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The articles are chapters from Richard Stallman's book "Free Software, Free Society".
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Essay Shop: Free Software, Free Society

This is the latest edition of Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman.
Free Software Foundation
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor
Boston, MA 02110-1335
Copyright © 2002, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire book are permitted worldwide, without royalty, in any medium, provided this notice is preserved. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this book from the original English into another language provided the translation has been approved by the Free Software Foundation and the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies.

ISBN 978-0-9831592-0-9

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Chapters

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When a Company Asks For Your Copyright

Companies that develop free software and release it under the GNU GPL sometimes distribute some copies of the code in other ways. If they distribute the exact same code under a different license to certain users that pay for this, typically permitting including the code in proprietary programs, we call it “selling exceptions.” If they distribute some version of the code solely in a proprietary manner, we call that releasing a purely proprietary version of the program.

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Why We Must Fight UCITA

UCITA is a proposed law, designed by the proprietary software developers, who are now asking all 50 states of the US to adopt it. If UCITA is adopted, it will threaten the free software community (1) with disaster. To understand why, please read on.

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Shaping Collaborative ICT Development and Initiatives for Global Prosperity

From a presentation given at the Second Global Knowledge Conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 7 March 2000.

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Software patents — Obstacles to software development

This is the transcription of a talk presented by Richard M. Stallman on March 25, 2002, at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory , organized by the Foundation for Information Policy Research .

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FLOSS and FOSS

The two political camps in the free software community are the free software movement and open source. The free software movement is a campaign for computer users' freedom ; we say that a nonfree program is an injustice to its users. The open source camp declines to see the issue as a matter of justice to the users, and bases its arguments on practical benefits only .

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GNU-FSF cooperation update

The Free Software Foundation and the GNU Project leadership are defining how these two separate groups cooperate. Our mutual aim is to work together as peers, while minimizing change in the practical aspects of this cooperation, so we can advance in our common free software mission.

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Why There Are No GIF Files on GNU Web Pages

There is no special patent threat to GIF format nowadays as far as we know; the patents that were used to attack GIF have expired . Nonetheless, this article will remain pertinent as long as programs can be forbidden by patents, since the same sorts of things could happen in any area of computing. See our website policies regarding GIFs .

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The Microsoft Antitrust Trial and Free Software

With the Microsoft antitrust trial moving toward a conclusion, the question of what to demand of Microsoft if it loses is coming to the fore. Ralph Nader is even [when this was written, in March 1999] organizing a conference about the question (see appraising-microsoft.org ).

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Regarding Gnutella

“Gnutella” is, at present, the name for a protocol for distributed file sharing, mostly used for music files. The name also sometimes refers to the network itself, as well as the original Gnutella software. The situation is quite confusing. For more on Gnutella's origin and history, please refer to the Wikipedia article on the subject.

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Speech at WSIS, 16 July 2003

The benefit of computers is that it's easier to copy and manipulate information. Corporations are using two kinds of imposed monopolies to deny you this benefit.

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Fighting Software Patents - Singly and Together

Software patents are the software project equivalent of land mines: each design decision carries a risk of stepping on a patent, which can destroy your project.

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What Does It Mean for Your Computer to Be Loyal?

We say that running free software on your computer means that its operation is under your control . Implicitly this presupposes that your computer will do what your programs tell it to do, and no more. In other words, that your computer will be loyal to you.

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Can You Trust Your Computer?

Who should your computer take its orders from? Most people think their computers should obey them, not obey someone else. With a plan they call “trusted computing,” large media corporations (including the movie companies and record companies), together with computer companies such as Microsoft and Intel, are planning to make your computer obey them instead of you. (Microsoft's version of this scheme is called Palladium.) Proprietary programs have included malicious features before, but this plan would make it universal.

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15 Years of Free Software

It is now just over 15 years since the beginning of the Free Software Movement and the GNU Project. We have come a long way.

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Is Microsoft the Great Satan?

This article was given a major rewrite in 2009. The old version is also available.

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Public Awareness of Copyright, WIPO, June 2002

Geofrey Yu, Assistant Director General in charge of Copyright at WIPO, said this in a paper “Public Awareness of Copyright”, in June 2002. It is interesting that WIPO is starting to find that the hypocrisy of describing a system of restricting the public as a matter of “rights” is starting to backfire on them.

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What is Free Software?

“Free software” means software that respects users' freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software . Thus, “free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer.” We sometimes call it “libre software,” borrowing the French or Spanish word for “free” as in freedom, to show we do not mean the software is gratis.

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Imperfection is not the same as oppression

When a free program lacks capabilities that users want, that is unfortunate; we urge people to add what is missing. Some would go further and claim that a program is not even free software if it lacks certain functionality—that it denies freedom 0 (the freedom to run the program as you wish) to users or uses that it does not support. This argument is misguided because it is based on identifying capacity with freedom, and imperfection with oppression.

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Amazon Letter from Nat

This is a letter from Nat Friedman regarding the Amazon Boycott. Please read more about this boycott and support us by making a link from your own home page!

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The Free Software Community After 20 Years:

It was 5 Jan 1984, twenty years ago today, that I quit my job at MIT to begin developing a free software operating system, GNU . While we have never released a complete GNU system suitable for production use, a variant of the GNU system is now used by tens of millions of people who mostly are not aware it is such. Free software does not mean “gratis”; it means that users are free to run the program, study the source code, change it, and redistribute it either with or without changes, either gratis or for a fee.

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Anonymous Payment by Phone

Here is an idea for an anonymous payment system that would be useful for some applications.

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Why programs must not limit the freedom to run them

Free software means software controlled by its users, rather than the reverse. Specifically, it means the software comes with four essential freedoms that software users deserve . At the head of the list is freedom 0, the freedom to run the program as you wish, in order to do what you wish.

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Why Software Should Not Have Owners

Digital information technology contributes to the world by making it easier to copy and modify information. Computers promise to make this easier for all of us.

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Nonfree DRM'd Games on GNU/Linux: Good or Bad?

A well known company, Valve, that distributes nonfree computer games with Digital Restrictions Management, recently announced it would distribute these games for GNU/Linux. What good and bad effects can this have?

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Philosophy of the GNU Project

Free software means that the software's users have freedom. (The issue is not about price.) We developed the GNU operating system so that users can have freedom in their computing.

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GNU in a Nutshell

GNU [1] was launched by Richard Stallman (rms) in 1983, as an operating system which would be put together by people working together for the freedom of all software users to control their computing. rms remains the Chief GNUisance today.

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Why Copyleft?

When it comes to defending everyone's freedom, to lie down and do nothing is an act of weakness, not humility.

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The Problems of the (Earlier) Plan 9 License

Note: This applies to the earlier license used for Plan 9. The current license of Plan 9 does qualify as free software (and also as open source). So this article's specific example is of historical relevance only. Nonetheless, the general point remains valid.

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Freedom or Power?

The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves. — William Hazlitt

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GNU Users Who Have Never Heard of GNU

Most people have never heard of GNU. Even most of the people who use the GNU system have never heard of GNU, since so many people and companies teach them to call it “Linux.” Indeed, GNU users often say they are “running Linux,” which is like saying you are “driving your carburetor” or “driving your transmission.”

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Opposing Digital Rights Mismanagement (Or Digital Restrictions Management, as we now call it)

In 1989, in a very different world, I wrote the first version of the GNU General Public License, a license that gives computer users freedom. The GNU GPL, of all the free software licenses, is the one that most fully embodies the values and aims of the free software movement, by ensuring the four fundamental freedoms for every user. These are freedoms to 0) run the program as you wish; 1) study the source code and change it to do what you wish; 2) make and distribute copies, when you wish; 3) and distribute modified versions, when you wish.

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RMS lecture at KTH (Sweden), 1986

Transcript of Richard Stallman's speech at the Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (Royal Institute of Technology) in Stockholm, Sweden, arranged by the student society Datorföreningen Stacken on 30 October 1986.

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Free Hardware and Free Hardware Designs

To what extent do the ideas of free software extend to hardware? Is it a moral obligation to make our hardware designs free, just as it is to make our software free? Does maintaining our freedom require rejecting hardware made from nonfree designs?

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History and Philosophy of the GNU Project

Translation of a speech that was given in German at the CLOWN (Cluster of Working Nodes— a 512-node cluster project of Debian GNU/Linux machines) in the University of Paderborn, Germany, on December 5th, 1998.

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It's not the Gates, it's the bars

To pay so much attention to Bill Gates' retirement is missing the point. What really matters is not Gates, nor Microsoft, but the unethical system of restrictions that Microsoft—like many other software companies—imposes on its customers.

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GNU/Linux FAQ

When people see that we use and recommend the name GNU/Linux for a system that many others call just “Linux,” they ask many questions. Here are common questions, and our answers.

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Initial Announcement

This is the original announcement of the GNU Project, posted by Richard Stallman on September 27, 1983.

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Speech on Free Software (2004)

This speech was given on Feb 17, 2004 at the National Institute of Technology, Trichy, TN, India.

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Saving Europe from Software Patents

Imagine that each time you made a software design decision, and especially whenever you used an algorithm that you read in a journal or implemented a feature that users ask for, you took a risk of being sued.

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Free Software: Freedom and Cooperation

Transcript of a speech that was given at New York University in New York, NY, on 29 May 2001.

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An interview for OUGH!

This is a transcript of an interview with Richard Stallman conducted by Theodoros Papatheodorou [*] in May, 2012.

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The Free Software Movement and UDI

A project called UDI (Uniform Driver Interface) aims to define a single interface between operating system kernels and device drivers. What should the free software movement make of this idea?

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Why the Devil's Advocate Doesn't Help Reach the Truth

Playing the devil's advocate means challenging a position by saying what a hypothetical adversary would say. I encounter this frequently in interviews and Q&A sessions, and many people believe that this is a good way to put a controversial position to the test. What it really does is put the controversial position at a disadvantage.

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The Curious Incident of Sun in the Night-Time

We leave this web page in place for the sake of history, but as of December 2006, Sun is in the middle of rereleasing its Java platform under the GNU GPL . When this license change is completed, we expect Sun's Java will be free software.

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Free Software and (e-)Government

The UK government has funded the development of software useful for e-government, and now doesn't know what to do with it. Someone had the bright idea to hand it over to local councils, inviting them to turn themselves into software companies.

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The Right Way to Tax DAT

[This article does not concern software, not directly. It concerns a parallel issue about sharing copies of music.]

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BYTE Interview with Richard Stallman

Richard Stallman discusses his public-domain Unix-compatible software system with BYTE editors (July 1986).

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Opposing The European Software Patent Directive

The European Union software patent directive, which this 2003 article opposed, was ultimately dropped by its own supporters after facing lots of opposition. However, they later found another way to impose software patents on most of Europe: through fine print in the unitary patent .

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Stop H.R. 3028 - Protect the Net - Stop the Trademark Monopolists

This bill fits a pattern: every time Congress wants to create a new monopoly covering some activity formerly open to all, or extend and increase an old monopoly, they apply the term “piracy” to the free activity that the monopoly will stamp out. So whenever you see anything described as “piracy” aside from the capturing of ships, watch out for your liberties!

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Words to Avoid (or Use with Care) Because They Are Loaded or Confusing

There are a number of words and phrases that we recommend avoiding, or avoiding in certain contexts and usages. Some are ambiguous or misleading; others presuppose a viewpoint that we disagree with, and we hope you disagree with it too.

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