Essay shop

On this page you can buy articles using an imaginary currency.
The articles are chapters from Richard Stallman's book "Free Software, Free Society".
The book is published by the FSF and available gratis at gnu.org.

GNU Taler logo

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

Tap outside of this box to hide

Chapters

Click on an individual chapter to purchase it with GNU Taler. You can get free, virtual money to buy articles on this page at the bank.

The Problems with older versions of the Apple Public Source License (APSL)

The current version of the Apple Public Source License (APSL) does not have any of these problems. You can read our current position on the APSL elsewhere . This document is kept here for historical purposes only.

Pay to read more...

Did You Say “Intellectual Property”? It's a Seductive Mirage

It has become fashionable to toss copyright, patents, and trademarks—three separate and different entities involving three separate and different sets of laws—plus a dozen other laws into one pot and call it “intellectual property.” The distorting and confusing term did not become common by accident. Companies that gain from the confusion promoted it. The clearest way out of the confusion is to reject the term entirely.

Pay to read more...

Freedom of Speech, Press, and Association on the Internet

The Free Software Foundation supports the freedoms of speech, press, and association on the Internet. Please check out:

Pay to read more...

Should Rockets Have Only Free Software? Free Software and Appliances

Could there be a rocket that is totally free software? Should we demand that SpaceX liberate the software in its satellite launching rockets? I don't think the person who asked me this was serious, but answering that question may illuminate similar issues about the sorts of products people really buy today.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

The advantages of free software

People outside the free software movement frequently ask about the practical advantages of free software. It is a curious question.

Pay to read more...

Interview with Richard Stallman, KernelTrap.org, 2005

Richard Stallman founded the GNU Project in 1984, and the Free Software Foundation in 1985. He also originally authored a number of well known and highly used development tools, including the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC), the GNU symbolic debugger (GDB) and GNU Emacs.

Pay to read more...

Introduction to Free Software, Free Society: The Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman

Every generation has its philosopher—a writer or an artist who captures the imagination of a time. Sometimes these philosophers are recognized as such; often it takes generations before the connection is made real. But recognized or not, a time gets marked by the people who speak its ideals, whether in the whisper of a poem, or the blast of a political movement.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

The Danger of E-Books

In an age where business dominates our governments and writes our laws, every technological advance offers business an opportunity to impose new restrictions on the public. Technologies that could have empowered us are used to chain us instead.

Pay to read more...

BYTE Interview with Richard Stallman

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

Pay to read more...

Free World Notes

This page contains supplemental notes to the manifesto “ Only the Free World Can Stand Up to Microsoft .”

Pay to read more...

Giving the Software Field Protection from Patents

Patents threaten every software developer, and the patent wars we have long feared have broken out. Software developers and software users—which, in our society, is most people—need software to be free of patents.

Pay to read more...

Overview of the GNU System

The GNU operating system is a complete free software system, upward-compatible with Unix. GNU stands for “GNU's Not Unix.” It is pronounced as one syllable with a hard g . Richard Stallman made the Initial Announcement of the GNU Project in September 1983. A longer version called the GNU Manifesto was published in March 1985. It has been translated into several other languages .

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

Is It Ever a Good Thing to Use a Nonfree Program?

The question here is, is it ever a good thing to use a nonfree program? Our conclusion is that it is usually a bad thing, harmful to yourself and in some cases to others.

Pay to read more...

Interview with Richard Stallman (2001)

Richard M. Stallman is the most forceful and famous practitioner/theorist of free software , a term he coined. “Free” here means free as in “free speech,” not free as in “free beer.” Stallman's most famous intervention in the “free software” movement has surely been the GNU General Public License ( GPL ), which Stallman created around 1985 as a general license that could be applied to any program. The license codifies the concept of “ copyleft ,” the “central idea” of which Stallman has described as giving “everyone permission to run the program, copy the program, modify the program, and distribute modified versions, but not permission to add restrictions of their own. Thus, the crucial freedoms that define ‘free software’ are guaranteed to everyone who has a copy; they become inalienable rights” (Stallman, “The GNU Operating System and the Free Software Movement,” in DiBona, Open Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution )

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

Why Copyleft?

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

Pay to read more...

Europe's “Unitary Patent” Could Mean Unlimited Software Patents

Just as the US software industry is experiencing the long anticipated all-out software patent wars that we have anticipated, the European Union has a plan to follow the same course. When the Hargreaves report urged the UK to avoid software patents, the UK had already approved plan that is likely to impose them on UK.

Pay to read more...

People, Places, Things and Ideas

Software is ideas. Information. It's different from people, places, and things; it's infinitely reduplicable like fire, at almost no cost. This is a truism, even a cliche. But it seems that there are particular consequences that aren't well-explored.

Pay to read more...

Applying the Free Software Criteria

The four essential freedoms provide the criteria for whether a particular piece of code is free/libre (i.e., respects its users' freedom). How should we apply them to judge whether a software package, an operating system, a computer, or a web page is fit to recommend?

Pay to read more...

Linux and the GNU System

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called “Linux,” and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project .

Pay to read more...

Saying No to unjust computing even once is help

A misunderstanding is circulating that the GNU Project demands you run 100% free software , all the time. Anything less (90%?), and we will tell you to get lost—they say. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Pay to read more...

Avoiding Ruinous Compromises

Twenty-five years ago on September 27, 1983, I announced a plan to create a completely free operating system called GNU—for “GNU's Not Unix.” As part of the 25th anniversary of the GNU system, I have written this article on how our community can avoid ruinous compromises. In addition to avoiding such compromises, there are many ways you can help GNU and free software. One way is to say no to the use of a nonfree program or an online disservice as often as you can or even once .

Pay to read more...

Copyright and Globalization in the Age of Computer Networks

The following is an edited transcript from a speech given at MIT in the Communications Forum on Thursday, April 19, 2001.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

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 ).

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

Yes, Give It Away

Editor's note: This text was found in a file dated May 1983, though it is not clear whether it was written then or earlier. In May 1983 Richard Stallman was privately considering plans to develop a free operating system, but he may not yet have decided to make it a Unix-like system rather than something like the MIT Lisp Machine.

Pay to read more...

Stallman's Law

Now that corporations dominate society and write the laws, each advance or change in technology is an opening for them to further restrict or mistreat its users.

Pay to read more...

Why Open Source Misses the Point of Free Software

The terms “free software” and “open source” stand for almost the same range of programs. However, they say deeply different things about those programs, based on different values. The free software movement campaigns for freedom for the users of computing; it is a movement for freedom and justice. By contrast, the open source idea values mainly practical advantage and does not campaign for principles. This is why we do not agree with open source, and do not use that term.

Pay to read more...

Interview with Richard Stallman, Edinburgh, 2004

Transcript of an interview that took place at the School of Informatics, Edinburgh University, on 27 May 2004; originally published at Indymedia ( audio recording ).

Pay to read more...

Pavia Doctoral Address: Innovation Is Secondary When Freedom Is at Stake

On September 24th, 2007, Richard Stallman received an honoris causa doctorate in Computer Engineering from the University of Pavia , Italy. Stallman began by criticizing the overvaluing of innovation as a response to previous speakers at the same event.

Pay to read more...

On the Netscape Public License (Original Version)

This article was written March 10-12 1998, about the draft of the NPL which was available at that time.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

Richard Stallman Interviewed The Day After SOPA/PIPA Global Protests

Transcript of an interview conducted on January 19, 2012, the day after the global web blackout protests took place against the controversial SOPA and PIPA copyright bills. The GNU Project and the Free Software Foundation joined the protest .

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

GNU Kind Communications Guidelines

The GNU Project encourages contributions from anyone who wishes to advance the development of the GNU system, regardless of gender, race, ethnic group, physical appearance, religion, cultural background, and any other demographic characteristics, as well as personal political views.

Pay to read more...

The Wassenaar Arrangement

Our first information about the new Wassenaar Arrangement came in the form of a newspaper article, which said that export of encryption software would be prohibited—and this seemed to include free software. So we posted an announcement seeking people in non-Wassenaar countries to participate in distribution and development of free software for encryption.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

Beware of Contradictory “Support”

There are organizations that proclaim support for free software or the GNU Project, and teach classes in use of nonfree software.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

A Response to Word Attachments

This letter recommends OpenOffice; LibreOffice did not exist then. LibreOffice is what we recommend.

Pay to read more...

Releasing Free Software If You Work at a University

In the free software movement, we believe computer users should have the freedom to change and redistribute the software that they use. The “free” in “free software” refers to freedom: it means users have the freedom to run, modify and redistribute the software. Free software contributes to human knowledge, while nonfree software does not. Universities should therefore encourage free software for the sake of advancing human knowledge, just as they should encourage scientists and other scholars to publish their work.

Pay to read more...

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 .

Pay to read more...

Speeches and Interviews

See the video recording (and slides ) of Richard Stallman's TEDx talk in Geneva, Switzerland on April 7, 2014.

Pay to read more...

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?

Pay to read more...

When Free Software Isn't (Practically) Superior

The Open Source Initiative's mission statement reads, “Open source is a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.”

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

The Problem Is Software Controlled By Its Developer

I fully agree with Jonathan Zittrain's conclusion that we should not abandon general-purpose computers. Alas, I disagree completely with the path that led him to it. He presents serious security problems as an intolerable crisis, but I'm not convinced. Then he forecasts that users will panic in response and stampede toward restricted computers (which he calls “appliances”), but there is no sign of this happening.

Pay to read more...

Letter from RMS to Tim O'Reilly

Here's a message that Richard M. Stallman sent to Tim O'Reilly on March 11, 2000, in regard to the statement by Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, which called for software patents to last just 3 or 5 years.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

When Free Software Depends on Nonfree

When a program is free software (free as in freedom), that means it gives users the four freedoms , so that they control what the program does. In most cases, that is sufficient for the program's distribution to be ethical; but not always. There are additional problems that can arise in specific circumstances. This article describes a subtle problem, where upgrading the free program requires using a nonfree program.

Pay to read more...

How the Swedish Pirate Party Platform Backfires on Free Software

Note: each Pirate Party has its own platform. They all call for reducing copyright power, but the specifics vary. This issue may not apply to the other parties' positions.

Pay to read more...

Measures Governments Can Use to Promote Free Software

This article suggests policies for a strong and firm effort to promote free software within the state, and to lead the rest of the country towards software freedom.

Pay to read more...

Keep Control of Your Computing, So It Doesn't Control You!

The World Wide Web, developed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990 as a system for publishing and viewing information, is slowly being transformed into a system of remote computing. It will store your data, and data about you, often limiting your access to it but allowing FBI access at any time. It will do your computing for you, but you cannot control what it does. It provides various tempting attractions, but you must resist them.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

Why Software Should Be Free

The existence of software inevitably raises the question of how decisions about its use should be made. For example, suppose one individual who has a copy of a program meets another who would like a copy. It is possible for them to copy the program; who should decide whether this is done? The individuals involved? Or another party, called the “owner”?

Pay to read more...

Science Must Push Copyright Aside

Many points that lead to a conclusion that software freedom must be universal often apply to other forms of expressive works, albeit in different ways. This essay concerns the application of principles related to software freedom to the area of literature. Generally, such issues are orthogonal to software freedom, but we include essays like this here since many people interested in Free Software want to know more about how the principles can be applied to areas other than software.

Pay to read more...

Motives For Writing Free Software

Don't make the mistake of supposing that all software development has one simple motive. Here are some of the motives we know influence many people to write free software.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

Why Audio Format Matters

The patents covering MP3 will reportedly all have expired by 2018, but similar problems will continue to arise as long as patents are permitted to restrict software development.

Pay to read more...

What Is the Right Way to Upgrade an Installation of Windows?

It is commonplace in the computing field to urge users to “upgrade” to newer versions of Windows (and other nonfree programs) so as to get fixes for “security.” This conclusion follows from the assumption that these programs are honest software, designed to treat the user right. We do not expect that to be the case, and we know it is not the case for Windows. Therefore, we make a different recommendation.

Pay to read more...

Thank You, Larry McVoy

For the first time in my life, I want to thank Larry McVoy. He recently eliminated a major weakness of the free software community, by announcing the end of his campaign to entice free software projects to use and promote his nonfree software. Soon, Linux development will no longer use this program, and no longer spread the message that nonfree software is a good thing if it's convenient.

Pay to read more...

Linux, GNU, and Freedom

Since Joe Barr's article criticized my dealings with SIGLINUX, I would like to set the record straight about what actually occurred, and state my reasons.

Pay to read more...

Copyrighting Fire!

I was in the pub last night, and a guy asked me for a light for his cigarette. I suddenly realised that there was a demand here and money to be made, and so I agreed to light his cigarette for 10 pence, but I didn't actually give him a light, I sold him a license to burn his cigarette. My fire-license restricted him from giving the light to anybody else, after all, that fire was my property. He was drunk, and dismissing me as a loony, but accepted my fire (and by implication the licence which governed its use) anyway. Of course in a matter of minutes I noticed a friend of his asking him for a light and to my outrage he gave his cigarette to his friend and pirated my fire! I was furious, I started to make my way over to that side of the bar but to my added horror his friend then started to light other people's cigarettes left, right, and centre! Before long that whole side of the bar was enjoying my fire without paying me anything. Enraged I went from person to person grabbing their cigarettes from their hands, throwing them to the ground, and stamping on them.

Pay to read more...

Essays and Articles

This page lists a series of articles describing the philosophy of the free software movement, which is the motivation for our development of the free software operating system GNU.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

Free Software Movement

People use free software operating systems such as GNU/Linux for various reasons. Many users switch for practical reasons: because the system is powerful, because it is reliable, or for the convenience of being able to change the software to do what you need.

Pay to read more...

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?

Pay to read more...

Patent Reform Now! Mail USPTO before 12 April 2001!

[This page remains here for historical interest; we will post the results of this campaign when we hear who has been put on the committee.]

Pay to read more...

Android and Users' Freedom

To what extent does Android respect the freedom of its users? For a computer user that values freedom, that is the most important question to ask about any software system.

Pay to read more...

The Motif License

A couple of weeks ago, the Open Group changed the license of Motif, inviting free software developers to use it. However, the new Motif license does not fit either the definition of free software, or the looser definition of open source software.

Pay to read more...

Misinterpreting Copyright—A Series of Errors

Something strange and dangerous is happening in copyright law. Under the US Constitution, copyright exists to benefit users—those who read books, listen to music, watch movies, or run software—not for the sake of publishers or authors. Yet even as people tend increasingly to reject and disobey the copyright restrictions imposed on them “for their own benefit,” the US government is adding more restrictions, and trying to frighten the public into obedience with harsh new penalties.

Pay to read more...

Why Call It The Swindle?

I go out of my way to call nasty things by names that criticize them. I call Apple's user-subjugating computers the “iThings,” and Amazon's abusive e-reader the “Swindle.” Sometimes I refer to Microsoft's operating system as “Losedows”; I referred to Microsoft's first operating system as “MS-Dog.”[ 1 ] Of course, I do this to vent my feelings and have fun. But this fun is more than personal; it serves an important purpose. Mocking our enemies recruits the power of humor into our cause.

Pay to read more...

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 .

Pay to read more...

E-books must increase our freedom, not decrease it

I love The Jehovah Contract, and I'd like everyone else to love it too. I have lent it out at least six times over the years. Printed books let us do that.

Pay to read more...

MyDoom and You

I grew up in a community whose other members sometimes committed crimes as serious as murder. The city of New York, with its 8 million inhabitants, had hundreds of murders each year, mostly committed by people who lived in the city. Violent assaults and robberies were even more common.

Pay to read more...

Free Software Is Even More Important Now

Since 1983, the Free Software Movement has campaigned for computer users' freedom—for users to control the software they use, rather than vice versa. When a program respects users' freedom and community, we call it “free software.”

Pay to read more...

Third Party Ideas

These articles give other people's philosophical opinions in support of free software, or related issues, and don't speak for the GNU project—but we more or less agree with them.

Pay to read more...

The Danger of Software Patents (2001)

Speech given at Model Engineering College, Government of Kerala, India, 2001 ( audio recording )

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

Install Fests: What to Do about the Deal with the Devil

Install fests invite users to bring their computers so that experts can install GNU/Linux on them. This is meant to promote the idea of free software as well as the use of free software. In today's circumstances, where nonfree software dominates, these two goals conflict: users that want to reject nonfree software entirely need to choose their computers carefully to achieve that goal.

Pay to read more...

Why hackathons should insist on free software

Hackathons are an accepted method of giving community support to digital development projects. The community invites developers to join an event which offers an encouraging atmosphere, some useful resources, and the opportunity to work on useful projects. Most hackathons choose the projects they will support, based on stated criteria.

Pay to read more...

Freedom or Power?

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

Pay to read more...

Richard Stallman at the First Hackers Conference in 1984

The first Hackers Conference was held in Sausalito, California, in November 1984. The makers of the documentary Hackers: Wizards of the Electronic Age interviewed Richard Stallman at the event. They included only parts of the interviews in the film, but made some other footage available. Stallman's statements at the conference went beyond what he had written in the initial announcement of GNU .

Pay to read more...

Copyright versus Community in the Age of Computer Networks

Keynote speech at LIANZA conference, Christchurch Convention Centre, 12 October 2009.
There is an older version of this talk, from 2000.

Pay to read more...

Patent Reform Is Not Enough

When people first learn about the problem of software patents, their attention is often drawn to the egregious examples: patents that cover techniques already widely known. These techniques include sorting a collection of formulae so that no variable is used before it is calculated (called “natural order recalculation” in spreadsheets), and the use of exclusive-or to modify the contents of a bit-map display.

Pay to read more...

The Curious History of Komongistan(Busting the term “intellectual property”)

The purpose of this parable is to illustrate just how misguided the term “intellectual property” is. When I say that the term “intellectual property” is an incoherent overgeneralization , that it lumps together laws that have very little in common, and that its use is an obstacle to clear thinking about any of those laws, many can't believe I really mean what I say. So sure are they that these laws are related and similar, species of the same genus as it were, that they suppose I am making a big fuss about small differences. Here I aim to show how fundamental the differences are.

Pay to read more...

The Bug Nobody is Allowed to Understand

In the 1980s, proprietary software users discovered the problem of the bug that nobody is allowed to understand . When a problem occurs in the interaction of multiple proprietary software packages with different developers, none of them is allowed to study the source code of all the pertinent programs. As a result, none of them can understand the bad interaction between them, and the bug is never fixed except by accident.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

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 .

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

World Summit on the Information Society

At WSIS , in a climate of suppression of dissent, the score is 0-0.

Pay to read more...

RMS on Radio New Zealand

Transcript (by Jim Cheetham) of an interview between Kim Hill (presenter) and Richard Stallman in October 2009; originally published on iNode: Nota Bene .

Pay to read more...

The GNU GPL and the American Way

Microsoft describes the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) as an “open source” license, and says it is against the American Way. To understand the GNU GPL, and recognize how it embodies the American Way, you must first be aware that the GPL was not designed for open source.

Pay to read more...

New Developments in Patent Practice: Assessing the Risks and Cost of Portfolio Licensing and Hold-ups

This is a transcript of a panel presentation given by Daniel B. Ravicher as the executive director of the Public Patent Foundation on Wednesday, November 10, 2004, at a conference organized by the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII) in Brussels, Belgium. The transcription was done by Aendrew Rininsland.

Pay to read more...

On the Microsoft Verdict

Many GNU/Linux users think of the system as competition for Microsoft. But the Free Software Movement aims to solve a problem that is much bigger than Microsoft: proprietary, nonfree software, designed to keep users helpless and prohibit cooperation. Microsoft is the largest developer of such software, but many other companies treat the users' freedom just as badly; if they have not shackled as many users as Microsoft, it is not for lack of trying.

Pay to read more...

A Free Digital Society - What Makes Digital Inclusion Good or Bad?

Transcription of a lecture at Sciences Po Paris, October 19, 2011  ( video )

Pay to read more...

On the Netscape Public License

The original version of this article was written in March 1998 about a draft of the NPL. Our first article on the subject was Netscape is considering making the Netscape browser free software .

Pay to read more...

Technological Neutrality and Free Software

Proprietary developers arguing against laws to move towards free software often claim this violates the principle of “technological neutrality.” The conclusion is wrong, but where is the error?

Pay to read more...

Is Digital Inclusion a Good Thing? How Can We Make Sure It Is?

Digital information and communication technology offers the possibility of a new world of freedom. It also offers possibilities of surveillance and control which dictatorships of the past could only struggle to establish. The battle to decide between these possibilities is being fought now.

Pay to read more...

Funding Art vs Funding Software

I've proposed two new systems to fund artists in a world where we have legalized sharing (noncommercial redistribution of exact copies) of published works. One is for the state to collect taxes for the purpose, and divide the money among artists in proportion to the cube root of the popularity of each one (as measured by surveying samples of the population). The other is for each player to have a “donate” button to anonymously send a small sum (perhaps 50 cents, in the US) to the artists who made the last work played. These funds would go to artists, not to their publishers.

Pay to read more...

Surveillance Testimony

Richard Stallman's statement to the Cambridge City Council, Jan 22, 2018, about the proposed Cambridge surveillance ordinance.

Pay to read more...

The GNU Manifesto

The GNU Manifesto (which appears below) was written by Richard Stallman in 1985 to ask for support in developing the GNU operating system. Part of the text was taken from the original announcement of 1983. Through 1987, it was updated in minor ways to account for developments; since then, it seems best to leave it unchanged.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

Anonymous Payment by Phone

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

Pay to read more...

Copyleft: Pragmatic Idealism

Every decision a person makes stems from the person's values and goals. People can have many different goals and values; fame, profit, love, survival, fun, and freedom, are just some of the goals that a good person might have. When the goal is a matter of principle, we call that idealism.

Pay to read more...

Why Programs Should be Shared

Editor's note: This text was found in a file dated May 1983, though it is not clear whether it was written then or earlier. In May 1983 Richard Stallman was privately considering plans to develop a free operating system, but he may not yet have decided to make it a Unix-like system rather than something like the MIT Lisp Machine.

Pay to read more...

A Wise User Judges Each Internet Usage Scenario Carefully

Businesses now offer computing users tempting opportunities to let others keep their data and do their computing. In other words, to toss caution and responsibility to the winds.

Pay to read more...

The GNU Project

When I started working at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1971, I became part of a software-sharing community that had existed for many years. Sharing of software was not limited to our particular community; it is as old as computers, just as sharing of recipes is as old as cooking. But we did it more than most.

Pay to read more...

The Right to Read

From The Road To Tycho , a collection of articles about the antecedents of the Lunarian Revolution, published in Luna City in 2096.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

Comments on Roderick Long's Article

The ideas of the free software movement are compatible with social-democratic (US liberal) views and with laissez-faire (US libertarian [1] ) views.

Pay to read more...

My Lisp Experiences and the Development of GNU Emacs

Transcript of Richard Stallman's speech at the International Lisp Conference, 28 Oct 2002.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

The Future of Jiyuna Software

Transcript of a keynote speech at the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI), Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, 21 April 2003.

Pay to read more...

The Anatomy of a Trivial Patent

Programmers are well aware that many of the existing software patents cover laughably obvious ideas. Yet the patent system's defenders often argue that these ideas are nontrivial, obvious only in hindsight. And it is surprisingly difficult to defeat them in debate. Why is that?

Pay to read more...

The JavaScript Trap

You may be running nonfree programs on your computer every day without realizing it—through your web browser.

Pay to read more...

FSF's Opinion of the Apple Public Source License (APSL) 2.0

The Apple Public Source License (APSL) version 2.0 qualifies as a free software license. Apple's lawyers worked with the FSF to produce a license that would qualify. The problems previously described on this page are still potential issues for other possible licenses, but they do not apply to version 2.0 of the APSL. We encourage everyone who uses any version of Apple Software under the APSL to use the terms of version 2.0 rather than that of any earlier license.

Pay to read more...

Selling Exceptions to the GNU GPL

Selling exceptions means that the copyright holder of the code releases it to the general public under a valid free software license, then separately offers users the option of paying for permission to use the same code under different terms, for instance terms allowing its inclusion in proprietary applications.

Pay to read more...

Censoring My Software

Last summer, a few clever legislators proposed a bill to “prohibit pornography” on the Internet. Last fall, the right-wing Christians made this cause their own. Last week, President Clinton signed the bill. This week, I'm censoring GNU Emacs.

Pay to read more...

Bill Gates and Other Communists

Bill Gates discussed patents with CNET under the heading of “ intellectual property ,” a term that covers many disparate laws. He said anyone who won't give blanket support to all these laws is a Communist. Since I'm not a Communist but I have criticized software patents, I got to thinking this calumny might be aimed at me.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

U.S. Congress Threatens to Establish a New Kind of Monopoly

Companies that want monopoly powers to control public use of the information we get from data bases are trying to pass a law this year in the U.S.—creating, for the first time, a private monopoly over repeating publicly known information. They are using the “good bill, bad bill” method; the “bad” bill is HR 354; the “good” bill is HR 1858.

Pay to read more...

The Structure and Administration of the GNU Project

The GNU Project develops and maintains the GNU operating system . Through this work, and other related activities, the GNU Project advocates and promotes software freedom , the core philosophy of the free software movement.

Pay to read more...

What's in a Name?

Names convey meanings; our choice of names determines the meaning of what we say. An inappropriate name gives people the wrong idea. A rose by any other name would smell as sweet—but if you call it a pen, people will be rather disappointed when they try to write with it. And if you call pens “roses,” people may not realize what they are good for. If you call our operating system Linux, that conveys a mistaken idea of the system's origin, history, and purpose. If you call it GNU/Linux , that conveys (though not in detail) an accurate idea.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

The Hacker Community and Ethics

Transcript of an interview that took place in 2002. [*]

Pay to read more...

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 .

Pay to read more...

The GNU GPL and the American Dream

When I was in grade school, right here in the United States of America, I was taught that our country was the “land of opportunity.” My teachers told me that my country was special, because anyone with a good idea and a drive to do good work could make a living, and be successful too. They called it the “American Dream.”

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

How To Pronounce GNU

The name “GNU” is a recursive acronym for “GNU's Not Unix!”; it is pronounced as one syllable with a hard g , like “grew” but with the letter n instead of r .

Pay to read more...

Initial Announcement

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

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

We Can Put an End to Word Attachments

Don't you just hate receiving Word documents in email messages? Word attachments are annoying, but, worse than that, they impede people from switching to free software. Maybe we can stop this practice with a simple collective effort. All we have to do is ask each person who sends us a Word file to reconsider that way of doing things.

Pay to read more...

Speech on Free Software (2004)

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

Pay to read more...

Why “Free Software” is better than “Open Source”

This article has been superseded by a major rewrite, “Open Source” misses the point of Free Software , which is much better. We keep this version for historical reasons.

Pay to read more...

Reevaluating Copyright: The Public Must Prevail

The legal world is aware that digital information technology poses “problems for copyright,” but has not traced these problems to their root cause: a fundamental conflict between publishers of copyrighted works and the users of these works. The publishers, understanding their own interest, have set forth a proposal through the Clinton Administration to fix the “problems” by deciding the conflict in their favor. This proposal, the Lehman White Paper, [2] was the principal focus of the Innovation and the Information Environment conference at the University of Oregon (November 1995).

Pay to read more...

Ubuntu Spyware: What to Do?

Since Ubuntu version 16.04 , the spyware search facility is now disabled by default. It appears that the campaign of pressure launched by this article has been partly successful. Nonetheless, offering the spyware search facility as an option is still a problem, as explained below. Ubuntu should make the network search a command users can execute from time to time, not a semipermanent option for users to enable (and probably forget).

Pay to read more...

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.”

Pay to read more...

Viral Code and Vaccination

When others hurt me, I try to defend myself. But some tell me that this makes them sick. They tell me that I should permit people to rob me of my work. They tell me that I should never try to defend myself.

Pay to read more...

Freedom—or Copyright?

This essay addresses how the principles of software freedom apply in some cases to other works of authorship and art. It's included here since it involves the application of the ideas of free software.

Pay to read more...

Why Free Software Needs Free Documentation

The biggest deficiency in free operating systems is not in the software—it is the lack of good free manuals that we can include in these systems. Many of our most important programs do not come with full manuals. Documentation is an essential part of any software package; when an important free software package does not come with a free manual, that is a major gap. We have many such gaps today.

Pay to read more...

Correcting My Mistake about French Law

For several years I've said in my speeches that it was a crime in France, punishable by imprisonment, to have a copy of the free software that can decrypt the video on a DVD. That encryption is an example of DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), the malicious features designed to restrict users .

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

Free but Shackled - The Java Trap

Since this article was first published, Sun (now part of Oracle) has relicensed most of its Java platform reference implementation under the GNU General Public License, and there is now a free development environment for Java. Thus, the Java language as such is no longer a trap.

Pay to read more...

Help Protect the Rights to Write Both Nonfree and Free Software

The League for Programming Freedom is inactive now and its website is archived. Please join our End Software Patents campaign!

Pay to read more...

Lest CodePlex perplex

Many in our community are suspicious of the CodePlex Foundation. With its board of directors dominated by Microsoft employees and ex-employees, plus apologist Miguel de Icaza, there is plenty of reason to be wary of the organization. But that doesn't prove its actions will be bad.

Pay to read more...

The Danger of Software Patents

This is the transcript of a talk presented on 8 October 2009 at Victoria University of Wellington.

Pay to read more...

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!

Pay to read more...

Free Software and Sustainable Development

Many organizations that aim to promote development by spreading the use of computers make a fundamental mistake: they promote the use of proprietary (nonfree) software. Using proprietary software is not development; it makes society dependent, not strong.

Pay to read more...

An interview for OUGH!

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

Pay to read more...

Network Services Aren't Free or Nonfree; They Raise Other Issues

Programs and services are different kinds of entities. A program is a work that you can execute; a service is an activity that you might interact with.

Pay to read more...

Computing ‘Progress’: Good and Bad

The BBC invited me to write an article for their column series, The Tech Lab, and this is what I sent them. (It refers to a couple of other articles published in that series.) The BBC was ultimately unwilling to publish it with a copying-permission notice, so I have published it here.

Pay to read more...

Studies Find Reward Often No Motivator

by Alfie Kohn
Special to the Boston Globe
[Reprinted with permission of the author from the Monday 19 January 1987 Boston Globe.]

Pay to read more...

Your Freedom Needs Free Software

Many of us know that governments can threaten the human rights of software users through censorship and surveillance of the Internet. Many do not realize that the software they run on their home or work computers can be an even worse threat. Thinking of software as “just a tool,” they suppose that it obeys them, when in fact it often obeys others instead.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

Protect Postal Privacy

The Free Software Foundation does not lead this campaign, but we support it by spreading the word and hope that you do too.

Pay to read more...

Review: Boldrin and Levine, “The case against intellectual property”

The Case Against Intellectual Property , by Boldrin and Levine, argues on economic grounds that authors can make money by selling their work even in a world where everyone can copy.

Pay to read more...

Who does that server really serve?

On the Internet, proprietary software isn't the only way to lose your computing freedom. Service as a Software Substitute, or SaaSS, is another way to give someone else power over your computing.

Pay to read more...

Using GNU FDL

If you know someone who is writing a manual about free software, and looking towards commercial publication, you have a chance to help the Free Software Movement a great deal with a small amount of work: by suggesting the idea of publishing the manual under the GNU Free Documentation License .

Pay to read more...

Software Patents and Literary Patents

When politicians consider the question of software patents, they are usually voting blind; not being programmers, they don't understand what software patents really do. They often think patents are similar to copyright law (“except for some details”)—which is not the case. For instance, when I publicly asked Patrick Devedjian, then Minister for Industry in France, how France would vote on the issue of software patents, Devedjian responded with an impassioned defense of copyright law, praising Victor Hugo for his role in the adoption of copyright. (The misleading term “intellectual property” promotes this confusion—one of the reasons it should never be used.)

Pay to read more...

Solutions to the Software Patent Problem

Speech given at the Locatelli Center, Santa Clara University, in November 2012  ( video , metadata )

Pay to read more...

Reject IP Enforcement Directive

A coalition of civil liberties and consumer groups opposes a new proposed directive for stricter punishment for copyright and patent infringement:

Pay to read more...

The Right Way to Tax DAT

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

Pay to read more...

Free Software: Freedom and Cooperation

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

Pay to read more...

Microsoft's New Monopoly

This article was written in July 2005. Microsoft adopted a different policy in 2006, so the specific policies described below and the specific criticisms of them are only of historical significance. The overall problem remains, however: Microsoft's cunningly worded new policy does not give anyone clear permission to implement OOXML.

Pay to read more...

E-Books: Freedom Or Copyright

Once upon a time, in the age of the printing press, an industrial regulation was established to cover the business of writing and publishing. It was called copyright. Copyright's purpose, stated in the US Constitution, was to “promote progress”—that is, to encourage publication. The method used was to make publishers get permission from authors for using recent works.

Pay to read more...

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!

Pay to read more...

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?

Pay to read more...

The X Window System Trap

To copyleft or not to copyleft? That is one of the major controversies in the free software community. The idea of copyleft is that we should fight fire with fire—that we should use copyright to make sure our code stays free. The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) is one example of a copyleft license.

Pay to read more...

(Formerly) Boycott Amazon!

The FSF decided to end its boycott of Amazon in September 2002. (We forgot to edit this page at the time.) We could not tell the precise result of the lawsuit against Barnes & Noble, but it did not seem to be very harmful to the defendant. And Amazon had not attacked anyone else.

Pay to read more...

Is Microsoft the Great Satan?

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

Pay to read more...

Why I Will Not Sign the Public Domain Manifesto

The Public Domain Manifesto has its heart in the right place as it objects to some of the unjust extensions of copyright power, so I wish I could support it. However, it falls far short of what is needed.

Pay to read more...

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.

Pay to read more...

What's Wrong with YouTube

YouTube is a peculiar case. As of September 2020, it is possible to watch YouTube videos without running any nonfree software, even coming in via Tor, via some of the “Invidious” intermediary sites.

Pay to read more...

Overcoming Social Inertia

Almost two decades have passed since the combination of GNU and Linux first made it possible to use a PC in freedom. We have come a long way since then. Now you can even buy a laptop with GNU/Linux preinstalled from more than one hardware vendor—although the systems they ship are not entirely free software. So what holds us back from total success?

Pay to read more...

Categories of Free and Nonfree Software

This diagram, originally by Chao-Kuei and updated by several others since, explains the different categories of software. It's available as a Scalable Vector Graphic and as an XFig document , under the terms of any of the GNU GPL v2 or later, the GNU FDL v1.2 or later, or the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike v2.0 or later.

Pay to read more...

Applying Copyleft To Non-Software Information

The entry for “ copyleft ” in the definitive hacker lexicon, the Jargon File , reads:

Pay to read more...

You can learn more about GNU Taler on our main website.

Copyright © 2014—2022 Taler Systems SA