From 1ae0306a3cf2ea27f60b2d205789994d260c2cce Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Christian Grothoff Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2020 13:29:45 +0200 Subject: add i18n FSFS --- .../blog/articles/en/university.html | 178 +++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 178 insertions(+) create mode 100644 talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/university.html (limited to 'talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/university.html') diff --git a/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/university.html b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/university.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4303d88 --- /dev/null +++ b/talermerchantdemos/blog/articles/en/university.html @@ -0,0 +1,178 @@ + + +Releasing Free Software If You Work at a University +- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation + + +

Releasing Free Software If You Work at a University

+ +

+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.

+ +

+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.

+ +

+When I started developing the GNU +operating system, in 1984, my first step was to quit my job at 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.

+ +

+Over the years, university affiliates have often come to the 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 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.

+ +

+You can also ask your funding sponsor for help. When a group at NYU +developed the GNU Ada Compiler, with funding from the 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.

+ +

+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.

+

+The FSF can sometimes persuade your university to accept the GNU +General Public License, or to accept GPL version 3. If you can't do +it alone, please give us the chance to help. Send mail to +licensing@fsf.org, and put “urgent” in the Subject +field.

+ +

+Not all universities have grasping policies. The University of Texas +has a policy that makes it easy to release software developed there as +free software under the GNU General Public License. Univates in +Brazil, and the International Institute of Information Technology in +Hyderabad, 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?

+ +

+In persuading the university, 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.

+ +

+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.

+ +

+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.

+ +

+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.

+ +

+Nothing strengthens your resolve like knowing that the community's +freedom depends, in one instance, on you.

+ +
+

This essay is published +in Free +Software, Free Society: The Selected Essays of Richard +M. Stallman.

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