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+<!-- 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.
+ -->
+
+
+ <a name="Releasing-Free-Software-If-You-Work-at-a-University">
+ </a>
+ <h1 class="chapter">
+ 8. Releasing Free Software If You Work at a University
+ </h1>
+ <a name="index-universities_002c-releasing-free-software-at-1">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-call-to-action_002c-release-free-software">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-developers_002c-universities">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ 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.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Alas, many university administrators have a grasping attitude towards
+software (and towards science); they see programs as opportunities for
+income, not as opportunities to contribute to human knowledge. Free
+software developers have been coping with this tendency for almost 20
+years.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When I started developing the
+ <a name="index-GNU-_0028see-also-both-software-and-GNU_0029-2">
+ </a>
+ GNU operating system, in 1984, my first step was to quit my job at
+ <a name="index-MIT-4">
+ </a>
+ MIT.
+I did this specifically so that the MIT licensing office would be
+unable to interfere with releasing GNU as free software. I had
+planned an approach for licensing the programs in GNU that would ensure
+that all modified versions must be free software as well—an approach
+that developed into the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL)—and I did not want to have to beg the MIT administration to let me use it.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Over the years, university affiliates have often come to the
+ <a name="index-FSF_002c-universities">
+ </a>
+ Free
+Software Foundation for advice on how to cope with administrators who
+see software only as something to sell. One good method, applicable
+even for specifically funded projects, is to base your work on an
+existing program that was released under the
+ <a name="index-GPL_002c-universities-and">
+ </a>
+ GNU GPL. Then you can
+tell the administrators, “We’re not allowed to release the
+modified version except under the GNU GPL—any other way would
+be copyright infringement.” After the dollar signs fade from
+their eyes, they will usually consent to releasing it as free
+software.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ You can also ask your funding sponsor for help. When a group at
+ <a name="index-NYU">
+ </a>
+ NYU
+developed the
+ <a name="index-Ada-compiler_002c-GNU">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-GNU_002c-GNU-Ada-compiler">
+ </a>
+ GNU Ada Compiler, with funding from the
+ <a name="index-Air-Force_002c-US-1">
+ </a>
+ US Air Force,
+the contract explicitly called for donating the resulting code to the
+Free Software Foundation. Work out the arrangement with the sponsor
+first, then politely show the university administration that it is not
+open to renegotiation. They would rather have a contract to develop
+free software than no contract at all, so they will most likely go
+along.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Whatever you do, raise the issue early—well before the
+program is half finished. At this point, the university still needs
+you, so you can play hardball: tell the administration you will finish
+the program, make it usable, if they agree in writing to make it
+free software (and agree to your choice of free software license).
+Otherwise you will work on it only enough to write a paper about it,
+and never make a version good enough to release. When the
+administrators know their choice is to have a free software package
+that brings credit to the university or nothing at all, they will
+usually choose the former.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Not all universities have grasping policies. The
+ <a name="index-University-of-Texas">
+ </a>
+ University of Texas
+has a policy that makes it easy to release software developed there as
+free software under the GNU General Public License.
+ <a name="index-Univates">
+ </a>
+ Univates, in
+ <a name="index-Brazil">
+ </a>
+ Brazil, and the
+ <a name="index-International-Institute-of-Information-Technology">
+ </a>
+ International Institute of Information Technology in
+Hyderabad,
+ <a name="index-India">
+ </a>
+ India, both have policies in favor of releasing software
+under the GPL. By developing faculty support first, you may be able
+to institute such a policy at your university. Present the issue as
+one of principle: does the university have a mission to advance human
+knowledge, or is its sole purpose to perpetuate itself?
+ <a name="index-GPL_002c-universities-and-1">
+ </a>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Whatever approach you use, it helps to approach the issue with determination
+and based on an
+ethical perspective, as we do in the free software movement. To treat
+the public ethically, the software should be free—as in
+freedom—for the whole public.
+ </p>
+ <a name="index-developers_002c-solid-values-for-free-software">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ Many developers of free software profess narrowly practical reasons
+for doing so: they advocate allowing others to share and change
+software as an expedient for making software powerful and reliable.
+If those values motivate you to develop free software, well and good,
+and thank you for your contribution. But those values do not give you
+a good footing to stand firm when university administrators pressure
+or tempt you to make the program nonfree.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ For instance, they may argue that “We could make it even more
+powerful and reliable with all the money we can get.” This claim
+may or may not come true in the end, but it is hard to disprove in
+advance. They may suggest a license to offer copies “free of
+charge, for academic use only,” which would tell the general
+public they don’t deserve freedom, and argue that this will obtain the
+cooperation of academia, which is all (they say) you need.
+ </p>
+ <a name="index-citizen-values_002c-convenience-v_002e-2">
+ </a>
+ <p>
+ If you start from values of convenience alone, it is hard to make a
+good case for rejecting these dead-end proposals, but you can do it
+easily if you base your stand on ethical and political values. What
+good is it to make a program powerful and reliable at the expense of
+users’ freedom? Shouldn’t freedom apply outside academia as well as
+within it? The answers are obvious if freedom and community are among
+your goals. Free software respects the users’ freedom, while nonfree
+software negates it.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Nothing strengthens your resolve like knowing that the community’s
+freedom depends, in one instance, on you.
+ <a name="index-universities_002c-releasing-free-software-at-2">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-education_002c-free-software-in-2">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-call-to-action_002c-release-free-software-1">
+ </a>
+ <a name="index-developers_002c-universities-1">
+ </a>
+ </p>
+ <hr size="2"/>
+