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<title>Third Party Ideas
- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
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<h2 id="ThirdPartyIdeas">Third Party Ideas</h2>
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<div class="comment">
<p>
These articles give other people's philosophical
opinions in support of free software, or related issues, and don't
speak for the GNU project&mdash;but we more or less agree with them.</p>

<p>
Many of the
<a href="/links/links.html#FreedomOrganizations">Organizations that Work
for Freedom in Computer Development and Electronic Communications</a>
also have philosophical opinions in support of free software, or
related issues.</p>
</div>

<ul>
  <li><a href="/philosophy/lessig-fsfs-intro.html">Introduction by
  Lawrence Lessig</a> to 
  <a href="https://shop.fsf.org/books-docs/free-software-free-society-selected-essays-richard-m-stallman-3rd-edition"><i>
  Free Software, Free Society: The Selected Essays of Richard
  M. Stallman</i></a>.</li>

  <li><a
  href="http://freedom-to-tinker.com/blog/tblee/trouble-free-riding">The
  Trouble with &ldquo;Free Riding&rdquo;</a>, by Timothy B. Lee.</li>
  
  <li><a
  href="http://www.cato-unbound.org/2008/06/09/rasmus-fleischer/the-future-of-copyright/">The
  Future of Copyright</a>, an essay by Rasmus Fleischer.</li>

  <li><a
  href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190917154711/https://cic.unb.br/~rezende/trabs/stockholm.html">The
  Digital Stockholm Syndrome</a>: reflections over some psychological
  responses to market forces, by Pedro Rezende, University of Brasilia.</li>

  <li><a href="http://questioncopyright.org">QuestionCopyright.org</a>
  is a web site about the history and effects of copyright, dedicated
  to raise awareness of the harmful consequences of today's copyright
  system.</li>
  <li>
    <a href="https://www.informationweek.com/it-life/how-vista-lets-microsoft-lock-users-in">
       How Vista Lets Microsoft Lock Users In</a> by Cory Doctorow.
       <b>Note:</b> We think it is a mistake to use the enemy's favorable-sounding propaganda terms such as
       &ldquo;trusted computing&rdquo; to describe a malicious plan.
  </li>
  <li>
    <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20180914161858/http://movingtofreedom.org/archives/">
    movingtofreedom.org</a>,
    Scott Carpenter's blog with many freedom-related articles.
  </li>
  <li>
    <a href="http://lwn.net/Articles/194701/">A couple of lessons on the hazards of proprietary software</a>.
  </li>
  <li>
    <a href="http://southflorida.bizjournals.com/southflorida/stories/2006/07/03/story8.html">
      Multiple doctors cut off from records by Dr. Notes</a>,
    an example of how proprietary software gives the developers unjust power over the users.
  </li>
  <li>Jimmy Wales explains why
   <a href="http://blog.jimmywales.com/index.php/archives/2004/10/21/free-knowledge-requires-free-software-and-free-file-formats/">
  Free Knowledge requires Free Software and Free File Formats</a>. In this paper, he also exposes why
  <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org">Wikipedia</a> needs to be free software.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.juergen-ernst.de/info_swpat_en.html">Software patents under the
      magnifying glass</a>. In this article, the author uses arguments
      based on lambda calculus to show why software cannot be patented.</li>
      
  <li><a href="/philosophy/patent-practice-panel.html">Transcript of a 
     panel presentation</a>, <cite>New developments in patent practice:
     assessing the risks and cost of portfolio licensing and
     hold-ups</cite>, given by Daniel B. Ravicher as the executive
     director of the Public Patent Foundation on Wednesday, November
     10, 2004, at a conference organized by the Foundation for a Free
     Information Infrastructure (FFII) in Brussels, Belgium. The GNU
     Project disagrees with the article's assumption that nonfree programs 
     are morally legitimate competitors.</li>    
  <li><a href="http://lwn.net/Articles/204641/">Free gadgets need free
      software</a>, an editorial reporting a firmware &ldquo;upgrade&rdquo; that
      removes the ability to record radio broadcasts.</li>
  <li>Lakhani and Wolf's
   <a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/sloan-school-of-management/15-352-managing-innovation-emerging-trends-spring-2005/readings/lakhaniwolf.pdf">paper on the
   motivation of free software developers</a> says that a considerable
   fraction are motivated by the view that software should be free.  This
   was despite the fact that they surveyed the developers on SourceForge,
   a site that does not support the view that this is an ethical issue.</li>
  <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110807055230/http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1010603/groklaw-sends-dear-darl-letter">Groklaw
  sends a Dear Darl letter</a>: a group from the free software and
  open source community has put together a response to SCO CEO Darl
  McBride's Open Letter to the Open Source Community.</li>
  <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20060313152550/http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecentral/editorials/4788/1/">Hardware
  Central [Archived Page]</a>.  We disagree with one aspect of this article's
  conclusion: It's not legitimate for Microsoft to help Disney and the
  RIAA impose Digital Restrictions Management on you, any more than it
  is legitimate for Disney and the RIAA to try it.  The full power of
  computing should be available to you, not just to the owners of
  information.</li>

<li>The SCO Sue Me Petition has overwhelmed its inceptor
and the petition is no longer taking votes. The author
of the petition, John Everitt, was expecting only several
responses but instead he had thousands of participants. <a
href="https://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6913">In the
last available public communication about the petition</a>, he
urged people to help <a href="http://www.fsf.org">FSF</a> in any
way possible.</li>

<li><a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030904102640/http://proposicion.org.ar/doc/gob/Conde-281102/index.html.en">Senator
Alberto Conde's answer</a> to CESSI regarding Bill E-135/02-03 which proposes
use of Free Software in the public sector for the province of Buenos Aires. <a
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030204005052/http://www.proposicion.org.ar/proyecto/leyes/E-135.02-03/">The
bill</a> has been submitted by Senator Alberto Conde himself.</li>

<li>Some economists argue that copyright and patents <a
href="https://reason.com/2003/03/01/creation-myths-2/"> fail to promote
the progress</a> that they supposedly exist to promote.
<p>
This article takes a narrowly economic view of its subject, measuring
social alternatives only by what goods are available for what price,
assuming that you the citizen are a mere consumer and place no value
on your freedom in itself.  It also uses the misleading term
<a href="/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#IntellectualProperty">&ldquo;intellectual
property&rdquo;</a>, which is misleading because it lumps copyrights and
patents together.  The article also lumps them together, which it can
get away with because it ignores the (different) social issues that
copyrights and patents raise.
</p><p>
Despite those flaws, it is significant. If one can judge copyright to
be harmful even on narrow economic terms, disregarding the ethical
wrong of stopping people from sharing, it can only be even more harmful
when we consider the ethics as well.
</p></li>

  <li>Two articles by Duncan Campbell describe how NSA backdoors were
  hidden in proprietary software programs:
  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130723003646/http://www.heise.de/tp/artikel/2/2898/1.html">Only NSA can
  listen, so that's OK</a> and <a
  href="https://www.heise.de/tp/features/How-NSA-access-was-built-into-Windows-3444341.html">How NSA
  access was built into Windows</a>.  Both are clear demonstrations of how
  users of proprietary software can often be unaware of what they are
  actually running.</li>

  <li><a href="http://www.compilerpress.ca/Cultural%20Economics/Works/CPU%202000.htm">Copyright
  C.P.U.</a>, by Harry Hillman Chartrand, is a good summary of the history of
  copyright.</li>

  <li>Malla Pollack's
  <a href="http://eon.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/eldredvashcroft/progress.html">What
  is Congress Supposed to Promote?</a> explains how the United States'
  government's recent tendencies to provide maximum control to copyright
  holders defies the justification for establishment of copyright set out
  in the constitution.</li>

  <li>Peruvian Congressman Dr. Edgar David Villanueva Nu&ntilde;ez wrote a
  letter to a Microsoft manager after they wrote expressing concern about
  the country's pending Free Software in Public Administration bill.  It
  does an excellent job of allaying concerns about free software often
  raised by Microsoft and others.  The English translation of the letter is
  <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20030207075039/http://www.pimientolinux.com/peru2ms/villanueva_to_ms.html">
  here</a>.</li>

  <li><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2170/2170-h/2170-h.htm#2H_4_0018">British
  historian Thomas Macaulay</a> had ideas about copyright in 1841
  which still hold true today.</li>


  <li>openrevolt.org was a site devoted to providing information about
  the European Copyright Directive and similar legislation.  It
  concentrated on the two principal problems of the EUCD, which make
  it easier for copyright holders to censor webpages on ISPs and give
  legal protection to copy-protection measures.</li>

  <li><a href="http://www.chillingeffects.org">Chilling Effects</a> is
  a collection point for cease and desist notices concerning online
  activity&mdash;we invite visitors to enter C&amp;Ds they have
  received or sent.  The website collects the C&amp;Ds in a searchable
  database and hyperlinks them to explanations of the legal
  issues.</li>

  <li><a
  href="http://web.archive.org/web/20020222080928/www.byte.com/documents/s=2302/byt1011380870846/">
  Coding is a Crime</a>, by Shannon Cochran, is a commentary on the indictment
  of Jon Johansen on felony charges for helping write DeCSS.</li>

  <li><a href="http://law.duke.edu/pd/papers/boyle.pdf">The Second Enclosure Movement
  and the Construction of the Public Domain</a>, by James Boyle.</li>

  <li><a href="http://besser.tsoa.nyu.edu/howard/Papers/pw-public-spaces.html">Intellectual
  Property: The Attack on Public Space in Cyberspace</a>, by Howard Besser,
  describes how various industries are using their leverage with copyright
  to make fewer locations on the Internet less and less public.</li>

  <li><a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=267848#PaperDownload">Locating
  Copyright Within the First Amendment Skein</a>, by Neil W. Netanel,
  argues that the United States court system has been wrong in its dated
  assumption that fair use eliminates the conflict between copyright law
  and the First Amendment.</li>

  <li>Richard Stallman co-signed
  <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20030803114409/http://perens.com/Articles/StandTogether.html">a
joint statement responding to comments by Craig Mundie of Microsoft
[Archived Page]</a>.</li>

  <li>In <a href="/philosophy/dmarti-patent.html">Patent Reform
          Now!</a>, Don Marti calls for free software supporters to
          nominate Richard M. Stallman to US Patent and Trademark Office's
          Patent Public Advisory Committee.</li>

  <li><a href="/philosophy/stophr3028.html">Stop H.R. 3028</a>,
    &ldquo;The Trademark Cyberpiracy Prevention Act of 1999.&rdquo;</li>

 <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20010410172314/http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~beejoo/gnuproject.html">
  The GNU Project FTP Site: A Digital Collection Supporting a Social Movement
  [Archived Page]</a>, by Michelle Bejian.</li>

 <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20000815064842/http://oppression.nerdherd.org/Stories/1998/9810/ucla/ucla.html">UCLA
        discriminates against students using GNU/Linux.  One part of
        their justification is supporting the power of software
        owners. [Archived Page]</a></li>

 <li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/19991012082619/http://simson.net/clips/98.Globe.05-07.Read_them_and_weep.htm">Read
        Them And Weep [Archived Page]</a>, by Simson Garfinkel, talks about the
        pending bills that would give information owners sweeping new powers,
        and restrict the activities of users.</li>

  <li><a href="/philosophy/nonsoftware-copyleft.html">Applying Copyleft To
    Non-Software Information</a>, by Michael Stutz.</li>
  <li><a href="/philosophy/free-world.html">Only
       the Free World Can Stand Up to Microsoft</a>, by Tom Hull.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.ram.org/ramblings/philosophy/fmp.html">The
       Free Music Philosophy</a>, by Ram Samudrala.</li>

  <li>Record companies argue for more copyright power by saying they are
    the support of the musicians.
    <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20040916075542/http://www.negativland.com/albini.html">
    This article</a> shows how record companies really treat musicians.</li>

  <!-- the original link was not working, rms suggested i
       make a temporary link -neel
       http://www.musicisum.com/manifesto.shtml
  -->

  <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130509191813/http://www.maui.net/%7Ezen_gtr/zgzinepg4.html">
       The Manifesto:
       Piracy is Your Friend</a> by Jaron Lanier.
       <br />
       <strong>Note</strong> that the GNU Project recommends
       <a href="/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html">avoiding</a> the term
       <a href="/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Piracy">piracy</a> since
       it implies that sharing copies is somehow illegitimate.</li>

  <li><a href="http://www.ram.org/ramblings/philosophy/fmp/copying_primer.html">A
       primer on the ethics of &ldquo;Intellectual property&rdquo;</a>, by Ram Samudrala.</li>
  <li><a href="/philosophy/self-interest.html">Is self-interest sufficient to
       organize a free economy?</a> by Loyd Fueston.</li>

  <li><a href="/philosophy/kragen-software.html">People, places, things and ideas</a> by Kragen Sitaker</li>
  <li><a href="http://freenation.org/a/f31l1.html">The Libertarian Case
       Against Intellectual Property Rights</a> by Roderick T. Long
       <br />
       The Free Software Movement does not endorse Libertarianism, and
       <a href="/philosophy/rms-comment-longs-article.html">we do
       not agree entirely</a> with that article.  But it is useful for
       refuting
       one specific argument that is made in favor of proprietary software.</li>
  <li><a href="http://old.law.columbia.edu/my_pubs/anarchism.html">Anarchism
       Triumphant:
       Free Software and the Death of Copyright</a></li>

  <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20130409233705/http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~digger/596/werry_comm.pdf">Imagined
  Electronic Community: Representations of Virtual Community in
  Contemporary Business Discourse</a> by Chris Werry.</li>

  <li><a href="/philosophy/economics_frank/frank.html">Does Studying
       Economics Inhibit Cooperation?</a> by Frank, Gilovich, and Regan.</li>
  <li><a href="http://danny.oz.au/freedom/ip/aidfs.html">Development,
       Ethical Trading, and Free Software</a> by Danny Yee.</li>
  <li><a href="/philosophy/bdk.html">The Ballad of Dennis Karjala</a>:
       A political comment in the form of a broadside ballad
       by Timothy R. Phillips.</li>
  <li><a href="/philosophy/ICT-for-prosperity.html">Shaping
       Collaborative ICT Development and Initiatives for Global
       Prosperity</a> by Robert J. Chassell.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.fsfla.org/~lxoliva/papers/free-software/selection-html/">
       Competitive Advantages of Free Software</a> by Alexandre Oliva.</li>
  <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170628063222/http://www.advogato.org/article/89.html"
       id="PatentgrantundertheGPL">Patent grant under the GPL</a> by Raph Levien.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/05/biztech/articles/10digital.html"
       id="ConceptofCopyrightFightsMarkoff">The
       Concept of Copyright Fights for Internet Survival</a> by John
       Markoff.</li>

  <li><a id="TheRealPurposeOfCopyrightBerry"
href="http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA158872.html">The
       Real Purpose of Copyright</a> by John N. Berry III.</li>
  <li><a id="Copyrightfire" href="/philosophy/fire.html">Copyrighting Fire! (Humor)</a> by Ian Clarke.</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.praxagora.com/andyo/professional/infirmation_technology.html" id="INFOTECH">The Future Brings &ldquo;Infirmation Technology&rdquo;</a> by
       Andy Oram.</li>
<!-- Re: Free Protocols Foundation - it's a maintainance nightmare -->
<!-- to have full descriptions in more then one place. -len -->
<!-- RMS requests that this link is put back, 14 Dec 2000, paulv -->
  <li><a href="http://www.freeprotocols.org/">The Free Protocols
       Foundation</a> is an independent public forum, dedicated to the
       support of patent-free protocols.</li>
  <li><a href="/philosophy/software-libre-commercial-viability.html">Software Libre and Commercial Viability</a> by Alessandro Rubini</li>
  <li><a href="http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/98il/">
       Information liberation</a> by Brian Martin. We urge people to avoid
       using the term <a href="/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html">intellectual
       property</a> and to instead speak about copyrights, patents, and/or
       trademarks.</li>
  <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20211118053107/http://wearcam.org/seatsale/index.htm">
       Seat Sale</a>, a satire about copyright.</li>

  <li>A <a href="http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery/">gallery</a>
      of examples demonstrating how outrageous and absurd the Digital
      Millennium Copyright Act is.</li>

  <li><a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/03/28/0121209&amp;mode=nocomment">
      A book review of <cite>Digital Copyright</cite></a>.</li>

<!-- The archived version is truncated.
  <li><a
  href="http://web.archive.org/web/20080703140137/http://www.itworld.com/LWD010523vcontrol4">Live and
  let license [archived]</a> by Joe Barr.</li>
-->

  <li><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191221223329/http://www.piecepack.org/">Piecepack</a> is a set of
  boardgame pieces which everyone is free to use in creating or playing
  various types of games.</li>

  <li>Eastern Gianozia has put together a <a
  href="https://web.archive.org/web/20190924041236/http://www.gianoziaorientale.org/info/foreign_politics.html">
  tongue-in-cheek look at Software Patents and DRM</a>.</li>

  <li><a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/7813">Free Software and Scouting</a></li>

  <li><a href="http://fare.tunes.org/articles/patents.html">Patents Are an Economic
  Absurdity</a>: This article adopts as a premise the popular view that free trade is
  desirable. We don't always agree&mdash;beyond a certain point, free trade gives
  businesses too much power, allowing them to intimidate democracy. But that is a
  different matter. </li><!-- Description text by RMS -->

   <li><a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/2000/09/stephan-kinsella/in-defense-of-napster-and-against-the-second-homesteading-rule/">In Defense of Napster and Against the Second Homesteading Rule</a></li>

   <li><a href="http://www.mises.org/journals/jls/15_2/15_2_1.pdf">Against Intellectual Property</a>, Spring 2001, Journal of Libertarian Studies (PDF)</li>
<!-- Available only against a fee.
   <li><a href="http://www.lulu.com/dcparris/">Penguin in the Pew</a>, Free Software from a Christian perspective.</li>
-->
<li><a
href="http://web.archive.org/web/20121029031829/http://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~sdexter/Pubs/cepe2005.pdf">
A Comparative Ethical Assessment of Free Software Licensing Schemes</a>
by Samir Chopra and Scott Dexter</li>

   <li>The <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20131126094524/http://simplemachines.it/index.php/sim-one-project">SIM.ONE
       hardware project</a> has created free (as in freedom)
       computer design specifications.</li>

   <li><a href="/philosophy/vaccination.html">Viral Code and Vaccination</a>, 
         an article by Robert J. Chassell.</li>

   <li><a href="/philosophy/why-audio-format-matters.html">Why Audio
   Format matters</a> by Karl Fogel</li>

   <li>Not available online, but as early as 1960 Bernard Galler wrote a
   letter to the editor of the Communications of the ACM (vol.3, no.4,
   pp.A12-A13), saying in part (mentioning price, but clearly implying
   freedom):
   <blockquote>
     <p>
     &hellip; it is clear that what is being
     charged for is the development of the program, and
     while I am particularly unhappy that it comes from a
     university, I believe it is damaging to the whole
     profession. There isn't a 704 installation that hasn't
     directly benefited from the free exchange of programs
     made possible by the distribution facilities of SHARE.
     If we start to sell our programs, this will set very
     undesirable precedents.
     </p>
   </blockquote>
   (Thanks to Nelson Beebe for the reference.)</li>
</ul>
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