Mercurial > emacs
annotate etc/GNU @ 64749:5e716228ee1e
Update "copyright years" section.
author | Thien-Thi Nguyen <ttn@gnuvola.org> |
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date | Sat, 06 Aug 2005 16:20:52 +0000 |
parents | dbe36b00bbda |
children | f05a048483cc fbb2bea03df9 |
rev | line source |
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62360
c38d0cd4d5c8
Correct/improve previous change.
Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
parents:
62340
diff
changeset
|
1 Copyright (C) 1985, 1993, 2003, 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
26119 | 2 |
3 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies | |
4 of this document, in any medium, provided that the copyright notice and | |
5 permission notice are preserved, and that the distributor grants the | |
6 recipient permission for further redistribution as permitted by this | |
7 notice. | |
8 | |
9 Modified versions may not be made. | |
10 | |
11 The GNU Manifesto | |
12 ***************** | |
13 | |
14 The GNU Manifesto which appears below was written by Richard | |
15 Stallman at the beginning of the GNU project, to ask for | |
16 participation and support. For the first few years, it was | |
17 updated in minor ways to account for developments, but now it | |
18 seems best to leave it unchanged as most people have seen it. | |
19 | |
20 Since that time, we have learned about certain common | |
21 misunderstandings that different wording could help avoid. | |
22 Footnotes added in 1993 help clarify these points. | |
23 | |
24 For up-to-date information about the available GNU software, | |
64140 | 25 please see www.gnu.org. For software tasks to work on, see |
26 http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/tasklist. For other ways | |
27 to contribute, see http://www.gnu.org/help. | |
26119 | 28 |
29 What's GNU? Gnu's Not Unix! | |
30 ============================ | |
31 | |
32 GNU, which stands for Gnu's Not Unix, is the name for the complete | |
33 Unix-compatible software system which I am writing so that I can give it | |
34 away free to everyone who can use it.(1) Several other volunteers are | |
35 helping me. Contributions of time, money, programs and equipment are | |
36 greatly needed. | |
37 | |
38 So far we have an Emacs text editor with Lisp for writing editor | |
39 commands, a source level debugger, a yacc-compatible parser generator, | |
40 a linker, and around 35 utilities. A shell (command interpreter) is | |
41 nearly completed. A new portable optimizing C compiler has compiled | |
42 itself and may be released this year. An initial kernel exists but | |
43 many more features are needed to emulate Unix. When the kernel and | |
44 compiler are finished, it will be possible to distribute a GNU system | |
45 suitable for program development. We will use TeX as our text | |
46 formatter, but an nroff is being worked on. We will use the free, | |
47 portable X window system as well. After this we will add a portable | |
48 Common Lisp, an Empire game, a spreadsheet, and hundreds of other | |
49 things, plus on-line documentation. We hope to supply, eventually, | |
50 everything useful that normally comes with a Unix system, and more. | |
51 | |
52 GNU will be able to run Unix programs, but will not be identical to | |
53 Unix. We will make all improvements that are convenient, based on our | |
54 experience with other operating systems. In particular, we plan to | |
55 have longer file names, file version numbers, a crashproof file system, | |
56 file name completion perhaps, terminal-independent display support, and | |
57 perhaps eventually a Lisp-based window system through which several | |
58 Lisp programs and ordinary Unix programs can share a screen. Both C | |
59 and Lisp will be available as system programming languages. We will | |
60 try to support UUCP, MIT Chaosnet, and Internet protocols for | |
61 communication. | |
62 | |
63 GNU is aimed initially at machines in the 68000/16000 class with | |
64 virtual memory, because they are the easiest machines to make it run | |
65 on. The extra effort to make it run on smaller machines will be left | |
66 to someone who wants to use it on them. | |
67 | |
68 To avoid horrible confusion, please pronounce the `G' in the word | |
69 `GNU' when it is the name of this project. | |
70 | |
71 Why I Must Write GNU | |
72 ==================== | |
73 | |
74 I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I | |
75 must share it with other people who like it. Software sellers want to | |
76 divide the users and conquer them, making each user agree not to share | |
77 with others. I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this | |
78 way. I cannot in good conscience sign a nondisclosure agreement or a | |
79 software license agreement. For years I worked within the Artificial | |
80 Intelligence Lab to resist such tendencies and other inhospitalities, | |
81 but eventually they had gone too far: I could not remain in an | |
82 institution where such things are done for me against my will. | |
83 | |
84 So that I can continue to use computers without dishonor, I have | |
85 decided to put together a sufficient body of free software so that I | |
86 will be able to get along without any software that is not free. I | |
87 have resigned from the AI lab to deny MIT any legal excuse to prevent | |
88 me from giving GNU away. | |
89 | |
90 Why GNU Will Be Compatible with Unix | |
91 ==================================== | |
92 | |
93 Unix is not my ideal system, but it is not too bad. The essential | |
94 features of Unix seem to be good ones, and I think I can fill in what | |
95 Unix lacks without spoiling them. And a system compatible with Unix | |
96 would be convenient for many other people to adopt. | |
97 | |
98 How GNU Will Be Available | |
99 ========================= | |
100 | |
101 GNU is not in the public domain. Everyone will be permitted to | |
102 modify and redistribute GNU, but no distributor will be allowed to | |
103 restrict its further redistribution. That is to say, proprietary | |
104 modifications will not be allowed. I want to make sure that all | |
105 versions of GNU remain free. | |
106 | |
107 Why Many Other Programmers Want to Help | |
108 ======================================= | |
109 | |
110 I have found many other programmers who are excited about GNU and | |
111 want to help. | |
112 | |
113 Many programmers are unhappy about the commercialization of system | |
114 software. It may enable them to make more money, but it requires them | |
115 to feel in conflict with other programmers in general rather than feel | |
116 as comrades. The fundamental act of friendship among programmers is the | |
117 sharing of programs; marketing arrangements now typically used | |
118 essentially forbid programmers to treat others as friends. The | |
119 purchaser of software must choose between friendship and obeying the | |
120 law. Naturally, many decide that friendship is more important. But | |
121 those who believe in law often do not feel at ease with either choice. | |
122 They become cynical and think that programming is just a way of making | |
123 money. | |
124 | |
125 By working on and using GNU rather than proprietary programs, we can | |
126 be hospitable to everyone and obey the law. In addition, GNU serves as | |
127 an example to inspire and a banner to rally others to join us in | |
128 sharing. This can give us a feeling of harmony which is impossible if | |
129 we use software that is not free. For about half the programmers I | |
130 talk to, this is an important happiness that money cannot replace. | |
131 | |
132 How You Can Contribute | |
133 ====================== | |
134 | |
135 I am asking computer manufacturers for donations of machines and | |
136 money. I'm asking individuals for donations of programs and work. | |
137 | |
138 One consequence you can expect if you donate machines is that GNU | |
139 will run on them at an early date. The machines should be complete, | |
140 ready to use systems, approved for use in a residential area, and not | |
141 in need of sophisticated cooling or power. | |
142 | |
143 I have found very many programmers eager to contribute part-time | |
144 work for GNU. For most projects, such part-time distributed work would | |
145 be very hard to coordinate; the independently-written parts would not | |
146 work together. But for the particular task of replacing Unix, this | |
147 problem is absent. A complete Unix system contains hundreds of utility | |
148 programs, each of which is documented separately. Most interface | |
149 specifications are fixed by Unix compatibility. If each contributor | |
150 can write a compatible replacement for a single Unix utility, and make | |
151 it work properly in place of the original on a Unix system, then these | |
152 utilities will work right when put together. Even allowing for Murphy | |
153 to create a few unexpected problems, assembling these components will | |
154 be a feasible task. (The kernel will require closer communication and | |
155 will be worked on by a small, tight group.) | |
156 | |
157 If I get donations of money, I may be able to hire a few people full | |
158 or part time. The salary won't be high by programmers' standards, but | |
159 I'm looking for people for whom building community spirit is as | |
160 important as making money. I view this as a way of enabling dedicated | |
161 people to devote their full energies to working on GNU by sparing them | |
162 the need to make a living in another way. | |
163 | |
164 Why All Computer Users Will Benefit | |
165 =================================== | |
166 | |
167 Once GNU is written, everyone will be able to obtain good system | |
168 software free, just like air.(2) | |
169 | |
170 This means much more than just saving everyone the price of a Unix | |
171 license. It means that much wasteful duplication of system programming | |
172 effort will be avoided. This effort can go instead into advancing the | |
173 state of the art. | |
174 | |
175 Complete system sources will be available to everyone. As a result, | |
176 a user who needs changes in the system will always be free to make them | |
177 himself, or hire any available programmer or company to make them for | |
178 him. Users will no longer be at the mercy of one programmer or company | |
179 which owns the sources and is in sole position to make changes. | |
180 | |
181 Schools will be able to provide a much more educational environment | |
182 by encouraging all students to study and improve the system code. | |
183 Harvard's computer lab used to have the policy that no program could be | |
184 installed on the system if its sources were not on public display, and | |
185 upheld it by actually refusing to install certain programs. I was very | |
186 much inspired by this. | |
187 | |
188 Finally, the overhead of considering who owns the system software | |
189 and what one is or is not entitled to do with it will be lifted. | |
190 | |
191 Arrangements to make people pay for using a program, including | |
192 licensing of copies, always incur a tremendous cost to society through | |
193 the cumbersome mechanisms necessary to figure out how much (that is, | |
194 which programs) a person must pay for. And only a police state can | |
195 force everyone to obey them. Consider a space station where air must | |
196 be manufactured at great cost: charging each breather per liter of air | |
197 may be fair, but wearing the metered gas mask all day and all night is | |
198 intolerable even if everyone can afford to pay the air bill. And the | |
199 TV cameras everywhere to see if you ever take the mask off are | |
200 outrageous. It's better to support the air plant with a head tax and | |
201 chuck the masks. | |
202 | |
203 Copying all or parts of a program is as natural to a programmer as | |
204 breathing, and as productive. It ought to be as free. | |
205 | |
206 Some Easily Rebutted Objections to GNU's Goals | |
207 ============================================== | |
208 | |
209 "Nobody will use it if it is free, because that means they can't | |
210 rely on any support." | |
211 | |
212 "You have to charge for the program to pay for providing the | |
213 support." | |
214 | |
215 If people would rather pay for GNU plus service than get GNU free | |
216 without service, a company to provide just service to people who have | |
217 obtained GNU free ought to be profitable.(3) | |
218 | |
219 We must distinguish between support in the form of real programming | |
220 work and mere handholding. The former is something one cannot rely on | |
221 from a software vendor. If your problem is not shared by enough | |
222 people, the vendor will tell you to get lost. | |
223 | |
224 If your business needs to be able to rely on support, the only way | |
225 is to have all the necessary sources and tools. Then you can hire any | |
226 available person to fix your problem; you are not at the mercy of any | |
227 individual. With Unix, the price of sources puts this out of | |
228 consideration for most businesses. With GNU this will be easy. It is | |
229 still possible for there to be no available competent person, but this | |
230 problem cannot be blamed on distribution arrangements. GNU does not | |
231 eliminate all the world's problems, only some of them. | |
232 | |
233 Meanwhile, the users who know nothing about computers need | |
234 handholding: doing things for them which they could easily do | |
235 themselves but don't know how. | |
236 | |
237 Such services could be provided by companies that sell just | |
238 hand-holding and repair service. If it is true that users would rather | |
239 spend money and get a product with service, they will also be willing | |
240 to buy the service having got the product free. The service companies | |
241 will compete in quality and price; users will not be tied to any | |
242 particular one. Meanwhile, those of us who don't need the service | |
243 should be able to use the program without paying for the service. | |
244 | |
245 "You cannot reach many people without advertising, and you must | |
246 charge for the program to support that." | |
247 | |
248 "It's no use advertising a program people can get free." | |
249 | |
250 There are various forms of free or very cheap publicity that can be | |
251 used to inform numbers of computer users about something like GNU. But | |
252 it may be true that one can reach more microcomputer users with | |
253 advertising. If this is really so, a business which advertises the | |
254 service of copying and mailing GNU for a fee ought to be successful | |
255 enough to pay for its advertising and more. This way, only the users | |
256 who benefit from the advertising pay for it. | |
257 | |
258 On the other hand, if many people get GNU from their friends, and | |
259 such companies don't succeed, this will show that advertising was not | |
260 really necessary to spread GNU. Why is it that free market advocates | |
261 don't want to let the free market decide this?(4) | |
262 | |
263 "My company needs a proprietary operating system to get a | |
264 competitive edge." | |
265 | |
266 GNU will remove operating system software from the realm of | |
267 competition. You will not be able to get an edge in this area, but | |
268 neither will your competitors be able to get an edge over you. You and | |
269 they will compete in other areas, while benefiting mutually in this | |
270 one. If your business is selling an operating system, you will not | |
271 like GNU, but that's tough on you. If your business is something else, | |
272 GNU can save you from being pushed into the expensive business of | |
273 selling operating systems. | |
274 | |
275 I would like to see GNU development supported by gifts from many | |
276 manufacturers and users, reducing the cost to each.(5) | |
277 | |
278 "Don't programmers deserve a reward for their creativity?" | |
279 | |
280 If anything deserves a reward, it is social contribution. | |
281 Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so far as society | |
282 is free to use the results. If programmers deserve to be rewarded for | |
283 creating innovative programs, by the same token they deserve to be | |
284 punished if they restrict the use of these programs. | |
285 | |
286 "Shouldn't a programmer be able to ask for a reward for his | |
287 creativity?" | |
288 | |
289 There is nothing wrong with wanting pay for work, or seeking to | |
290 maximize one's income, as long as one does not use means that are | |
291 destructive. But the means customary in the field of software today | |
292 are based on destruction. | |
293 | |
294 Extracting money from users of a program by restricting their use of | |
295 it is destructive because the restrictions reduce the amount and the | |
296 ways that the program can be used. This reduces the amount of wealth | |
297 that humanity derives from the program. When there is a deliberate | |
298 choice to restrict, the harmful consequences are deliberate destruction. | |
299 | |
300 The reason a good citizen does not use such destructive means to | |
301 become wealthier is that, if everyone did so, we would all become | |
302 poorer from the mutual destructiveness. This is Kantian ethics; or, | |
303 the Golden Rule. Since I do not like the consequences that result if | |
304 everyone hoards information, I am required to consider it wrong for one | |
305 to do so. Specifically, the desire to be rewarded for one's creativity | |
306 does not justify depriving the world in general of all or part of that | |
307 creativity. | |
308 | |
309 "Won't programmers starve?" | |
310 | |
311 I could answer that nobody is forced to be a programmer. Most of us | |
312 cannot manage to get any money for standing on the street and making | |
313 faces. But we are not, as a result, condemned to spend our lives | |
314 standing on the street making faces, and starving. We do something | |
315 else. | |
316 | |
317 But that is the wrong answer because it accepts the questioner's | |
318 implicit assumption: that without ownership of software, programmers | |
319 cannot possibly be paid a cent. Supposedly it is all or nothing. | |
320 | |
321 The real reason programmers will not starve is that it will still be | |
322 possible for them to get paid for programming; just not paid as much as | |
323 now. | |
324 | |
325 Restricting copying is not the only basis for business in software. | |
326 It is the most common basis because it brings in the most money. If it | |
327 were prohibited, or rejected by the customer, software business would | |
328 move to other bases of organization which are now used less often. | |
329 There are always numerous ways to organize any kind of business. | |
330 | |
331 Probably programming will not be as lucrative on the new basis as it | |
332 is now. But that is not an argument against the change. It is not | |
333 considered an injustice that sales clerks make the salaries that they | |
334 now do. If programmers made the same, that would not be an injustice | |
335 either. (In practice they would still make considerably more than | |
336 that.) | |
337 | |
338 "Don't people have a right to control how their creativity is | |
339 used?" | |
340 | |
341 "Control over the use of one's ideas" really constitutes control over | |
342 other people's lives; and it is usually used to make their lives more | |
343 difficult. | |
344 | |
53691
3ef78eaf5dca
Add footnote about "intellectual property rights".
Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
parents:
26119
diff
changeset
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345 People who have studied the issue of intellectual property rights(6) |
26119 | 346 carefully (such as lawyers) say that there is no intrinsic right to |
347 intellectual property. The kinds of supposed intellectual property | |
348 rights that the government recognizes were created by specific acts of | |
349 legislation for specific purposes. | |
350 | |
351 For example, the patent system was established to encourage | |
352 inventors to disclose the details of their inventions. Its purpose was | |
353 to help society rather than to help inventors. At the time, the life | |
354 span of 17 years for a patent was short compared with the rate of | |
355 advance of the state of the art. Since patents are an issue only among | |
356 manufacturers, for whom the cost and effort of a license agreement are | |
357 small compared with setting up production, the patents often do not do | |
358 much harm. They do not obstruct most individuals who use patented | |
359 products. | |
360 | |
361 The idea of copyright did not exist in ancient times, when authors | |
362 frequently copied other authors at length in works of non-fiction. This | |
363 practice was useful, and is the only way many authors' works have | |
364 survived even in part. The copyright system was created expressly for | |
365 the purpose of encouraging authorship. In the domain for which it was | |
366 invented--books, which could be copied economically only on a printing | |
367 press--it did little harm, and did not obstruct most of the individuals | |
368 who read the books. | |
369 | |
370 All intellectual property rights are just licenses granted by society | |
371 because it was thought, rightly or wrongly, that society as a whole | |
372 would benefit by granting them. But in any particular situation, we | |
373 have to ask: are we really better off granting such license? What kind | |
374 of act are we licensing a person to do? | |
375 | |
376 The case of programs today is very different from that of books a | |
377 hundred years ago. The fact that the easiest way to copy a program is | |
378 from one neighbor to another, the fact that a program has both source | |
379 code and object code which are distinct, and the fact that a program is | |
380 used rather than read and enjoyed, combine to create a situation in | |
381 which a person who enforces a copyright is harming society as a whole | |
382 both materially and spiritually; in which a person should not do so | |
383 regardless of whether the law enables him to. | |
384 | |
385 "Competition makes things get done better." | |
386 | |
387 The paradigm of competition is a race: by rewarding the winner, we | |
388 encourage everyone to run faster. When capitalism really works this | |
389 way, it does a good job; but its defenders are wrong in assuming it | |
390 always works this way. If the runners forget why the reward is offered | |
391 and become intent on winning, no matter how, they may find other | |
392 strategies--such as, attacking other runners. If the runners get into | |
393 a fist fight, they will all finish late. | |
394 | |
395 Proprietary and secret software is the moral equivalent of runners | |
396 in a fist fight. Sad to say, the only referee we've got does not seem | |
397 to object to fights; he just regulates them ("For every ten yards you | |
398 run, you can fire one shot"). He really ought to break them up, and | |
399 penalize runners for even trying to fight. | |
400 | |
401 "Won't everyone stop programming without a monetary incentive?" | |
402 | |
403 Actually, many people will program with absolutely no monetary | |
404 incentive. Programming has an irresistible fascination for some | |
405 people, usually the people who are best at it. There is no shortage of | |
406 professional musicians who keep at it even though they have no hope of | |
407 making a living that way. | |
408 | |
409 But really this question, though commonly asked, is not appropriate | |
410 to the situation. Pay for programmers will not disappear, only become | |
411 less. So the right question is, will anyone program with a reduced | |
412 monetary incentive? My experience shows that they will. | |
413 | |
414 For more than ten years, many of the world's best programmers worked | |
415 at the Artificial Intelligence Lab for far less money than they could | |
416 have had anywhere else. They got many kinds of non-monetary rewards: | |
417 fame and appreciation, for example. And creativity is also fun, a | |
418 reward in itself. | |
419 | |
420 Then most of them left when offered a chance to do the same | |
421 interesting work for a lot of money. | |
422 | |
423 What the facts show is that people will program for reasons other | |
424 than riches; but if given a chance to make a lot of money as well, they | |
425 will come to expect and demand it. Low-paying organizations do poorly | |
426 in competition with high-paying ones, but they do not have to do badly | |
427 if the high-paying ones are banned. | |
428 | |
429 "We need the programmers desperately. If they demand that we stop | |
430 helping our neighbors, we have to obey." | |
431 | |
432 You're never so desperate that you have to obey this sort of demand. | |
433 Remember: millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute! | |
434 | |
435 "Programmers need to make a living somehow." | |
436 | |
437 In the short run, this is true. However, there are plenty of ways | |
438 that programmers could make a living without selling the right to use a | |
439 program. This way is customary now because it brings programmers and | |
440 businessmen the most money, not because it is the only way to make a | |
441 living. It is easy to find other ways if you want to find them. Here | |
442 are a number of examples. | |
443 | |
444 A manufacturer introducing a new computer will pay for the porting of | |
445 operating systems onto the new hardware. | |
446 | |
447 The sale of teaching, hand-holding and maintenance services could | |
448 also employ programmers. | |
449 | |
62340 | 450 People with new ideas could distribute programs as freeware(7), asking |
26119 | 451 for donations from satisfied users, or selling hand-holding services. |
452 I have met people who are already working this way successfully. | |
453 | |
454 Users with related needs can form users' groups, and pay dues. A | |
455 group would contract with programming companies to write programs that | |
456 the group's members would like to use. | |
457 | |
458 All sorts of development can be funded with a Software Tax: | |
459 | |
460 Suppose everyone who buys a computer has to pay x percent of the | |
461 price as a software tax. The government gives this to an agency | |
462 like the NSF to spend on software development. | |
463 | |
464 But if the computer buyer makes a donation to software development | |
465 himself, he can take a credit against the tax. He can donate to | |
466 the project of his own choosing--often, chosen because he hopes to | |
467 use the results when it is done. He can take a credit for any | |
468 amount of donation up to the total tax he had to pay. | |
469 | |
470 The total tax rate could be decided by a vote of the payers of the | |
471 tax, weighted according to the amount they will be taxed on. | |
472 | |
473 The consequences: | |
474 | |
475 * The computer-using community supports software development. | |
476 | |
477 * This community decides what level of support is needed. | |
478 | |
479 * Users who care which projects their share is spent on can | |
480 choose this for themselves. | |
481 | |
482 In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the | |
483 post-scarcity world, where nobody will have to work very hard just to | |
484 make a living. People will be free to devote themselves to activities | |
485 that are fun, such as programming, after spending the necessary ten | |
486 hours a week on required tasks such as legislation, family counseling, | |
487 robot repair and asteroid prospecting. There will be no need to be | |
488 able to make a living from programming. | |
489 | |
490 We have already greatly reduced the amount of work that the whole | |
491 society must do for its actual productivity, but only a little of this | |
492 has translated itself into leisure for workers because much | |
493 nonproductive activity is required to accompany productive activity. | |
494 The main causes of this are bureaucracy and isometric struggles against | |
495 competition. Free software will greatly reduce these drains in the | |
496 area of software production. We must do this, in order for technical | |
497 gains in productivity to translate into less work for us. | |
498 | |
499 ---------- Footnotes ---------- | |
500 | |
501 (1) The wording here was careless. The intention was that nobody | |
502 would have to pay for *permission* to use the GNU system. But the | |
503 words don't make this clear, and people often interpret them as saying | |
504 that copies of GNU should always be distributed at little or no charge. | |
505 That was never the intent; later on, the manifesto mentions the | |
506 possibility of companies providing the service of distribution for a | |
507 profit. Subsequently I have learned to distinguish carefully between | |
508 "free" in the sense of freedom and "free" in the sense of price. Free | |
509 software is software that users have the freedom to distribute and | |
510 change. Some users may obtain copies at no charge, while others pay to | |
511 obtain copies--and if the funds help support improving the software, so | |
512 much the better. The important thing is that everyone who has a copy | |
513 has the freedom to cooperate with others in using it. | |
514 | |
515 (2) This is another place I failed to distinguish carefully between | |
516 the two different meanings of "free". The statement as it stands is | |
517 not false--you can get copies of GNU software at no charge, from your | |
518 friends or over the net. But it does suggest the wrong idea. | |
519 | |
520 (3) Several such companies now exist. | |
521 | |
62360
c38d0cd4d5c8
Correct/improve previous change.
Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
parents:
62340
diff
changeset
|
522 (4) The Free Software Foundation raised most of its funds for 10 |
62337 | 523 years from a distribution service, although it is a charity rather |
524 than a company. | |
26119 | 525 |
62337 | 526 (5) A group of computer companies pooled funds around 1991 to |
527 support maintenance of the GNU C Compiler. | |
26119 | 528 |
53691
3ef78eaf5dca
Add footnote about "intellectual property rights".
Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
parents:
26119
diff
changeset
|
529 (6) In the 80s I had not yet realized how confusing it was to speak |
3ef78eaf5dca
Add footnote about "intellectual property rights".
Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
parents:
26119
diff
changeset
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530 of "the issue" of "intellectual property". That term is obviously |
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Add footnote about "intellectual property rights".
Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
parents:
26119
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531 biased; more subtle is the fact that it lumps together various |
3ef78eaf5dca
Add footnote about "intellectual property rights".
Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
parents:
26119
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changeset
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532 disparate laws which raise very different issues. Nowadays I urge |
3ef78eaf5dca
Add footnote about "intellectual property rights".
Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
parents:
26119
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533 people to reject the term "intellectual property" entirely, lest it |
62337 | 534 lead others to suppose that those laws form one coherent issue. The way to be |
64260 | 535 clear is to discuss patents, copyrights, and trademarks separately. |
62337 | 536 See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.xhtml for more explanation |
537 of how this term spreads confusion and bias. | |
62340 | 538 |
64143 | 539 (7) Subsequently we have learned to distinguish between "free |
540 software" and "freeware". The term "freeware" means software you are | |
541 free to redistribute, but usually you are not free to study and change | |
542 the source code, so most of it is not free software. See | |
543 http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html for more | |
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Correct/improve previous change.
Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
parents:
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544 explanation. |