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+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<!-- Parent-Version: 1.77 -->
+<title>The GNU GPL and the American Way
+- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/gpl-american-way.translist" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+
+<h2>The GNU GPL and the American Way</h2>
+
+<p>by <strong>Richard M. Stallman</strong></p>
+
+<p>
+Microsoft describes the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) as an
+&ldquo;open source&rdquo; 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.</p>
+<p>
+The Open Source Movement, which was launched in 1998, aims to develop
+powerful, reliable software and improved technology, by inviting the
+public to collaborate in software development. Many developers in
+that movement use the GNU GPL, and they are welcome to use it. But
+the ideas and logic of the GPL cannot be found in the Open Source
+Movement. They stem from the deeper goals and values of the Free
+Software Movement.</p>
+<p>
+The Free Software Movement was founded in 1984, but its inspiration
+comes from the ideals of 1776: freedom, community, and voluntary
+cooperation. This is what leads to free enterprise, to free speech,
+and to free software.</p>
+<p>
+As in &ldquo;free enterprise&rdquo; and &ldquo;free speech&rdquo;, the
+&ldquo;free&rdquo; in &ldquo;free software&rdquo; refers to freedom,
+not price; specifically, it means that you have the freedom to study,
+change, and redistribute the software you use. These freedoms permit
+citizens to help themselves and help each other, and thus participate
+in a community. This contrasts with the more common proprietary
+software, which keeps users helpless and divided: the inner workings
+are secret, and you are prohibited from sharing the program with your
+neighbor. Powerful, reliable software and improved technology are
+useful byproducts of freedom, but the freedom to have a community is
+important in its own right.</p>
+<p>
+We could not establish a community of freedom in the land of
+proprietary software where each program had its lord. We had to build
+a new land in cyberspace&mdash;the free software GNU operating system,
+which we started writing in 1984. In 1991, when GNU was almost
+finished, the kernel Linux written by Linus Torvalds filled the last
+gap; soon the free GNU/Linux system was available. Today millions of
+users use GNU/Linux and enjoy the benefits of freedom and community.</p>
+<p>
+I designed the GNU GPL to uphold and defend the freedoms that define
+free software&mdash;to use the words of 1776, it establishes them as
+inalienable rights for programs released under the GPL. It ensures
+that you have the freedom to study, change, and redistribute the
+program, by saying that nobody is authorized to take these freedoms
+away from you by redistributing the program under a restrictive
+license.</p>
+<p>
+For the sake of cooperation, we encourage others to modify and extend
+the programs that we publish. For the sake of freedom, we set the
+condition that these modified versions of our programs must respect
+your freedom just like the original version. We encourage two-way
+cooperation by rejecting parasites: whoever wishes to copy parts of
+our software into his program must let us use parts of that program in
+our programs. Nobody is forced to join our club, but those who wish
+to participate must offer us the same cooperation they receive from
+us. That makes the system fair.</p>
+<p>
+Millions of users, tens of thousands of developers, and companies as
+large as IBM, Intel, and Sun, have chosen to participate on this
+basis. But some companies want the advantages without the
+responsibilities.</p>
+<p>
+From time to time, companies have said to us, &ldquo;We would make an
+improved version of this program if you allow us to release it without
+freedom.&rdquo; We say, &ldquo;No thanks&mdash;your improvements might
+be useful if they were free, but if we can't use them in freedom, they
+are no good at all.&rdquo; Then they appeal to our egos, saying that
+our code will have &ldquo;more users&rdquo; inside their proprietary
+programs. We respond that we value our community's freedom more than
+an irrelevant form of popularity.</p>
+<p>
+Microsoft surely would like to have the benefit of our code without
+the responsibilities. But it has another, more specific purpose in
+attacking the GNU GPL. Microsoft is known generally for imitation
+rather than innovation. When Microsoft does something new, its
+purpose is strategic&mdash;not to improve computing for its users, but
+to close off alternatives for them.</p>
+<p>
+Microsoft uses an anticompetitive strategy called &ldquo;embrace and
+extend&rdquo;. This means they start with the technology others are
+using, add a minor wrinkle which is secret so that nobody else can
+imitate it, then use that secret wrinkle so that only Microsoft
+software can communicate with other Microsoft software. In some
+cases, this makes it hard for you to use a non-Microsoft program when
+others you work with use a Microsoft program. In other cases, this
+makes it hard for you to use a non-Microsoft program for job A if you
+use a Microsoft program for job B. Either way, &ldquo;embrace and
+extend&rdquo; magnifies the effect of Microsoft's market power.</p>
+<p>
+No license can stop Microsoft from practicing &ldquo;embrace and
+extend&rdquo; if they are determined to do so at all costs. If they
+write their own program from scratch, and use none of our code, the
+license on our code does not affect them. But a total rewrite is
+costly and hard, and even Microsoft can't do it all the time. Hence
+their campaign to persuade us to abandon the license that protects our
+community, the license that won't let them say, &ldquo;What's yours is
+mine, and what's mine is mine.&rdquo; They want us to let them take
+whatever they want, without ever giving anything back. They want us
+to abandon our defenses.</p>
+<p>
+But defenselessness is not the American Way. In the land of the brave
+and the free, we defend our freedom with the GNU GPL.</p>
+
+<h4>Addendum:</h4>
+
+<p>
+Microsoft says that the GPL is against &ldquo;intellectual property
+rights.&rdquo; I have no opinion on &ldquo;intellectual property
+rights,&rdquo; because the term is too broad to have a sensible
+opinion about. It is a catch-all, covering copyrights, patents,
+trademarks, and other disparate areas of law; areas so different, in
+the laws and in their effects, that any statement about all of them at
+once is surely simplistic. To think intelligently about copyrights,
+patents or trademarks, you must think about them separately. The
+first step is declining to lump them together as &ldquo;intellectual
+property&rdquo;.</p>
+<p>
+My views about copyright take an hour to expound, but one general
+principle applies: it cannot justify denying the public important
+freedoms. As Abraham Lincoln put it, &ldquo;Whenever there is a
+conflict between human rights and property rights, human rights must
+prevail.&rdquo; Property rights are meant to advance human well-being,
+not as an excuse to disregard it.</p>
+</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
+<div id="footer">
+<div class="unprintable">
+
+<p>Please send general FSF &amp; GNU inquiries to <a
+href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org">&lt;gnu@gnu.org&gt;</a>. There are also <a
+href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and other
+corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a
+href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org">&lt;webmasters@gnu.org&gt;</a>.</p>
+
+<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph,
+ replace it with the translation of these two:
+
+ We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality
+ translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection.
+ Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard
+ to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org">
+ &lt;web-translators@gnu.org&gt;</a>.</p>
+
+ <p>For information on coordinating and submitting translations of
+ our web pages, see <a
+ href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+ README</a>. -->
+Please see the <a
+href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for
+information on coordinating and submitting translations of this article.</p>
+</div>
+
+<p>Copyright &copy; 2001 Richard M. Stallman</p>
+
+<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
+href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/">Creative
+Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License</a>.</p>
+
+<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" -->
+
+<p class="unprintable">Updated:
+<!-- timestamp start -->
+$Date: 2014/04/12 12:40:09 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</body>
+</html>