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 <title>Nonfree DRM'd Games on GNU/Linux: Good or Bad?
 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
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 <h2>Nonfree DRM'd Games on GNU/Linux: Good or Bad?</h2>
 
 <address class="byline">by <a href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard
 Stallman</a></address>
 
 <p>A well known company, Valve, that distributes nonfree computer games
 with Digital Restrictions Management, recently announced it would
 distribute these games for GNU/Linux.  What good and bad effects can
 this have?</p>
 
 <p>I suppose that availability of popular nonfree programs on
 the GNU/Linux system can boost adoption of the system.  However, the aim of GNU
 goes beyond &ldquo;success&rdquo;; its purpose is
 to <a href="/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html"> bring
 freedom to the users </a>.  Thus, the larger question is how this
 development affects users' freedom.</p>
 
 <p>The problem with these games is <em>not</em> that
 they are <a href="/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html#Commercial">commercial</a>.
 (We see nothing wrong with that.)  It
 is <em>not</em> that <a href="/philosophy/selling.html"> the developers
 sell copies</a>; that's not wrong either.  The problem is that the
 games contain software that is
 <a href="/philosophy/free-sw.html">not free</a>
 (free in the sense of freedom, of course).</p>
 
 <p>Nonfree game programs (like other nonfree programs) are unethical
 because they deny freedom to their users.  (Game art is a different
 issue, because
 it <a href="/philosophy/copyright-versus-community.html">isn't
 software</a>.)  If you want freedom, one requisite for it is not
 having or running nonfree programs on your computer.  That much is
 clear.</p>
 
 <p>However, if you're going to use these games, you're better off using
 them on GNU/Linux rather than on Microsoft Windows.  At least you avoid
 <a href="https://www.fsf.org/windows">the harm to your freedom that Windows
 would do</a>.</p>
 
 <p>Thus, in direct practical terms, this development can do both harm
 and good.  It might encourage GNU/Linux users to install these games,
 and it might encourage users of the games to replace Windows with
 GNU/Linux.  My guess is that the direct good effect will be bigger than
 the direct harm.  But there is also an indirect effect: what does the
 use of these games teach people in our community?</p>
 
 <p>Any GNU/Linux distro that comes with software to offer these games
 will teach users that the point is not freedom.  <a
 href="/distros/common-distros.html">Nonfree software in GNU/Linux
 distros</a> already works against the goal of freedom.  Adding these
 games to a distro would augment that effect.</p>
 
 <p>Free software is a matter of freedom, not price.  A free game need
 not be gratis.  It is feasible to develop free games commercially,
 while respecting your freedom to change the software you use.  Since
 the art in the game is not software, it is not ethically imperative to
 make the art free&mdash;though free art is an additional
 contribution.  There is in fact free game software developed by
 companies, as well as free games developed noncommercially by
 volunteers.  Crowdfunding development will only get easier.</p>
 
 <p>But if we suppose that it is <em>not feasible</em> in the current
 situation to develop a certain
 kind of free game&mdash;what would follow then?  There's no good in
 writing it as a nonfree game.  To have freedom in your computing,
 requires rejecting nonfree software, pure and simple.
 You as a freedom-lover won't use the nonfree game if it exists, so
 you won't lose anything if it does not exist.</p>
 
 <p>If you want to promote the cause of freedom in computing, please
 take care not to talk about the availability of these games on
 GNU/Linux as support for our cause.  Instead you could tell people
 about the <a href="https://libregamewiki.org/Main_Page">libre games
 wiki</a> that attempts to catalog free
 games, <a href="https://forum.freegamedev.net/index.php"> the Free Game
 Dev Forum</a>, and the LibrePlanet Gaming
 Collective's <a href="https://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:LibrePlanet_Gaming_Collective">
 free gaming night.</a> </p>
 
 <h3>Note</h3>
 
 <p>
 <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20191125215630/http://onpon4.github.io/articles/gaming-trap.html">
 Watch out for
 &ldquo;nonfree game data&rdquo; that actually contains software.</a></p>
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