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diff --git a/src/frontend_blog/articles/scrap1_45.html b/src/frontend_blog/articles/scrap1_45.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..ce609d53 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/frontend_blog/articles/scrap1_45.html @@ -0,0 +1,210 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/loose.dtd"> +<html> +<!-- This is the second 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 C 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 +Cover design by Rob Myers. + +Cover photograph by Peter Hinely. + --> +<!-- Created on February 18, 2016 by texi2html 1.82 +texi2html was written by: + Lionel Cons <Lionel.Cons@cern.ch> (original author) + Karl Berry <karl@freefriends.org> + Olaf Bachmann <obachman@mathematik.uni-kl.de> + and many others. +Maintained by: Many creative people. +Send bugs and suggestions to <texi2html-bug@nongnu.org> +--> +<head> +<title>Free Software, Free Society, 2nd ed.: 43. Freedom or Power?</title> + +<meta name="description" content="This is the second edition of Richard Stallman's collection of essays."> +<meta name="keywords" content="Free Software, Free Society, 2nd ed.: 43. Freedom or Power?"> +<meta name="resource-type" content="document"> +<meta name="distribution" content="global"> +<meta name="Generator" content="texi2html 1.82"> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> +<style type="text/css"> +<!-- +a.summary-letter {text-decoration: none} +blockquote.smallquotation {font-size: smaller} +pre.display {font-family: serif} +pre.format {font-family: serif} +pre.menu-comment {font-family: serif} +pre.menu-preformatted {font-family: serif} +pre.smalldisplay {font-family: serif; font-size: smaller} +pre.smallexample {font-size: smaller} +pre.smallformat {font-family: serif; font-size: smaller} +pre.smalllisp {font-size: smaller} +span.roman {font-family:serif; font-weight:normal;} +span.sansserif {font-family:sans-serif; font-weight:normal;} +ul.toc {list-style: none} +--> +</style> +<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../style.css"> + + +</head> + +<body lang="en" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF" vlink="#800080" alink="#FF0000"> + +<a name="Freedom-or-Power"></a> +<table cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0"> +<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1_44.html#Social-Inertia" title="Previous section in reading order"> < </a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1_46.html#Appendix-A" title="Next section in reading order"> > </a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1_44.html#Social-Inertia" title="Beginning of this chapter or previous chapter"> << </a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1.html#Top" title="Up section"> Up </a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1_46.html#Appendix-A" title="Next chapter"> >> </a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1.html#Top" title="Cover (top) of document">Top</a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[Contents]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1_48.html#Index" title="Index">Index</a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1_abt.html#SEC_About" title="About (help)"> ? </a>]</td> +</tr></table> +<a name="Freedom-or-Power_003f"></a> +<h1 class="chapter">43. Freedom or Power?</h1> + +<p>Written by +<a name="index-Kuhn_002c-Bradley-M_002e"></a> +Bradley M. Kuhn and Richard Stallman. +<br> +<em>The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves.</em> +</p><a name="index-Hazlitt_002c-William"></a> +<p align="right">—William Hazlitt +</p><br> +<a name="index-proprietary-software_002c-freedom-or-power_003f"></a> +<p>In the free software movement, we stand for freedom for the users of +software. We formulated our views by looking at what freedoms are +necessary for a good way of life, and permit useful programs to foster +a community of goodwill, cooperation, and collaboration. Our criteria +for free software specify the freedoms that a program’s users need so +that they can cooperate in a community. +</p> +<p>We stand for freedom for programmers as well as for other users. +Most of us are programmers, and we want freedom for ourselves as well +as for you. But each of us uses software written by others, and we +want freedom when using that software, not just when using our own +code. We stand for freedom for all users, whether they program often, +occasionally, or not at all. +</p> +<p>However, one so-called freedom that we do not advocate is the +“freedom to choose any license you want for software you +write.” We reject this because it is really a form of power, +not a freedom. +</p> +<p>This oft overlooked distinction is crucial. Freedom is being able to make +decisions that affect mainly you; power is being able to make decisions +that affect others more than you. If we confuse power with freedom, we +will fail to uphold real freedom. +</p> +<a name="index-developers_002c-copyright-law-favors"></a> +<p>Making a program proprietary is an exercise of power. Copyright law +today grants software developers that power, so they and only they +choose the rules to impose on everyone else—a relatively small +number of people make the basic software decisions for all users, +typically by denying their freedom. When users lack the +freedoms that define free software, they can’t tell what the +software is doing, can’t check for back doors, can’t monitor possible +viruses and worms, can’t find out what personal information is being +reported (or stop the reports, even if they do find out). If it breaks, +they can’t fix it; they have to wait for the developer to exercise its +power to do so. If it simply isn’t quite what they need, they are stuck +with it. They can’t help each other improve it. +</p> +<a name="index-Microsoft_002c-freedom-or-power_003f"></a> +<p>Proprietary software developers are often businesses. We in the free +software movement are not opposed to business, but we have seen what +happens when a software business has the “freedom” to +impose arbitrary rules on the users of software. Microsoft is an +egregious example of how denying users’ freedoms can lead to direct +harm, but it is not the only example. Even when there is no monopoly, +proprietary software harms society. A choice of masters is not +freedom. +</p> +<p>Discussions of rights and rules for software have often concentrated +on the interests of programmers alone. Few people in the world +program regularly, and fewer still are +<a name="index-ownership_002c-developers_0027-interests-v_002e-public_0027s-prosperity-and-freedom-1"></a> +owners of proprietary software +businesses. But the entire developed world now needs and uses +software, so software developers now control the way it lives, +does business, communicates, and is entertained. The ethical and +political issues are not addressed by the slogan of “freedom of +choice (for developers only).” +<a name="index-developers_002c-copyright-law-favors-1"></a> +</p> +<p>If “code is law,”<a name="DOCF53" href="#FOOT53">(53)</a> +then the real question we face is: who should control the code you +use—you, or an elite few? We believe you are entitled to control the +software you use, and giving you that control is the goal of free +software. +</p> +<a name="index-GPL-7"></a> +<p>We believe you should decide what to do with the software you use; +however, that is not what today’s law says. Current copyright law +places us in the position of power over users of our code, whether we +like it or not. The ethical response to this situation is to proclaim +freedom for each user, just as the Bill of Rights was supposed to +exercise government power by guaranteeing each citizen’s +freedoms. That is what the GNU General Public License is for: it puts +you in control of your usage of the software while protecting you from +others who would like to take control of your decisions. +</p> +<p>As more and more users realize that code is law, and come to feel that +they too deserve freedom, they will see the importance of the freedoms +we stand for, just as more and more users have come to appreciate the +practical value of the free software we have developed. +<a name="index-proprietary-software_002c-freedom-or-power_003f-1"></a> +</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<hr> +<h3>Footnotes</h3> +<h3><a name="FOOT53" href="#DOCF53">(53)</a></h3> +<p>William J. Mitchell, <em>City of Bits: Space, Place, and the +Infobahn</em> (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1995), p. 111, as quoted by +Lawrence Lessig in <em>Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version +2.0</em> (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2006), p. 5. +</p></div> +<hr size="6"> +<table cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" border="0"> +<tr><td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1_44.html#Social-Inertia" title="Beginning of this chapter or previous chapter"> << </a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1_46.html#Appendix-A" title="Next chapter"> >> </a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left"> </td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1.html#Top" title="Cover (top) of document">Top</a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[Contents]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1_48.html#Index" title="Index">Index</a>]</td> +<td valign="middle" align="left">[<a href="scrap1_abt.html#SEC_About" title="About (help)"> ? </a>]</td> +</tr></table> +<p> + <font size="-1"> + This document was generated by <em>Christian Grothoff</em> on <em>February 18, 2016</em> using <a href="http://www.nongnu.org/texi2html/"><em>texi2html 1.82</em></a>. + </font> + <br> + +</p> +</body> +</html> |