why-copyleft.html (5994B)
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>Why Copyleft? 7 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> 8 <!--#include virtual="/philosophy/po/why-copyleft.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!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE--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>Why Copyleft?</h2> 15 16 <div class="important"> 17 <p><em>When it comes to defending everyone's freedom, to lie 18 down and do nothing is an act of weakness, not humility.</em></p> 19 </div> 20 21 <p> 22 In the GNU Project we usually recommend people 23 use <a href="/licenses/copyleft.html">copyleft</a> licenses like GNU 24 GPL, rather than permissive non-copyleft free software licenses. We 25 don't argue harshly against the non-copyleft licenses—in fact, 26 we occasionally recommend them in special circumstances—but the 27 advocates of those licenses show a pattern of arguing harshly against 28 the <abbr title="General Public License">GPL</abbr>. 29 </p> 30 31 <p> 32 In one such argument, a person stated that his use of one of the BSD 33 licenses was an “act of humility”: “I ask nothing of 34 those who use my code, except to credit me.” It is rather a 35 stretch to describe a legal demand for credit as 36 “humility,” but there is a deeper point to be considered 37 here. 38 </p> 39 40 <p> 41 Humility is disregarding your own self-interest, but the interest you 42 abandon when you don't copyleft your code is much bigger than your 43 own. Someone who uses your code in a nonfree program is denying 44 freedom to others, so if you allow that, you're failing to defend 45 those people's freedom. When it comes to defending everyone's 46 freedom, to lie down and do nothing is an act of weakness, not 47 humility. 48 </p> 49 50 <p> 51 Releasing your code under <a href="/licenses/bsd.html"> one of the BSD 52 licenses</a>, or some other lax, permissive license, is not doing 53 wrong; the program is still free software, and still a contribution to 54 our community. But it is weak, and in most cases it is not the best 55 way to promote users' freedom to share and change software. 56 </p> 57 58 <p> 59 Here are specific examples of nonfree versions of free programs 60 that have done major harm to the free world.</p> 61 62 <ul> 63 <li>Those who released LLVM under a non-copyleft 64 license <a href="https://www.anandtech.com/show/5238/nvidia-releases-cuda-41-cuda-goes-llvm-and-open-source-kind-of">enabled 65 nVidia to release a high-quality nonfree compiler</a> for its GPUs, 66 while keeping its instruction set secret. Thus, we can't write a free 67 compiler for that platform without a big reverse engineering job. The 68 nonfree adaptation of LLVM is the only compiler for those machines, 69 and is likely to remain so.</li> 70 71 <li>Intel uses 72 <a href="https://www.tomshardware.com/news/google-removing-minix-management-engine-intel,35876.html">a 73 proprietary version of the MINIX system</a>, which is free but not 74 copylefted, in the Management Engine back door in its modern 75 processors.</li> 76 </ul> 77 </div> 78 79 </div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above --> 80 <!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" --> 81 <div id="footer" role="contentinfo"> 82 <div class="unprintable"> 83 84 <p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to 85 <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. 86 There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a> 87 the FSF. 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