gpl-american-way.html (10308B)
1 <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" --> 2 <!-- Parent-Version: 1.96 --> 3 <!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html --> 4 <!--#set var="TAGS" value="essays licensing copyleft" --> 5 <!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" --> 6 <title>The GNU GPL and the American Way 7 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> 8 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/gpl-american-way.translist" --> 9 <!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" --> 10 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" --> 11 <!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--> 12 <!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" --> 13 <div class="article reduced-width"> 14 <h2>The GNU GPL and the American Way</h2> 15 16 <address class="byline">by Richard M. Stallman</address> 17 18 <p> 19 Microsoft describes the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) as an 20 “open source” license, and says it is against the American 21 Way. To understand the GNU GPL, and recognize how it embodies the 22 American Way, you must first be aware that the GPL was not designed 23 for open source.</p> 24 <p> 25 The Open Source Movement, which was launched in 1998, aims to develop 26 powerful, reliable software and improved technology, by inviting the 27 public to collaborate in software development. Many developers in 28 that movement use the GNU GPL, and they are welcome to use it. But 29 the ideas and logic of the GPL cannot be found in the Open Source 30 Movement. They stem from the deeper goals and values of the Free 31 Software Movement.</p> 32 <p> 33 The Free Software Movement was founded in 1984, but its inspiration 34 comes from the ideals of 1776: freedom, community, and voluntary 35 cooperation. This is what leads to free enterprise, to free speech, 36 and to free software.</p> 37 <p> 38 As in “free enterprise” and “free speech,” the 39 “free” in “free software” refers to freedom, 40 not price; specifically, it means that you have the freedom to study, 41 change, and redistribute the software you use. These freedoms permit 42 citizens to help themselves and help each other, and thus participate 43 in a community. This contrasts with the more common proprietary 44 software, which keeps users helpless and divided: the inner workings 45 are secret, and you are prohibited from sharing the program with your 46 neighbor. Powerful, reliable software and improved technology are 47 useful byproducts of freedom, but the freedom to have a community is 48 important in its own right.</p> 49 <p> 50 We could not establish a community of freedom in the land of 51 proprietary software where each program had its lord. We had to build 52 a new land in cyberspace—the free software GNU operating system, 53 which we started writing in 1984. In 1991, when GNU was almost 54 finished, the kernel Linux written by Linus Torvalds filled the last 55 gap; soon the free GNU/Linux system was available. Today millions of 56 users use GNU/Linux and enjoy the benefits of freedom and community.</p> 57 <p> 58 I designed the GNU GPL to uphold and defend the freedoms that define 59 free software—to use the words of 1776, it establishes them as 60 inalienable rights for programs released under the GPL. It ensures 61 that you have the freedom to study, change, and redistribute the 62 program, by saying that nobody is authorized to take these freedoms 63 away from you by redistributing the program under a restrictive 64 license.</p> 65 <p> 66 For the sake of cooperation, we encourage others to modify and extend 67 the programs that we publish. For the sake of freedom, we set the 68 condition that these modified versions of our programs must respect 69 your freedom just like the original version. We encourage two-way 70 cooperation by rejecting parasites: whoever wishes to copy parts of 71 our software into his program must let us use parts of that program in 72 our programs. Nobody is forced to join our club, but those who wish 73 to participate must offer us the same cooperation they receive from 74 us. That makes the system fair.</p> 75 <p> 76 Millions of users, tens of thousands of developers, and companies as 77 large as IBM, Intel, and Sun, have chosen to participate on this 78 basis. But some companies want the advantages without the 79 responsibilities.</p> 80 <p> 81 From time to time, companies have said to us, “We would make an 82 improved version of this program if you allow us to release it without 83 freedom.” We say, “No thanks—your improvements might 84 be useful if they were free, but if we can't use them in freedom, they 85 are no good at all.” Then they appeal to our egos, saying that 86 our code will have “more users” inside their proprietary 87 programs. We respond that we value our community's freedom more than 88 an irrelevant form of popularity.</p> 89 <p> 90 Microsoft surely would like to have the benefit of our code without 91 the responsibilities. But it has another, more specific purpose in 92 attacking the GNU GPL. Microsoft is known generally for imitation 93 rather than innovation. When Microsoft does something new, its 94 purpose is strategic—not to improve computing for its users, but 95 to close off alternatives for them.</p> 96 <p> 97 Microsoft uses an anticompetitive strategy called “embrace and 98 extend.” This means they start with the technology others are 99 using, add a minor wrinkle which is secret so that nobody else can 100 imitate it, then use that secret wrinkle so that only Microsoft 101 software can communicate with other Microsoft software. In some 102 cases, this makes it hard for you to use a non-Microsoft program when 103 others you work with use a Microsoft program. In other cases, this 104 makes it hard for you to use a non-Microsoft program for job A if you 105 use a Microsoft program for job B. Either way, “embrace and 106 extend” magnifies the effect of Microsoft's market power.</p> 107 <p> 108 No license can stop Microsoft from practicing “embrace and 109 extend” if they are determined to do so at all costs. If they 110 write their own program from scratch, and use none of our code, the 111 license on our code does not affect them. But a total rewrite is 112 costly and hard, and even Microsoft can't do it all the time. Hence 113 their campaign to persuade us to abandon the license that protects our 114 community, the license that won't let them say, “What's yours is 115 mine, and what's mine is mine.” They want us to let them take 116 whatever they want, without ever giving anything back. They want us 117 to abandon our defenses.</p> 118 <p> 119 But defenselessness is not the American Way. In the land of the brave 120 and the free, we defend our freedom with the GNU GPL.</p> 121 122 <h3 class="footnote">Addendum:</h3> 123 124 <p> 125 Microsoft says that the GPL is against “intellectual property 126 rights.” I have no opinion on “intellectual property 127 rights,” because the term is too broad to have a sensible 128 opinion about. It is a catch-all, covering copyrights, patents, 129 trademarks, and other disparate areas of law; areas so different, in 130 the laws and in their effects, that any statement about all of them at 131 once is surely simplistic. To think intelligently about copyrights, 132 patents or trademarks, you must think about them separately. The 133 first step is declining to lump them together as “intellectual 134 property.”</p> 135 <p> 136 My views about copyright take an hour to expound, but one general 137 principle applies: it cannot justify denying the public important 138 freedoms. As Abraham Lincoln put it, “Whenever there is a 139 conflict between human rights and property rights, human rights must 140 prevail.” Property rights are meant to advance human well-being, 141 not as an excuse to disregard it.</p> 142 </div> 143 144 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 145 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 146 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 147 <div class="unprintable"> 148 149 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <a 150 href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are also <a 151 href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and other 152 corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a 153 href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p> 154 155 <p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, 156 replace it with the translation of these two: 157 158 We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality 159 translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. 160 Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard 161 to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> 162 <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> 163 164 <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of 165 our web pages, see <a 166 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations 167 README</a>. --> 168 Please see the <a 169 href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations README</a> for 170 information on coordinating and contributing translations of this article.</p> 171 </div> 172 173 <!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to 174 files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should 175 be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this 176 without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first. 177 Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the 178 document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the 179 document was modified, or published. 180 181 If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too. 182 Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying 183 years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable 184 year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including 185 being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system). 186 187 There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers 188 Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. --> 189 190 <p>Copyright © 2001, 2021 Richard M. Stallman</p> 191 192 <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license" 193 href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative 194 Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p> 195 196 <!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" --> 197 198 <p class="unprintable">Updated: 199 <!-- timestamp start --> 200 $Date: 2021/09/12 08:14:17 $ 201 <!-- timestamp end --> 202 </p> 203 </div> 204 </div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include --> 205 </body> 206 </html>