Preface to the Second Edition

The second edition of Free Software, Free Society holds updated versions of most of the essays from the first edition, as well as many new essays published since the first edition.

The essays about software patents are now in one section and those about copyright in another, to set an example of not grouping together these two laws, whose workings and effects on software are totally different.

Another section presents the GNU licenses, with a new introduction written with Brett Smith giving their history and the motives for each of them. One of the essays explains why software projects should upgrade to version 3 of the GNU General Public License.

There is now a section on issues of terminology, since the way we describe an issue affects how people think about it.

The last two sections describe some of the traps free software developers and users face—new ways to lose your freedom, and how to avoid them.

We have also added an index, to complement the appendix on software.

We would like to thank Jeanne Rasata for managing the project, editing the book, formatting the text, and creating the index. Thanks also to Karl Berry for technical assistance with Texinfo, Brett Smith for all other technical help and for valuable feedback, and Rob Myers for formatting the cover.