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diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/free-software-even-more-important.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/free-software-even-more-important.html index ca33d7c..8b6d676 100644 --- a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/free-software-even-more-important.html +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/free-software-even-more-important.html @@ -1,5 +1,5 @@ <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> -<!-- Parent-Version: 1.90 --> +<!-- Parent-Version: 1.94 --> <title>Free Software Is Even More Important Now - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/free-software-even-more-important.translist" --> @@ -20,7 +20,8 @@ href="https://www.fsf.org/blogs/rms/20140407-geneva-tedx-talk-free-software-free <div class="announcement"> <p> -<a href="/help/help.html">Suggested ways you can help the free software movement</a> +<a href="/help/help.html">Suggested ways you can help the free software +movement</a> </p> </div> <hr class="thin" /> @@ -33,17 +34,17 @@ and community, we call it “free software.”</p> <p>We also sometimes call it “libre software” to emphasize that we're talking about liberty, not price. Some proprietary (nonfree) programs, such as Photoshop, are very expensive; others, -such as Flash Player, are available gratis—but that's a minor +such as the Uber app, are available gratis—but that's a minor detail. Either way, they give the program's developer power over the users, power that no one should have.</p> <p>Those two nonfree programs have something else in common: they are both <em>malware</em>. That is, both have functionalities designed to mistreat the user. Proprietary software nowadays is often malware -because <a href="/proprietary/proprietary.html">the developers' power -corrupts them</a>. That directory lists around 450 different -malicious functionalities (as of January, 2020), but it is surely just the -tip of the iceberg.</p> +because <a href="/malware">the developers' power +corrupts them</a>. That directory lists around 500 different +malicious functionalities (as of January, 2021), but it is surely just +the tip of the iceberg.</p> <p>With free software, the users control the program, both individually and collectively. So they control what their computers do (assuming @@ -53,8 +54,8 @@ and do what the users' programs tell them to do).</p> <p>With proprietary software, the program controls the users, and some other entity (the developer or “owner”) controls the program. So the proprietary program gives its developer power over -its users. That is unjust in itself; moreover, it tempts the developer to -mistreat the users in other ways.</p> +its users. That is unjust in itself; moreover, it tempts the developer +to mistreat the users in other ways.</p> <p>Even when proprietary software isn't downright malicious, its developers have an incentive to make it @@ -76,7 +77,8 @@ something important in your life.</p> </p> <div class="important"> -<p>(0) The freedom to run the program as you wish, for whatever purpose.</p> +<p>(0) The freedom to run the program as you wish, for whatever +purpose.</p> <p>(1) The freedom to study the program's “source code”, and change it, so the program does your computing as you wish. @@ -109,15 +111,15 @@ program. With all four freedoms, the users fully control the program. If any of them is missing or inadequate, the program is proprietary (nonfree), and unjust.</p> -<p>Other kinds of works are also used for practical activities, including -recipes for cooking, educational works such as textbooks, reference -works such as dictionaries and encyclopedias, fonts for displaying -paragraphs of text, circuit diagrams for hardware for people to build, -and patterns for making useful (not merely decorative) objects with a -3D printer. Since these are not software, the free software movement -strictly speaking doesn't cover them; but the same reasoning applies -and leads to the same conclusion: these works should carry the four -freedoms.</p> +<p>Other kinds of works are also used for practical activities, +including recipes for cooking, educational works such as textbooks, +reference works such as dictionaries and encyclopedias, fonts for +displaying paragraphs of text, circuit diagrams for hardware for people +to build, and patterns for making useful (not merely decorative) +objects with a 3D printer. Since these are not software, the free +software movement strictly speaking doesn't cover them; but the same +reasoning applies and leads to the same conclusion: these works should +carry the four freedoms.</p> <p>A free program allows you to tinker with it to make it do what you want (or cease to do something you dislike). Tinkering with software @@ -136,21 +138,21 @@ program—and through it, exercises power over its users. A nonfree program is a yoke, an instrument of unjust power.</p> <p>In outrageous cases (though this outrage has become quite usual) <a -href="/proprietary/proprietary.html">proprietary programs are designed +href="/malware">proprietary programs are designed to spy on the users, restrict them, censor them, and abuse them</a>. For instance, the operating system of Apple <a -href="/philosophy/why-call-it-the-swindle.html">iThings</a> does all of these, -and so does Windows on mobile devices with ARM chips. Windows, mobile -phone firmware, and Google Chrome for Windows include a universal back -door that allows some company to change the program remotely without -asking permission. The Amazon Kindle has a back door that can erase -books.</p> +href="/philosophy/why-call-it-the-swindle.html">iThings</a> does all +of these, and so does Windows on mobile devices with ARM chips. +Windows, mobile phone firmware, and Google Chrome for Windows include +a universal back door that allows some company to change the program +remotely without asking permission. The Amazon Kindle has a back door +that can erase books.</p> <p>The use of nonfree software in the “internet of things” -would turn it into -the <a href="http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/rinesi20150806">“internet -of telemarketers”</a> as well as the “internet of -snoopers”.</p> +would turn it into the <a +href="https://archive.ieet.org/articles/rinesi20150806.html"> +“internet of telemarketers”</a> as well as the +“internet of snoopers”.</p> <p>With the goal of ending the injustice of nonfree software, the free software movement develops free programs so users can free themselves. @@ -159,12 +161,12 @@ href="/gnu/the-gnu-project.html">GNU</a>. Today, millions of computers run GNU, mainly in the <a href="/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html">GNU/Linux combination</a>.</p> -<p>Distributing a program to users without freedom mistreats those users; -however, choosing not to distribute the program does not mistreat -anyone. If you write a program and use it privately, that does no -wrong to others. (You do miss an opportunity to do good, but that's -not the same as doing wrong.) Thus, when we say all software must -be free, we mean that every copy must come with the four freedoms, +<p>Distributing a program to users without freedom mistreats those +users; however, choosing not to distribute the program does not +mistreat anyone. If you write a program and use it privately, that +does no wrong to others. (You do miss an opportunity to do good, but +that's not the same as doing wrong.) Thus, when we say all software +must be free, we mean that every copy must come with the four freedoms, but we don't mean that someone has an obligation to offer you a copy.</p> <h3>Nonfree Software and SaaSS</h3> @@ -174,12 +176,12 @@ people's computing. Nowadays, there is another way, called Service as a Software Substitute, or SaaSS. That means letting someone else's server do your own computing tasks.</p> -<p>SaaSS doesn't mean the programs on the server are nonfree (though they -often are). Rather, using SaaSS causes the same injustices as using a -nonfree program: they are two paths to the same bad place. Take the -example of a SaaSS translation service: The user sends text to the -server, and the server translates it (from English to Spanish, say) -and sends the translation back to the user. Now the job of +<p>SaaSS doesn't mean the programs on the server are nonfree (though +they often are). Rather, using SaaSS causes the same injustices as +using a nonfree program: they are two paths to the same bad place. +Take the example of a SaaSS translation service: The user sends text +to the server, and the server translates it (from English to Spanish, +say) and sends the translation back to the user. Now the job of translating is under the control of the server operator rather than the user.</p> @@ -191,12 +193,12 @@ does that server really serve, after all?</a></p> <h3>Primary And Secondary Injustices</h3> -<p>When you use proprietary programs or SaaSS, first of all you do wrong -to yourself, because it gives some entity unjust power over you. For -your own sake, you should escape. It also wrongs others if you make a -promise not to share. It is evil to keep such a promise, and a lesser -evil to break it; to be truly upright, you should not make the promise -at all.</p> +<p>When you use proprietary programs or SaaSS, first of all you do +wrong to yourself, because it gives some entity unjust power over you. +For your own sake, you should escape. It also wrongs others if you +make a promise not to share. It is evil to keep such a promise, and a +lesser evil to break it; to be truly upright, you should not make the +promise at all.</p> <p>There are cases where using nonfree software puts pressure directly on others to do likewise. Skype is a clear example: when one person @@ -262,9 +264,9 @@ engineer it.”</p> <p>Proprietary developers would have us punish students who are good enough at heart to share software and thwart those curious enough to -want to change it. This means a bad education. See -<a href="/education/">http://www.gnu.org/education/</a> -for more discussion of the use of free software in schools.</p> +want to change it. This means a bad education. See more discussion +about <a href="/education/education.html">the use of free software in +schools</a>.</p> <h3>Free Software: More Than “Advantages”</h3> @@ -297,13 +299,26 @@ does your computing, so you can't redistribute it or change it.</p> <h3>Conclusion</h3> -<p>We deserve to have control of our own computing; how can we win -this control? By rejecting nonfree software on the computers we own -or regularly use, and rejecting SaaSS. By <a +<p>We deserve to have control of our own computing. How can we win +this control?</p> + +<ul> + <li>By rejecting nonfree software on the computers we own or +regularly use, and rejecting SaaSS.</li> + + <li>By <a href="/licenses/license-recommendations.html"> developing free -software</a> (for those of us who are programmers.) By refusing to -develop or promote nonfree software or SaaSS. By <a -href="/help/help.html">spreading these ideas to others</a>.</p> +software</a> (for those of us who are programmers.)</li> + + <li>By refusing to develop or promote nonfree software or SaaSS.</li> + + <li>By <a +href="/help/help.html">spreading these ideas to others</a>.</li> + + <li>By <a +href="/philosophy/saying-no-even-once.html">saying no and stating our +reasons</a> when we are invited to run a nonfree program.</li> +</ul> <p>We and thousands of users have done this since 1984, which is how we now have the free GNU/Linux operating system that @@ -357,7 +372,7 @@ of this article.</p> There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> -<p>Copyright © 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 Richard Stallman</p> +<p>Copyright © 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 Richard Stallman</p> <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative @@ -367,7 +382,7 @@ Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> <p class="unprintable">Updated: <!-- timestamp start --> -$Date: 2020/10/06 08:00:29 $ +$Date: 2021/03/10 15:06:21 $ <!-- timestamp end --> </p> </div> |