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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"/>
-