programmer be able to ask for a reward for his | |
287 | creativity?" | |
288 | ||
289 | There is nothing wrong with wanting pay for work, or seeking to | |
290 | maximize one's income, as long as one does not use means that are | |
291 | destructive. But the means customary in the field of software today | |
292 | are based on destruction. | |
293 | ||
294 | Extracting money from users of a program by restricting their use of | |
295 | it is destructive because the restrictions reduce the amount and the | |
296 | ways that the program can be used. This reduces the amount of wealth | |
297 | that humanity derives from the program. When there is a deliberate | |
298 | choice to restrict, the harmful consequences are deliberate destruction. | |
299 | ||
300 | The reason a good citizen does not use such destructive means to | |
301 | become wealthier is that, if everyone did so, we would all become | |
302 | poorer from the mutual destructiveness. This is Kantian ethics; or, | |
303 | the Golden Rule. Since I do not like the consequences that result if | |
304 | everyone hoards information, I am required to consider it wrong for one | |
305 | to do so. Specifically, the desire to be rewarded for one's creativity | |
306 | does not justify depriving the world in general of all or part of that | |
307 | creativity. | |
308 | ||
309 | "Won't programmers starve?" | |
310 | ||
311 | I could answer that nobody is forced to be a programmer. Most of us | |
312 | cannot manage to get any money for standing on the street and making | |
313 | faces. But we are not, as a result, condemned to spend our lives | |
314 | standing on the street making faces, and starving. We do something | |
315 | else. | |
316 | ||
317 | But that is the wrong answer because it accepts the questioner's | |
318 | implicit assumption: that without ownership of software, programmers | |
319 | cannot possibly be paid a cent. Supposedly it is all or nothing. | |
320 | ||
321 | The real reason programmers will not starve is that it will still be | |
322 | possible for them to get paid for programming; just not paid as much as | |
323 | now. | |
324 | ||
325 | Restricting copying is not the only basis for business in software. | |
326 | It is the most common basis because it brings in the most money. If it | |
327 | were prohibited, or rejected by the customer, software business would | |
328 | move to other bases of organization which are now used less often. | |
329 | There are always numerous ways to organize any kind of business. | |
330 | ||
331 | Probably programming will not be as lucrative on the new basis as it | |
332 | is now. But that is not an argument against the change. It is not | |
333 | considered an injustice that sales clerks make the salaries that they | |
334 | now do. If programmers made the same, that would not be an injustice | |
335 | either. (In practice they would still make considerably more than | |
336 | that.) | |
337 | ||
338 | "Don't people have a right to control how their creativity is | |
339 | used?" | |
340 | ||
341 | "Control over the use of one's ideas" really constitutes control over | |
342 | other people's lives; and it is usually used to make their lives more | |
343 | difficult. | |
344 | ||
bfa8f4e1 | 345 | People who have studied the issue of intellectual property rights(6) |
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346 | carefully (such as lawyers) say that there is no intrinsic right to |
347 | intellectual property. The kinds of supposed intellectual property | |
348 | rights that the government recognizes were created by specific acts of | |
349 | legislation for specific purposes. | |
350 | ||
351 | For example, the patent system was established to encourage | |
352 | inventors to disclose the details of their inventions. Its purpose was | |
353 | to help society rather than to help inventors. At the time, the life | |
354 | span of 17 years for a patent was short compared with the rate of | |
355 | advance of the state of the art. Since patents are an issue only among | |
356 | manufacturers, for whom the cost and effort of a license agreement are | |
357 | small compared with setting up production, the patents often do not do | |
358 | much harm. They do not obstruct most individuals who use patented | |
359 | products. | |
360 | ||
361 | The idea of copyright did not exist in ancient times, when authors | |
362 | frequently copied other authors at length in works of non-fiction. This | |
363 | practice was useful, and is the only way many authors' works have | |
364 | survived even in part. The copyright system was created expressly for | |
365 | the purpose of encouraging authorship. In the domain for which it was | |
366 | invented--books, which could be copied economically only on a printing | |
367 | press--it did little harm, and did not obstruct most of the individuals | |
368 | who read the books. | |
369 | ||
370 | All intellectual property rights are just licenses granted by society | |
371 | because it was thought, rightly or wrongly, that society as a whole | |
372 | would benefit by granting them. But in any particular situation, we | |
373 | have to ask: are we really better off granting such license? What kind | |
374 | of act are we licensing a person to do? | |
375 | ||
376 | The case of programs today is very different from that of books a | |
377 | hundred years ago. The fact that the easiest way to copy a program is | |
378 | from one neighbor to another, the fact that a program has both source | |
379 | code and object code which are distinct, and the fact that a program is | |
380 | used rather than read and enjoyed, combine to create a situation in | |
381 | which a person who enforces a copyright is harming society as a whole | |
382 | both materially and spiritually; in which a person should not do so | |
383 | regardless of whether the law enables him to. | |
384 | ||
385 | "Competition makes things get done better." | |
386 | ||
387 | The paradigm of competition is a race: by rewarding the winner, we | |
388 | encourage everyone to run faster. When capitalism really works this | |
389 | way, it does a good job; but its defenders are wrong in assuming it | |
390 | always works this way. If the runners forget why the reward is offered | |
391 | and become intent on winning, no matter how, they may find other | |
392 | strategies--such as, attacking other runners. If the runners get into | |
393 | a fist fight, they will all finish late. | |
394 | ||
395 | Proprietary and secret software is the moral equivalent of runners | |
396 | in a fist fight. Sad to say, the only referee we've got does not seem | |
397 | to object to fights; he just regulates them ("For every ten yards you | |
398 | run, you can fire one shot"). He really ought to break them up, and | |
399 | penalize runners for even trying to fight. | |
400 | ||
401 | "Won't everyone stop programming without a monetary incentive?" | |
402 | ||
403 | Actually, many people will program with absolutely no monetary | |
404 | incentive. Programming has an irresistible fascination for some | |
405 | people, usually the people who are best at it. There is no shortage of | |
406 | professional musicians who keep at it even though they have no hope of | |
407 | making a living that way. | |
408 | ||
409 | But really this question, though commonly asked, is not appropriate | |
410 | to the situation. Pay for programmers will not disappear, only become | |
411 | less. So the right question is, will anyone program with a reduced | |
412 | monetary incentive? My experience shows that they will. | |
413 | ||
414 | For more than ten years, many of the world's best programmers worked | |
415 | at the Artificial Intelligence Lab for far less money than they could | |
416 | have had anywhere else. They got many kinds of non-monetary rewards: | |
417 | fame and appreciation, for example. And creativity is also fun, a | |
418 | reward in itself. | |
419 | ||
420 | Then most of them left when offered a chance to do the same | |
421 | interesting work for a lot of money. | |
422 | ||
423 | What the facts show is that people will program for reasons other | |
424 | than riches; but if given a chance to make a lot of money as well, they | |
425 | will come to expect and demand it. Low-paying organizations do poorly | |
426 | in competition with high-paying ones, but they do not have to do badly | |
427 | if the high-paying ones are banned. | |
428 | ||
429 | "We need the programmers desperately. If they demand that we stop | |
430 | helping our neighbors, we have to obey." | |
431 | ||
432 | You're never so desperate that you have to obey this sort of demand. | |
433 | Remember: millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute! | |
434 | ||
435 | "Programmers need to make a living somehow." | |
436 | ||
437 | In the short run, this is true. However, there are plenty of ways | |
438 | that programmers could make a living without selling the right to use a | |
439 | program. This way is customary now because it brings programmers and | |
440 | businessmen the most money, not because it is the only way to make a | |
441 | living. It is easy to find other ways if you want to find them. Here | |
442 | are a number of examples. | |
443 | ||
444 | A manufacturer introducing a new computer will pay for the porting of | |
445 | operating systems onto the new hardware. | |
446 | ||
447 | The sale of teaching, hand-holding and maintenance services could | |
448 | also employ programmers. | |
449 | ||
f48201dc | 450 | People with new ideas could distribute programs as freeware(7), asking |
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451 | for donations from satisfied users, or selling hand-holding services. |
452 | I have met people who are already working this way successfully. | |
453 | ||
454 | Users with related needs can form users' groups, and pay dues. A | |
455 | group would contract with programming companies to write programs that | |
456 | the group's members would like to use. | |
457 | ||
458 | All sorts of development can be funded with a Software Tax: | |
459 | ||
460 | Suppose everyone who buys a computer has to pay x percent of the | |
461 | price as a software tax. The government gives this to an agency | |
462 | like the NSF to spend on software development. | |
463 | ||
464 | But if the computer buyer makes a donation to software development | |
465 | himself, he can take a credit against the tax. He can donate to | |
466 | the project of his own choosing--often, chosen because he hopes to | |
467 | use the results when it is done. He can take a credit for any | |
468 | amount of donation up to the total tax he had to pay. | |
469 | ||
470 | The total tax rate could be decided by a vote of the payers of the | |
471 | tax, weighted according to the amount they will be taxed on. | |
472 | ||
473 | The consequences: | |
474 | ||
475 | * The computer-using community supports software development. | |
476 | ||
477 | * This community decides what level of support is needed. | |
478 | ||
479 | * Users who care which projects their share is spent on can | |
480 | choose this for themselves. | |
481 | ||
482 | In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the | |
483 | post-scarcity world, where nobody will have to work very hard just to | |
484 | make a living. People will be free to devote themselves to activities | |
485 | that are fun, such as programming, after spending the necessary ten | |
486 | hours a week on required tasks such as legislation, family counseling, | |
487 | robot repair and asteroid prospecting. There will be no need to be | |
488 | able to make a living from programming. | |
489 | ||
490 | We have already greatly reduced the amount of work that the whole | |
491 | society must do for its actual productivity, but only a little of this | |
492 | has translated itself into leisure for workers because much | |
493 | nonproductive activity is required to accompany productive activity. | |
494 | The main causes of this are bureaucracy and isometric struggles against | |
495 | competition. Free software will greatly reduce these drains in the | |
496 | area of software production. We must do this, in order for technical | |
497 | gains in productivity to translate into less work for us. | |
498 | ||
499 | ---------- Footnotes ---------- | |
500 | ||
501 | (1) The wording here was careless. The intention was that nobody | |
502 | would have to pay for *permission* to use the GNU system. But the | |
503 | words don't make this clear, and people often interpret them as saying | |
504 | that copies of GNU should always be distributed at little or no charge. | |
505 | That was never the intent; later on, the manifesto mentions the | |
506 | possibility of companies providing the service of distribution for a | |
507 | profit. Subsequently I have learned to distinguish carefully between | |
508 | "free" in the sense of freedom and "free" in the sense of price. Free | |
509 | software is software that users have the freedom to distribute and | |
510 | change. Some users may obtain copies at no charge, while others pay to | |
511 | obtain copies--and if the funds help support improving the software, so | |
512 | much the better. The important thing is that everyone who has a copy | |
513 | has the freedom to cooperate with others in using it. | |
514 | ||
515 | (2) This is another place I failed to distinguish carefully between | |
516 | the two different meanings of "free". The statement as it stands is | |
517 | not false--you can get copies of GNU software at no charge, from your | |
518 | friends or over the net. But it does suggest the wrong idea. | |
519 | ||
520 | (3) Several such companies now exist. | |
521 | ||
820f92e1 | 522 | (4) The Free Software Foundation raised most of its funds for 10 |
da0e78ac RS |
523 | years from a distribution service, although it is a charity rather |
524 | than a company. | |
525 | ||
526 | (5) A group of computer companies pooled funds around 1991 to | |
527 | support maintenance of the GNU C Compiler. | |
1bac2ebb | 528 | |
bfa8f4e1 RS |
529 | (6) In the 80s I had not yet realized how confusing it was to speak |
530 | of "the issue" of "intellectual property". That term is obviously | |
531 | biased; more subtle is the fact that it lumps together various | |
532 | disparate laws which raise very different issues. Nowadays I urge | |
533 | people to reject the term "intellectual property" entirely, lest it | |
da0e78ac | 534 | lead others to suppose that those laws form one coherent issue. The way to be |
92d7ad01 | 535 | clear is to discuss patents, copyrights, and trademarks separately. |
da0e78ac RS |
536 | See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.xhtml for more explanation |
537 | of how this term spreads confusion and bias. | |
f48201dc | 538 | |
8e493cf8 RS |
539 | (7) Subsequently we have learned to distinguish between "free |
540 | software" and "freeware". The term "freeware" means software you are | |
541 | free to redistribute, but usually you are not free to study and change | |
542 | the source code, so most of it is not free software. See | |
543 | http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html for more | |
820f92e1 | 544 | explanation. |