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+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<!-- Parent-Version: 1.77 -->
+<title>What Does It Mean for Your Computer to Be Loyal?
+- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
+ <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/loyal-computers.translist" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+
+<h2>What Does It Mean for Your Computer to Be Loyal?</h2>
+
+<p>by <a href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard Stallman</a></p>
+
+<p>We say that running <a href="/philosophy/free-sw.html">free
+software</a> on your computer means that its operation is <a
+href="/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html">under your
+control</a>. 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.</p>
+
+<p>In 1990 we took that for granted; nowadays, many computers are
+designed to be disloyal to their users. It has become necessary to
+spell out what it means for your computer to be a loyal platform that
+obeys your decisions, which you express by telling it to run certain
+programs.</p>
+
+<p>Our tentative definition consists of these principles.</p>
+
+<dl>
+<dt>Installability</dt>
+
+<dd>
+<p>Any software that can be replaced by someone else,
+the user must be empowered to replace.</p>
+
+<p>Thus, if the computer requires a password or some other secret in
+order to replace some of the software in it, whoever sells you the
+computer must tell you that secret as well.</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>Neutrality towards software</dt>
+
+<dd>
+<p>The computer will run, without prejudice, whatever software you
+install in it, and let that software do whatever its code says to
+do.</p>
+
+<p>A feature to check for signatures on the programs that run is
+compatible with this principle provided the signature checking is
+fully under the user's control. When that is so, the feature helps
+implement the user's decisions about which programs to run, rather than
+thwarting the user's decisions. By contrast, signature checking that
+is not fully under the user's control violates this principle.</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>Neutrality towards protocols</dt>
+
+<dd>
+<p>The computer will communicate, without prejudice, through whatever
+protocol your installed software implements, with whatever users and
+whatever other networked computers you direct it to communicate
+with.</p>
+
+<p>This means that computer does not impose one particular service rather
+than another, or one protocol rather than another. It does not
+require the user to get anyone else's permission to communicate via a
+certain protocol.</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>Neutrality towards implementations</dt>
+
+<dd>
+<p>When the computer communicates using any given protocol, it will
+support doing so, without prejudice, via whatever code you choose
+(assuming the code implements the intended protocol), and it will do
+nothing to help any other part of the Internet to distinguish which
+code you are using or what changes you may have made in it, or to
+discriminate based on your choice.</p>
+
+<p>This entails that the computer rejects remote attestation, that is,
+that it does not permit other computers to determine over the network
+whether your computer is running one particular software load. Remote
+attestation gives web sites the power to compel you to connect to them
+only through an application with DRM that you can't break, denying you
+effective control over the software you use to communicate with them.</p>
+
+<p>We can comprehend remote attestation as a general scheme to allow
+any web site to impose tivoization or &ldquo;lockdown&rdquo; on the
+local software you connect to it with. Simple tivoization of a
+program bars modified versions from functioning properly; that makes
+the program nonfree. Remote attestation by web sites bars modified
+versions from working with those sites that use it, which makes the
+program effectively nonfree when using those sites. If a computer
+allows web sites to bar you from using a modified program with them,
+it is loyal to them, not to you.</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>Neutrality towards data communicated</dt>
+
+<dd>
+<p>When the computer receives data using whatever protocol, it will
+not limit what the program can do with the data received through that
+communication.</p>
+
+<p>Any hardware-level DRM violates this principle. For instance, the
+hardware must not deliver video streams encrypted such that only the
+monitor can decrypt them.</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>Debugability</dt>
+
+<dd>
+<p>The computer always permits you to analyze the operation of a
+program that is running.</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>Completeness</dt>
+
+<dd>
+<p>The principles above apply to all the computer's software
+interfaces and all communication the computer does. The computer must
+not have any disloyal programmable facility or do any disloyal
+communication.</p>
+
+<p>For instance, the AMT functionality in recent Intel processors runs
+nonfree software that can talk to Intel remotely. Unless disabled,
+this makes the system disloyal.</p>
+</dd>
+</dl>
+
+<p>For a computer to be fully at your service, it should come with
+documentation of all the interfaces intended for software running in
+the computer to use to control the computer. A documentation gap as
+such doesn't mean the computer is actively disloyal, but does mean
+there are some aspect of it that are not at your service. Depending
+on what that aspect does, this might or might not be a real problem.</p>
+
+<p>We ask readers to send criticisms and suggestions about this
+definition to <a href="mailto:computer-principles@gnu.org">
+&lt;computer-principles@gnu.org&gt;</a>.</p>
+
+<p>Loyalty as defined here is the most basic criterion we could think
+of that is meaningful. It does not require that all the software in
+the computer be free. However, the presence
+of <a href="/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html">nonfree
+software in the computer</a> is an obstacle to verifying that the
+computer is loyal, or making sure it remains so.</p>
+
+<h3 id="History">History</h3>
+
+<p>Here is the list of substantive changes in this page.</p>
+
+<ul>
+
+<li><a href="http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/www/philosophy/loyal-computers.html?root=www&amp;r1=1.5&amp;r2=1.6">Version 1.6</a>:
+Add installability requirement.
+</li>
+
+<li><a href="http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/www/philosophy/loyal-computers.html?root=www&amp;r1=1.3&amp;r2=1.4">Version
+1.4</a>: Full documentation is not a requirement for loyalty.
+</li>
+</ul>
+
+</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
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+ href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
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+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>
+
+<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to
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+
+ There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers
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+
+<p>Copyright &copy; 2015, 2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p>
+
+<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
+href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative
+Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p>
+
+<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" -->
+
+<p class="unprintable">Updated:
+<!-- timestamp start -->
+$Date: 2019/03/18 17:56:19 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</body>
+</html>