What is free software ?
Free software means software that respects the users freedom
Typical software
That most people still use
Is proprietary software
That means non free software
Softwares that keeps the users divided and helpless
Typically the users are divided
Because each one is forbidden to share with anyone else
And the users are helpless
Because non of them have the source code
So they can't change anything
They can't even tell what the program is really doing
But free software respect the users freedom
What does that mean ?
Free software means that the users have four essential freedoms
Freedoms that every software user ought to have
Freedom Zero
Is the freedom to run the program
As you wish
Freedom One
Is the freedom to study the source code of the program
And change it
So that it does what you wish when you run it
Freedom Two
Is the freedom
To make copies and distribute them to others when you wish
And Freedom Three
Is the freedom
To distribute copies of your modified versions
When you wish
Freedom Two
Is also known
As the freedom to help your neighbor
And freedom Three
Is the freedom to help build your community
If a program
Gives you all four of these essential freedoms
That means it's free software
Because
The social system
Of the program distribution and use
Is ethical
Respecting the freedom of everyone
But if one of these freedoms is substantially missing
That means that the program is proprietary software
It means that the social system of the programs distribution and use
Is Unethical
Such software should not be developed
And it should not be used
Distributing developing proprietary software is not
A contribution to society
It creates a social problem
And the aim of the free software movement
Is to correct this problem
By moving
To Free software
But why define free software this way ? what make these four freedoms essential ?
Freedom Two
The freedom
The freedom to help your neighbor, the freedom to distribute copies of the program to others
Is essential
On basic morale grounds
So that you can live an upright life
As a good member of your community
If you don't have freedom number two then your are in danger
In falling into a morale dilemma
At any moment
Whenever
Your friend says
"Can I have a copy of that program ?"
At that moment you would be forced to use between two evils
One evils is too
Give your friend a copy and violate the license of the program
The other evil
Is to deny your friend a copy and comply with the license of the program
Being in a dilemma you ought to choose the lesser evil
Witch is
Too give your friend a copy and violating the license of the program
What makes this evil the lesser evil
We can assume your friend is a decent person and helpful
And deserves your cooperation
Because if he didn't you just say "why should I help you ?"
That case is no problem
Therefore lets look at the case witch is a problem were it's a decent person a good friend
Where as
The developer of the propitiatory program
Has deliberately attacked the social solidarity of your community
Witch is doing something very bad
So if you can't help doing some kind of wrong to somebody
Better to choose the wrong
That's directed at
Somebody who deserves it
Somebody who has done wrong
The developer of the proprietary program
However
To be the lesser evil does not mean it's good
It's never a good thing to make an agreement and break it
Some agreements
Are inherently evil
And keeping them is worse than breaking them
This is one example
But
Making the agreement only to break it is not a good thing
And if you do give your friend a copy what will he have ?
He will have a unauthorizes copy of a proprietary program
That's not a very good thing either
That's almost as bad as an authorized copy
'coughing'
So
One you've
Clearly understood this dilemma what you should really do
Is make sure you are never in it
Their are two ways to do that
One is "Don't have any friends"
That's the method suggested by the proprietary software developers
And the other method is
Don't use the propriatory program
That's the method I've chosen
If somebody offers me a program
On the condition that I promise note to share it with you
I would say no
Because to agree to that condition would be a betrayal and I won't do it
So that's the reason for freedom number two
The freedom to help your neighbor
The freedom to distribute copies to others when you wish
Freedom zero is essential
On practical ground
So that you can have
Control of your own computing
Witch means
To be in control of your own life
In use of computers
It may be surprising but their are proprietary programs
That
Even restrict how you can use a authorize copy
They may restrict
Who can run them or how much or how many or on witch computer or for what purpose
This is obviously NOT having control on your own computing
So freedom zero is essential
But it's not enoughs
Because that's just the freedom to either do or not do
What ever the developer
Already decided
So the developer still controls you
He controls you
Trough the code of the program
So
In order to have really control of your own computing
You need freedom number one
The freedom to study the source code and then change it
So the program does what you want
With this freedom
You decide what your computing is
Instead of the developer deciding for you
If you use a program without freedom number one
You can't even tell what it's really doing
Many
Non free programs have malicious features
Witch are not typically announced to the user
For instance
Many non free/libre programs are spyware
They report on what their users are doing
One non free program you may have heard of that spies on the user is called microsoft windows
When the user of windows
And I won't say you because I'm sure you wouldn't use a program like this
When the user of windows
Uses the windows feature to search her own files for a word
Windows sends a message saying what word was search for
That's one spy feature but there is another
When windows xp asks for
An upgrade
It also sends
A message with all the software installed on the machine
That's another spy feature
Microsoft did not tell the public about these spy features
People add to figure them out
And it wasn't easy
So their may be others
That we don't know about
Please however don't think
That it's only windows that spies on the user
Windows media player
Also spies on the user it reports everything that the user looks at
But
This is not something that...
Is unique to the most evil of companies microsoft
Is just another proprietary software developer
And lots of them spy on the user
For instance
Real player also spies on the user in the same way as windows media player
And I think real player did it first
But malicious features get worse than just spying
There is also the functionality of refusing to function
Where the program says
I don't wanna let you see this file
I don't wanna let you copy this file
I'm not gonna print this file for you
Cause I don't like you
This is also know as Digital Restriction Management
Or DRM
The intentional
Functionality
Of refusing to function for you
Because the program isn't design to serve you
It's design to serve someone else
By controlling you
There are also Backdoors
Malicious feature to attack the user
One
Proprietary program that you might have herd of that as a backdoor
Is called microsoft windows
You see when windows asks for an upgrade
Microsoft more or less knows the users identity
Witch means that microsoft could deliver to him
An upgrade design specifically for him
In other words microsoft can take control of is computer and do anything he wants to him
That is the backdoor whose existence we can deduce from know facts, are their others ?
Maybe we can't tell
A few years ago some programmers in India who where working on developing
windows xp
Where arrested and accused for working for al qaeda
Accused of trying to putting another backdoor that microsoft wasn't supposed to know about
Apparently that attempt failed
Was their another ?
We don't know
But microsoft was caught in 1999
Having installed a backdoor in some server software
One behalf of another dangerous
Powerfull
Violent organization the united states government
Specifically the National Security Agency
And this illustrates the fact that you simply can't trust
A non free program
And yet all the non free software developers
That don't give you the source code
Demand blind faith
Blind total trust
All non free software is therefor
Just trust me... software
And yet we know that many of those developers
Have betrayed their users already
Of course there are also
Those that have not
But there's no way anyone could to tell witch is witch
There are the non free programs in witch we know there are malicious features
And then there are non free programs in witch we don't know
But we can never be sure
That any given program doesn't have a malicious feature
Because we can't see the source code
So
They all demand
Trust based on nothing
And none of really them can be trusted
We can't tell witch of those developers are the ones that don't put in malicious features
But what about them
Even tho they don't put in malicious feature their still human so they still make mistakes
Their code has errors
And the user of a program without freedom number one
The freedom to study and change the source code
Is just as helpless
Facing an unintentional error
Has he is facing a deliberate malicious feature
If you use a program without freedom number one you're a prisoner of your software
We the developers of free software we are human too so we also make mistakes
Are code also as errors
The differences is
That we don't keep you prisoners of hour errors
We respect your freedom to correct them
If their are errors in our code you can change them you can change anything in our code that you don't like
We can't make ourself super human but we can respect your freedom
However freedom number one is not enough
Freedom one is the freedom to personally study and change the source code
And that's not enough because there are millions of computer users that don't know how to program
They can't personally exercise freedom number one
But even for programmers like me
Freedom number one is not enough
Because there's just to much free software
For anyone person to study and master it all
And make all the changes that she might want
So the only way we can fully take control of our own computing
Is to do it working together
Cooperating
And for that we need freedom number three
The freedom to distribute copies of our modified versions
When we wish
This freedom makes it possible for us to work together changing the program to do what it is we want
Suppose there is a free program and there are millions users
Who want a certain change
Well by chance a few thousand will know how to program
And someday
A few of them will make the change they wanted and distribute it
And all those millions users can adopt that change
So they all get what they wanted
Even tho
Most of them didn't know how to right it themselves
And the rest
Could have but they didn't have to cause someone did it for them
And this shows how all users get benefit of the four freedoms
Every user can directly take advantage of freedom zero
The freedom to run the program as you wish
And freedom two the freedom to distribute copies when you wish
You don't have to program to do those things
Freedom one and freedom three the freedom to
Study and modify the source code and then to distribute your modified version
These
Entailed programming
So any giving users can take advantage of these freedoms
To the point that he knows how to program
But when programmers do these things
All the others users can then install those modified versions distributed under freedom three
So everybody gets the benefit of the four freedoms
And the result
Is democracy
Because free software develops under the control of its users
Proprietary software
Develops always under the control of it's developer
It's developer who decides what to let you do
And the developer decides what NOT to let you do
And there is nothing you can do about it
With free software
If you are motivated enough
You always
Can do something about it
If you know how to program you can change it yourself
If not if you really care
You can learn how to program
Or you can convince your cousin the programmer and do some other favor for her
Or you can get together some money and pay a programmer
To make whatever change you want it
Of course it's usually business
That take advantage of that option
But anyone can
So we always can change the programs if we want to enough
What happens therefor if their are a thousand users
Who want a certain change in a free program
And none of them lets suppose knows how to program
They can take advantage of the four freedoms
By getting in touch with each other
And then start a organization
Witch they all join
And the ideas is that
Each one as to pay money to join
And that way the organization gets money
And can hire some programmers
To make the change
And then release their modified version
So they use freedom number one and freedom three
And thus these users gets the change they want
Of course
Once the organization is set up and has collected the money from the members
And has to hire someone
It has to chose who to hire
And at that point
The
People in the organization will talk to various programmer asking each group
When could you do this ? What would you charge ?
Please show us what you've done already
So that we can judge your abilities
And this illustrates an important fact
free software
Brings with it a free market for all kinds of support and service
Because anyone who as a copy of the program can study the source code and master it
And
Start providing support
By contrast proprietary software
Generally means a monopoly for support
Only the developer has the source code, so only the developer can make any change
If the user wants a change
The users has to beg "Oh please all mighty developer please make this change for me"
Sometimes the developer says
Pays us and we'll listen to your problem
If the users pays the developers says
"Thank you in six month they will be an upgrade buy the upgrade and you'll see if we fixed your problem and you'll see what new problems what new problems we have in store for you"
Therefore
This monopoly of support is very pailful
And thus all the organizations that believe a free market is advantageous
And that say that good support is essential for them
Ought to be stampeding over to free software so that they can get best support for they money
Now this leaves us to a paradox
Because usually when there's a choice between products to do a job we say there's no monopoly
But
When there's a choice between proprietary programs then yes there is monopoly
Because if the user chooses this program
Then he's stuck after words in this monopoly for support
But if the user choses this proprietary program
He's stuck afterwards in this monopoly for support
So it's a choice between monopolies
The only way to escape from monopoly is to escape from proprietary software
To escape to the free world
And that
Is what the free software movement is all about
We have built
A new continent in cyberspace
A continent where everyone is welcome to come and live in freedom
And that's the purpose of it
We developed the GNU operating system
So that it can be a place in cyberspace
So that we can go and you can go
So that you and we can all live in freedom
Because it's a virtual continent
It has room for all users
And because we built it
We didn't have to take it away from any indigenous people
Everyone
Legitimately
Is Welcome
In the free world
Of the GNU plus linux system
I hope that you will all
Move to free software
And live in freedom with us
But we can't take for granted that freedom will last for ever
Freedom is frequently threatened that's what life is like
In order to keep your freedom you have to be prepared at any time to defend your freedom
When people are not willing to not defend their freedom
We get something like the united states today
Where
Our most basic freedoms
Such as the freedom not to be put in prison without a trial
Have bin taken away by our own leaders who say their protecting us from other secondary enemies
So
You must if you want to have freedom you must be ready to defend it
If we're to succeed in defending our freedom there must be many of us
But that requires many of us who value freedom who appreciate it
And in order to appreciate and value our freedom
We first need to know what it is
And in the community of users of the GNU plus linux system
We haven't got very far on this
Most of the users of the GNU plus linux system
Have never even heard the ideas I've told you today
And the reason is
That
When the
GNU system was finished of by the development
Of the kernel linux by Linus Torvalds
When the two where combined
The almost finished GNU system
And the kernel linux
When they where put together to make a complete system that you could install in a pc
People got confused and the thought the whole system was linux
And has a result they tended to listen to the philosophical views
Of Linus Torvalds
Thinking he had done the all thing
Now has it happens
Torvalds doesn't agree with these ideas of freedom of the free software movement
He never did
He likes to refer to himself A political (neutral)
Now
When you say you're A political (neutral)
You actually making a political statement
You're saying
Don't pay attention to those political issues
Make your decision based on other criteria
And he advises people to chose software on practical convenience alone
He says that we shouldn't value freedom that we shouldn't insist on freedom
And we shouldn't work together
To defends each others freedom
Well
When people listen to him what happens ?
They
Don't value freedom
They aren't ready to defend it and our community is weak wen our freedom is threatened
Starting in 1998
Some people stopped talking about free software
And started using a different term
They coined the term open source
And they promoted this to talk about the same free software
Without saying free software
And without ever presenting it as an ethical issue of wright an wrong
So the result is that today
Most of the users of GNU slash linux
Have hardly heard the term free software
And have never
Herd
The philosophical ideas that it stands for
So they think
That what's good about the software is that it's powerfull and reliable
Well I'm glad
If free software also turns out to be powerfull and reliable
I appreciate that too
But if we're going to defend our freedom
And keep our freedom thought the years
We need to teach these people to appreciate freedom and value it and defend it as well
And that's a place that we need your help
We need your help in explaining these ideas to other people
We need your help
In doing work
To defend free software
In
Technical work such as developing software and manuals
And in political organizing
To campaign
Against the dangerous laws that are propose in many countries
That would take away
The right to develop free software
India is right now considering
A change in copyright law
That would follow the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in the us
This law if adopted would prohibit free software for important jobs such as playing a dvd
Not that long ago
India considered a law to authorize software patents
That was block
Through the help of friends of the free software foundation of India
So
That law if it had bin adopted
Would have meant that every software developer was constantly in danger of being sued
Because of the techniques implemented in the program
Complicate programs combines thousands of different ideas and techniques
So
If only ten percent of them are patented
That means hundreds of patents
Each one prohibiting some piece of a large program
The proprietory software developers sometimes can get out of this problem by paying the licenses
But free software developers don't usually have the money to do that
So we're likely to be totally excluded
Twenty three years ago
When we started developing the gnu operating system
Nobody knew
If we would
If we and the free software community would have the capability to develop such a large collection of software
Today we've done that and much more
Today there are two basically different software operating system
There are two
Graphical interfaces that are free
Two office productivity suite and thousands of free application programs
So we've shown that we can develop the software that people need
We haven't done all of it yet there is still a lot of work to do
But we're within
Perhaps an order of magnitude of doing the whole job
What's not certain today
Is wetter
Powerfull wellfy companies
Will let us continue to serve the public
To make sure that we can continue doing so
We now need political organizing
To add that to the work of software development
I hope that you will join
In one part of the movement or the other
We need your help