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 <title>What Does It Mean for Your Computer to Be Loyal?
 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
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 <h2>What Does It Mean for Your Computer to Be Loyal?</h2>
 
 <address class="byline">by <a href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard
 Stallman</a></address>
 
 <p>We say that running <a href="/philosophy/free-sw.html">free
 software</a> on your computer means that its operation is <a
 href="/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html">under your
 control</a>.  Implicitly this presupposes that your computer will do
 what your programs tell it to do, and no more.  In other words, that
 your computer will be loyal to you.</p>
 
 <p>In 1990 we took that for granted; nowadays, many computers are
 designed to be disloyal to their users.  It has become necessary to
 spell out what it means for your computer to be a loyal platform that
 obeys your decisions, which you express by telling it to run certain
 programs.</p>
 
 <p>Our tentative definition consists of these principles.</p>
 
 <dl>
 <dt>Installability</dt>
 
 <dd>
 <p>Any software that can be replaced by someone else,
 the user must be empowered to replace.</p>
 
 <p>Thus, if the computer requires a password or some other secret in
 order to replace some of the software in it, whoever sells you the
 computer must tell you that secret as well.</p>
 </dd>
 
 <dt>Neutrality towards software</dt>
 
 <dd>
 <p>The computer will run, without prejudice, whatever software you
 install in it, and let that software do whatever its code says to
 do.</p>
 
 <p>A feature to check for signatures on the programs that run is
 compatible with this principle provided the signature checking is
 fully under the user's control.  When that is so, the feature helps
 implement the user's decisions about which programs to run, rather than
 thwarting the user's decisions.  By contrast, signature checking that
 is not fully under the user's control violates this principle.</p>
 </dd>
 
 <dt>Neutrality towards protocols</dt>
 
 <dd>
 <p>The computer will communicate, without prejudice, through whatever
 protocol your installed software implements, with whatever users and
 whatever other networked computers you direct it to communicate
 with.</p>
 
 <p>This means that computer does not impose one particular service rather
 than another, or one protocol rather than another. It does not
 require the user to get anyone else's permission to communicate via a
 certain protocol.</p>
 </dd>
 
 <dt>Neutrality towards implementations</dt>
 
 <dd>
 <p>When the computer communicates using any given protocol, it will
 support doing so, without prejudice, via whatever code you choose
 (assuming the code implements the intended protocol), and it will do
 nothing to help any other part of the Internet to distinguish which
 code you are using or what changes you may have made in it, or to
 discriminate based on your choice.</p>
 
 <p>This entails that the computer rejects remote attestation, that is,
 that it does not permit other computers to determine over the network
 whether your computer is running one particular software load. Remote
 attestation gives web sites the power to compel you to connect to them
 only through an application with DRM that you can't break, denying you
 effective control over the software you use to communicate with them.</p>
 
 <p>We can comprehend remote attestation as a general scheme to allow
 any web site to impose tivoization or &ldquo;lockdown&rdquo; on the
 local software you connect to it with.  Simple tivoization of a
 program bars modified versions from functioning properly; that makes
 the program nonfree.  Remote attestation by web sites bars modified
 versions from working with those sites that use it, which makes the
 program effectively nonfree when using those sites.  If a computer
 allows web sites to bar you from using a modified program with them,
 it is loyal to them, not to you.</p>
 </dd>
 
 <dt>Neutrality towards data communicated</dt>
 
 <dd>
 <p>When the computer receives data using whatever protocol, it will
 not limit what the program can do with the data received through that
 communication.</p>
 
 <p>Any hardware-level DRM violates this principle.  For instance, the
 hardware must not deliver video streams encrypted such that only the
 monitor can decrypt them.</p>
 </dd>
 
 <dt>Debugability</dt>
 
 <dd>
 <p>The computer always permits you to analyze the operation of a
 program that is running.</p>
 </dd>
 
 <dt>Completeness</dt>
 
 <dd>
 <p>The principles above apply to all the computer's software
 interfaces and all communication the computer does.  The computer must
 not have any disloyal programmable facility or do any disloyal
 communication.</p>
 
 <p>For instance, the AMT functionality in recent Intel processors runs
 nonfree software that can talk to Intel remotely.  Unless disabled,
 this makes the system disloyal.</p>
 </dd>
 </dl>
 
 <p>For a computer to be fully at your service, it should come with
 documentation of all the interfaces intended for software running in
 the computer to use to control the computer.  A documentation gap as
 such doesn't mean the computer is actively disloyal, but does mean
 there are some aspect of it that are not at your service.  Depending
 on what that aspect does, this might or might not be a real problem.</p>
 
 <p>We ask readers to send criticisms and suggestions about this
 definition to <a href="mailto:computer-principles@gnu.org">
 &lt;computer-principles@gnu.org&gt;</a>.</p>
 
 <p>Loyalty as defined here is the most basic criterion we could think
 of that is meaningful.  It does not require that all the software in
 the computer be free.  However, the presence
 of <a href="/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html">nonfree
 software in the computer</a> is an obstacle to verifying that the
 computer is loyal, or making sure it remains so.</p>
 
 <h3 id="History">History</h3>
 
 <p>Here is the list of substantive changes in this page.</p>
 
 <ul>
 
 <li><a href="//web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/www/www/philosophy/loyal-computers.html?r1=1.5&amp;r2=1.6">Version 1.6</a>:
 Add installability requirement.
 </li>
 
 <li><a href="//web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/www/www/philosophy/loyal-computers.html?r1=1.4&amp;r2=1.5">Version
 1.5</a>: Full documentation is not a requirement for loyalty.
 </li>
 </ul>
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