Mercurial > emacs
annotate etc/GNU @ 110410:f2e111723c3a
Merge changes made in Gnus trunk.
Reimplement nnimap, and do tweaks to the rest of the code to support that.
* gnus-int.el (gnus-finish-retrieve-group-infos)
(gnus-retrieve-group-data-early): New functions.
* gnus-range.el (gnus-range-nconcat): New function.
* gnus-start.el (gnus-get-unread-articles): Support early retrieval of
data.
(gnus-read-active-for-groups): Support finishing the early retrieval of
data.
* gnus-sum.el (gnus-summary-move-article): Pass the move-to group name
if the move is internal, so that nnimap can do fast internal moves.
* gnus.el (gnus-article-special-mark-lists): Add uid/active tuples, for
nnimap usage.
* nnimap.el: Rewritten.
* nnmail.el (nnmail-inhibit-default-split-group): New internal variable
to allow the mail splitting to not return a default group. This is
useful for nnimap, which will leave unmatched mail in the inbox.
* utf7.el (utf7-encode): Autoload.
Implement shell connection.
* nnimap.el (nnimap-open-shell-stream): New function.
(nnimap-open-connection): Use it.
Get the number of lines by using BODYSTRUCTURE.
(nnimap-transform-headers): Get the number of lines in each message.
(nnimap-retrieve-headers): Query for BODYSTRUCTURE so that we get the
number of lines.
Not all servers return UIDNEXT. Work past this problem.
Remove junk from end of file.
Fix typo in "bogus" section.
Make capabilties be case-insensitive.
Require cl when compiling.
Don't bug out if the LIST command doesn't have any parameters.
2010-09-17 Knut Anders Hatlen <kahatlen@gmail.com> (tiny change)
* nnimap.el (nnimap-get-groups): Don't bug out if the LIST command
doesn't have any parameters.
(mm-text-html-renderer): Document gnus-article-html.
2010-09-17 Julien Danjou <julien@danjou.info> (tiny fix)
* mm-decode.el (mm-text-html-renderer): Document gnus-article-html.
* dgnushack.el: Define netrc-credentials.
If the user doesn't have a /etc/services, supply some sensible port defaults.
Have `unseen-or-unread' select an unread unseen article first.
(nntp-open-server): Return whether the open was successful or not.
Throughout all files, replace (save-excursion (set-buffer ...)) with (with-current-buffer ... ).
Save result so that it doesn't say "failed" all the time.
Add ~/.authinfo to the default, since that's probably most useful for users.
Don't use the "finish" method when we're reading from the agent.
Add some more nnimap-relevant agent stuff to nnagent.el.
* nnimap.el (nnimap-with-process-buffer): Removed.
Revert one line that was changed by mistake in the last checkin.
(nnimap-open-connection): Don't error out when we can't make a connection
nnimap-related changes to avoid bugging out if we can't contact a server.
* gnus-start.el (gnus-get-unread-articles): Don't try to scan groups
from methods that are denied.
* nnimap.el (nnimap-possibly-change-group): Return nil if we can't log
in.
(nnimap-finish-retrieve-group-infos): Make sure we're not waiting for
nothing.
* gnus-sum.el (gnus-select-newsgroup): Indent.
author | Katsumi Yamaoka <yamaoka@jpl.org> |
---|---|
date | Sat, 18 Sep 2010 10:02:19 +0000 |
parents | 1d1d5d9bd884 |
children | 376148b31b5e |
rev | line source |
---|---|
75343
0259a1711394
Update copyright for years from Emacs 21 to present (mainly adding
Glenn Morris <rgm@gnu.org>
parents:
68640
diff
changeset
|
1 Copyright (C) 1985, 1993, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, |
106815 | 2 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Free Software Foundation, Inc. |
26119 | 3 |
4 Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies | |
5 of this document, in any medium, provided that the copyright notice and | |
6 permission notice are preserved, and that the distributor grants the | |
7 recipient permission for further redistribution as permitted by this | |
8 notice. | |
9 | |
10 Modified versions may not be made. | |
11 | |
12 The GNU Manifesto | |
13 ***************** | |
14 | |
15 The GNU Manifesto which appears below was written by Richard | |
16 Stallman at the beginning of the GNU project, to ask for | |
17 participation and support. For the first few years, it was | |
18 updated in minor ways to account for developments, but now it | |
19 seems best to leave it unchanged as most people have seen it. | |
20 | |
21 Since that time, we have learned about certain common | |
22 misunderstandings that different wording could help avoid. | |
23 Footnotes added in 1993 help clarify these points. | |
24 | |
25 For up-to-date information about the available GNU software, | |
64140 | 26 please see www.gnu.org. For software tasks to work on, see |
27 http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/tasklist. For other ways | |
28 to contribute, see http://www.gnu.org/help. | |
26119 | 29 |
30 What's GNU? Gnu's Not Unix! | |
31 ============================ | |
32 | |
33 GNU, which stands for Gnu's Not Unix, is the name for the complete | |
34 Unix-compatible software system which I am writing so that I can give it | |
35 away free to everyone who can use it.(1) Several other volunteers are | |
36 helping me. Contributions of time, money, programs and equipment are | |
37 greatly needed. | |
38 | |
39 So far we have an Emacs text editor with Lisp for writing editor | |
40 commands, a source level debugger, a yacc-compatible parser generator, | |
41 a linker, and around 35 utilities. A shell (command interpreter) is | |
42 nearly completed. A new portable optimizing C compiler has compiled | |
43 itself and may be released this year. An initial kernel exists but | |
44 many more features are needed to emulate Unix. When the kernel and | |
45 compiler are finished, it will be possible to distribute a GNU system | |
46 suitable for program development. We will use TeX as our text | |
47 formatter, but an nroff is being worked on. We will use the free, | |
48 portable X window system as well. After this we will add a portable | |
49 Common Lisp, an Empire game, a spreadsheet, and hundreds of other | |
50 things, plus on-line documentation. We hope to supply, eventually, | |
51 everything useful that normally comes with a Unix system, and more. | |
52 | |
53 GNU will be able to run Unix programs, but will not be identical to | |
54 Unix. We will make all improvements that are convenient, based on our | |
55 experience with other operating systems. In particular, we plan to | |
56 have longer file names, file version numbers, a crashproof file system, | |
57 file name completion perhaps, terminal-independent display support, and | |
58 perhaps eventually a Lisp-based window system through which several | |
59 Lisp programs and ordinary Unix programs can share a screen. Both C | |
60 and Lisp will be available as system programming languages. We will | |
61 try to support UUCP, MIT Chaosnet, and Internet protocols for | |
62 communication. | |
63 | |
64 GNU is aimed initially at machines in the 68000/16000 class with | |
65 virtual memory, because they are the easiest machines to make it run | |
66 on. The extra effort to make it run on smaller machines will be left | |
67 to someone who wants to use it on them. | |
68 | |
69 To avoid horrible confusion, please pronounce the `G' in the word | |
70 `GNU' when it is the name of this project. | |
71 | |
72 Why I Must Write GNU | |
73 ==================== | |
74 | |
75 I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I | |
76 must share it with other people who like it. Software sellers want to | |
77 divide the users and conquer them, making each user agree not to share | |
78 with others. I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this | |
79 way. I cannot in good conscience sign a nondisclosure agreement or a | |
80 software license agreement. For years I worked within the Artificial | |
81 Intelligence Lab to resist such tendencies and other inhospitalities, | |
82 but eventually they had gone too far: I could not remain in an | |
83 institution where such things are done for me against my will. | |
84 | |
85 So that I can continue to use computers without dishonor, I have | |
86 decided to put together a sufficient body of free software so that I | |
87 will be able to get along without any software that is not free. I | |
88 have resigned from the AI lab to deny MIT any legal excuse to prevent | |
89 me from giving GNU away. | |
90 | |
91 Why GNU Will Be Compatible with Unix | |
92 ==================================== | |
93 | |
94 Unix is not my ideal system, but it is not too bad. The essential | |
95 features of Unix seem to be good ones, and I think I can fill in what | |
96 Unix lacks without spoiling them. And a system compatible with Unix | |
97 would be convenient for many other people to adopt. | |
98 | |
99 How GNU Will Be Available | |
100 ========================= | |
101 | |
102 GNU is not in the public domain. Everyone will be permitted to | |
103 modify and redistribute GNU, but no distributor will be allowed to | |
104 restrict its further redistribution. That is to say, proprietary | |
105 modifications will not be allowed. I want to make sure that all | |
106 versions of GNU remain free. | |
107 | |
108 Why Many Other Programmers Want to Help | |
109 ======================================= | |
110 | |
111 I have found many other programmers who are excited about GNU and | |
112 want to help. | |
113 | |
114 Many programmers are unhappy about the commercialization of system | |
115 software. It may enable them to make more money, but it requires them | |
116 to feel in conflict with other programmers in general rather than feel | |
117 as comrades. The fundamental act of friendship among programmers is the | |
118 sharing of programs; marketing arrangements now typically used | |
119 essentially forbid programmers to treat others as friends. The | |
120 purchaser of software must choose between friendship and obeying the | |
121 law. Naturally, many decide that friendship is more important. But | |
122 those who believe in law often do not feel at ease with either choice. | |
123 They become cynical and think that programming is just a way of making | |
124 money. | |
125 | |
126 By working on and using GNU rather than proprietary programs, we can | |
127 be hospitable to everyone and obey the law. In addition, GNU serves as | |
128 an example to inspire and a banner to rally others to join us in | |
129 sharing. This can give us a feeling of harmony which is impossible if | |
130 we use software that is not free. For about half the programmers I | |
131 talk to, this is an important happiness that money cannot replace. | |
132 | |
133 How You Can Contribute | |
134 ====================== | |
135 | |
136 I am asking computer manufacturers for donations of machines and | |
137 money. I'm asking individuals for donations of programs and work. | |
138 | |
139 One consequence you can expect if you donate machines is that GNU | |
140 will run on them at an early date. The machines should be complete, | |
141 ready to use systems, approved for use in a residential area, and not | |
142 in need of sophisticated cooling or power. | |
143 | |
144 I have found very many programmers eager to contribute part-time | |
145 work for GNU. For most projects, such part-time distributed work would | |
146 be very hard to coordinate; the independently-written parts would not | |
147 work together. But for the particular task of replacing Unix, this | |
148 problem is absent. A complete Unix system contains hundreds of utility | |
149 programs, each of which is documented separately. Most interface | |
150 specifications are fixed by Unix compatibility. If each contributor | |
151 can write a compatible replacement for a single Unix utility, and make | |
152 it work properly in place of the original on a Unix system, then these | |
153 utilities will work right when put together. Even allowing for Murphy | |
154 to create a few unexpected problems, assembling these components will | |
155 be a feasible task. (The kernel will require closer communication and | |
156 will be worked on by a small, tight group.) | |
157 | |
158 If I get donations of money, I may be able to hire a few people full | |
159 or part time. The salary won't be high by programmers' standards, but | |
160 I'm looking for people for whom building community spirit is as | |
161 important as making money. I view this as a way of enabling dedicated | |
162 people to devote their full energies to working on GNU by sparing them | |
163 the need to make a living in another way. | |
164 | |
165 Why All Computer Users Will Benefit | |
166 =================================== | |
167 | |
168 Once GNU is written, everyone will be able to obtain good system | |
169 software free, just like air.(2) | |
170 | |
171 This means much more than just saving everyone the price of a Unix | |
172 license. It means that much wasteful duplication of system programming | |
173 effort will be avoided. This effort can go instead into advancing the | |
174 state of the art. | |
175 | |
176 Complete system sources will be available to everyone. As a result, | |
177 a user who needs changes in the system will always be free to make them | |
178 himself, or hire any available programmer or company to make them for | |
179 him. Users will no longer be at the mercy of one programmer or company | |
180 which owns the sources and is in sole position to make changes. | |
181 | |
182 Schools will be able to provide a much more educational environment | |
183 by encouraging all students to study and improve the system code. | |
184 Harvard's computer lab used to have the policy that no program could be | |
185 installed on the system if its sources were not on public display, and | |
186 upheld it by actually refusing to install certain programs. I was very | |
187 much inspired by this. | |
188 | |
189 Finally, the overhead of considering who owns the system software | |
190 and what one is or is not entitled to do with it will be lifted. | |
191 | |
192 Arrangements to make people pay for using a program, including | |
193 licensing of copies, always incur a tremendous cost to society through | |
194 the cumbersome mechanisms necessary to figure out how much (that is, | |
195 which programs) a person must pay for. And only a police state can | |
196 force everyone to obey them. Consider a space station where air must | |
197 be manufactured at great cost: charging each breather per liter of air | |
198 may be fair, but wearing the metered gas mask all day and all night is | |
199 intolerable even if everyone can afford to pay the air bill. And the | |
200 TV cameras everywhere to see if you ever take the mask off are | |
201 outrageous. It's better to support the air plant with a head tax and | |
202 chuck the masks. | |
203 | |
204 Copying all or parts of a program is as natural to a programmer as | |
205 breathing, and as productive. It ought to be as free. | |
206 | |
207 Some Easily Rebutted Objections to GNU's Goals | |
208 ============================================== | |
209 | |
210 "Nobody will use it if it is free, because that means they can't | |
211 rely on any support." | |
212 | |
213 "You have to charge for the program to pay for providing the | |
214 support." | |
215 | |
216 If people would rather pay for GNU plus service than get GNU free | |
217 without service, a company to provide just service to people who have | |
218 obtained GNU free ought to be profitable.(3) | |
219 | |
220 We must distinguish between support in the form of real programming | |
221 work and mere handholding. The former is something one cannot rely on | |
222 from a software vendor. If your problem is not shared by enough | |
223 people, the vendor will tell you to get lost. | |
224 | |
225 If your business needs to be able to rely on support, the only way | |
226 is to have all the necessary sources and tools. Then you can hire any | |
227 available person to fix your problem; you are not at the mercy of any | |
228 individual. With Unix, the price of sources puts this out of | |
229 consideration for most businesses. With GNU this will be easy. It is | |
230 still possible for there to be no available competent person, but this | |
231 problem cannot be blamed on distribution arrangements. GNU does not | |
232 eliminate all the world's problems, only some of them. | |
233 | |
234 Meanwhile, the users who know nothing about computers need | |
235 handholding: doing things for them which they could easily do | |
236 themselves but don't know how. | |
237 | |
238 Such services could be provided by companies that sell just | |
239 hand-holding and repair service. If it is true that users would rather | |
240 spend money and get a product with service, they will also be willing | |
241 to buy the service having got the product free. The service companies | |
242 will compete in quality and price; users will not be tied to any | |
243 particular one. Meanwhile, those of us who don't need the service | |
244 should be able to use the program without paying for the service. | |
245 | |
246 "You cannot reach many people without advertising, and you must | |
247 charge for the program to support that." | |
248 | |
249 "It's no use advertising a program people can get free." | |
250 | |
251 There are various forms of free or very cheap publicity that can be | |
252 used to inform numbers of computer users about something like GNU. But | |
253 it may be true that one can reach more microcomputer users with | |
254 advertising. If this is really so, a business which advertises the | |
255 service of copying and mailing GNU for a fee ought to be successful | |
256 enough to pay for its advertising and more. This way, only the users | |
257 who benefit from the advertising pay for it. | |
258 | |
259 On the other hand, if many people get GNU from their friends, and | |
260 such companies don't succeed, this will show that advertising was not | |
261 really necessary to spread GNU. Why is it that free market advocates | |
262 don't want to let the free market decide this?(4) | |
263 | |
264 "My company needs a proprietary operating system to get a | |
265 competitive edge." | |
266 | |
267 GNU will remove operating system software from the realm of | |
268 competition. You will not be able to get an edge in this area, but | |
269 neither will your competitors be able to get an edge over you. You and | |
270 they will compete in other areas, while benefiting mutually in this | |
271 one. If your business is selling an operating system, you will not | |
272 like GNU, but that's tough on you. If your business is something else, | |
273 GNU can save you from being pushed into the expensive business of | |
274 selling operating systems. | |
275 | |
276 I would like to see GNU development supported by gifts from many | |
277 manufacturers and users, reducing the cost to each.(5) | |
278 | |
279 "Don't programmers deserve a reward for their creativity?" | |
280 | |
281 If anything deserves a reward, it is social contribution. | |
282 Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so far as society | |
283 is free to use the results. If programmers deserve to be rewarded for | |
284 creating innovative programs, by the same token they deserve to be | |
285 punished if they restrict the use of these programs. | |
286 | |
287 "Shouldn't a programmer be able to ask for a reward for his | |
288 creativity?" | |
289 | |
290 There is nothing wrong with wanting pay for work, or seeking to | |
291 maximize one's income, as long as one does not use means that are | |
292 destructive. But the means customary in the field of software today | |
293 are based on destruction. | |
294 | |
295 Extracting money from users of a program by restricting their use of | |
296 it is destructive because the restrictions reduce the amount and the | |
297 ways that the program can be used. This reduces the amount of wealth | |
298 that humanity derives from the program. When there is a deliberate | |
299 choice to restrict, the harmful consequences are deliberate destruction. | |
300 | |
301 The reason a good citizen does not use such destructive means to | |
302 become wealthier is that, if everyone did so, we would all become | |
303 poorer from the mutual destructiveness. This is Kantian ethics; or, | |
304 the Golden Rule. Since I do not like the consequences that result if | |
305 everyone hoards information, I am required to consider it wrong for one | |
306 to do so. Specifically, the desire to be rewarded for one's creativity | |
307 does not justify depriving the world in general of all or part of that | |
308 creativity. | |
309 | |
310 "Won't programmers starve?" | |
311 | |
312 I could answer that nobody is forced to be a programmer. Most of us | |
313 cannot manage to get any money for standing on the street and making | |
314 faces. But we are not, as a result, condemned to spend our lives | |
315 standing on the street making faces, and starving. We do something | |
316 else. | |
317 | |
318 But that is the wrong answer because it accepts the questioner's | |
319 implicit assumption: that without ownership of software, programmers | |
320 cannot possibly be paid a cent. Supposedly it is all or nothing. | |
321 | |
322 The real reason programmers will not starve is that it will still be | |
323 possible for them to get paid for programming; just not paid as much as | |
324 now. | |
325 | |
326 Restricting copying is not the only basis for business in software. | |
327 It is the most common basis because it brings in the most money. If it | |
328 were prohibited, or rejected by the customer, software business would | |
329 move to other bases of organization which are now used less often. | |
330 There are always numerous ways to organize any kind of business. | |
331 | |
332 Probably programming will not be as lucrative on the new basis as it | |
333 is now. But that is not an argument against the change. It is not | |
334 considered an injustice that sales clerks make the salaries that they | |
335 now do. If programmers made the same, that would not be an injustice | |
336 either. (In practice they would still make considerably more than | |
337 that.) | |
338 | |
339 "Don't people have a right to control how their creativity is | |
340 used?" | |
341 | |
342 "Control over the use of one's ideas" really constitutes control over | |
343 other people's lives; and it is usually used to make their lives more | |
344 difficult. | |
345 | |
53691
3ef78eaf5dca
Add footnote about "intellectual property rights".
Richard M. Stallman <rms@gnu.org>
parents:
26119
diff
changeset
|
346 People who have studied the issue of intellectual property rights(6) |
26119 | 347 carefully (such as lawyers) say that there is no intrinsic right to |
348 intellectual property. The kinds of supposed intellectual property | |
349 rights that the government recognizes were created by specific acts of | |
350 legislation for specific purposes. | |
351 | |
352 For example, the patent system was established to encourage | |
353 inventors to disclose the details of their inventions. Its purpose was | |
354 to help society rather than to help inventors. At the time, the life | |
355 span of 17 years for a patent was short compared with the rate of | |
356 advance of the state of the art. Since patents are an issue only among | |
357 manufacturers, for whom the cost and effort of a license agreement are | |
358 small compared with setting up production, the patents often do not do | |
359 much harm. They do not obstruct most individuals who use patented | |
360 products. | |
361 | |
362 The idea of copyright did not exist in ancient times, when authors | |
363 frequently copied other authors at length in works of non-fiction. This | |
364 practice was useful, and is the only way many authors' works have | |
365 survived even in part. The copyright system was created expressly for | |
366 the purpose of encouraging authorship. In the domain for which it was | |
367 invented--books, which could be copied economically only on a printing | |
368 press--it did little harm, and did not obstruct most of the individuals | |
369 who read the books. | |
370 | |
371 All intellectual property rights are just licenses granted by society | |
372 because it was thought, rightly or wrongly, that society as a whole | |
373 would benefit by granting them. But in any particular situation, we | |
374 have to ask: are we really better off granting such license? What kind | |
375 of act are we licensing a person to do? | |
376 | |
377 The case of programs today is very different from that of books a | |
378 hundred years ago. The fact that the easiest way to copy a program is | |
379 from one neighbor to another, the fact that a program has both source | |
380 code and object code which are distinct, and the fact that a program is | |
381 used rather than read and enjoyed, combine to create a situation in | |
382 which a person who enforces a copyright is harming society as a whole | |
383 both materially and spiritually; in which a person should not do so | |
384 regardless of whether the law enables him to. | |
385 | |
386 "Competition makes things get done better." | |
387 | |
388 The paradigm of competition is a race: by rewarding the winner, we | |
389 encourage everyone to run faster. When capitalism really works this | |
390 way, it does a good job; but its defenders are wrong in assuming it | |
391 always works this way. If the runners forget why the reward is offered | |
392 and become intent on winning, no matter how, they may find other | |
393 strategies--such as, attacking other runners. If the runners get into | |
394 a fist fight, they will all finish late. | |
395 | |
396 Proprietary and secret software is the moral equivalent of runners | |
397 in a fist fight. Sad to say, the only referee we've got does not seem | |
398 to object to fights; he just regulates them ("For every ten yards you | |
399 run, you can fire one shot"). He really ought to break them up, and | |
400 penalize runners for even trying to fight. | |
401 | |
402 "Won't everyone stop programming without a monetary incentive?" | |
403 | |
404 Actually, many people will program with absolutely no monetary | |
405 incentive. Programming has an irresistible fascination for some | |
406 people, usually the people who are best at it. There is no shortage of | |
407 professional musicians who keep at it even though they have no hope of | |
408 making a living that way. | |
409 | |
410 But really this question, though commonly asked, is not appropriate | |
411 to the situation. Pay for programmers will not disappear, only become | |
412 less. So the right question is, will anyone program with a reduced | |
413 monetary incentive? My experience shows that they will. | |
414 | |
415 For more than ten years, many of the world's best programmers worked | |
416 at the Artificial Intelligence Lab for far less money than they could | |
417 have had anywhere else. They got many kinds of non-monetary rewards: | |
418 fame and appreciation, for example. And creativity is also fun, a | |
419 reward in itself. | |
420 | |
421 Then most of them left when offered a chance to do the same | |
422 interesting work for a lot of money. | |
423 | |
424 What the facts show is that people will program for reasons other | |
425 than riches; but if given a chance to make a lot of money as well, they | |
426 will come to expect and demand it. Low-paying organizations do poorly | |
427 in competition with high-paying ones, but they do not have to do badly | |
428 if the high-paying ones are banned. | |
429 | |
430 "We need the programmers desperately. If they demand that we stop | |
431 helping our neighbors, we have to obey." | |
432 | |
433 You're never so desperate that you have to obey this sort of demand. | |
434 Remember: millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute! | |
435 | |
436 "Programmers need to make a living somehow." | |
437 | |
438 In the short run, this is true. However, there are plenty of ways | |
439 that programmers could make a living without selling the right to use a | |
440 program. This way is customary now because it brings programmers and | |
441 businessmen the most money, not because it is the only way to make a | |
442 living. It is easy to find other ways if you want to find them. Here | |
443 are a number of examples. | |
444 | |
445 A manufacturer introducing a new computer will pay for the porting of | |
446 operating systems onto the new hardware. | |
447 | |
448 The sale of teaching, hand-holding and maintenance services could | |
449 also employ programmers. | |
450 | |
62340 | 451 People with new ideas could distribute programs as freeware(7), asking |
26119 | 452 for donations from satisfied users, or selling hand-holding services. |
453 I have met people who are already working this way successfully. | |
454 | |
455 Users with related needs can form users' groups, and pay dues. A | |
456 group would contract with programming companies to write programs that | |
457 the group's members would like to use. | |
458 | |
459 All sorts of development can be funded with a Software Tax: | |
460 | |
461 Suppose everyone who buys a computer has to pay x percent of the | |
462 price as a software tax. The government gives this to an agency | |
463 like the NSF to spend on software development. | |
464 | |
465 But if the computer buyer makes a donation to software development | |
466 himself, he can take a credit against the tax. He can donate to | |
467 the project of his own choosing--often, chosen because he hopes to | |
468 use the results when it is done. He can take a credit for any | |
469 amount of donation up to the total tax he had to pay. | |
470 | |
471 The total tax rate could be decided by a vote of the payers of the | |
472 tax, weighted according to the amount they will be taxed on. | |
473 | |
474 The consequences: | |
475 | |
476 * The computer-using community supports software development. | |
477 | |
478 * This community decides what level of support is needed. | |
479 | |
480 * Users who care which projects their share is spent on can | |
481 choose this for themselves. | |
482 | |
483 In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the | |
484 post-scarcity world, where nobody will have to work very hard just to | |
485 make a living. People will be free to devote themselves to activities | |
486 that are fun, such as programming, after spending the necessary ten | |
487 hours a week on required tasks such as legislation, family counseling, | |
488 robot repair and asteroid prospecting. There will be no need to be | |
489 able to make a living from programming. | |
490 | |
491 We have already greatly reduced the amount of work that the whole | |
492 society must do for its actual productivity, but only a little of this | |
493 has translated itself into leisure for workers because much | |
494 nonproductive activity is required to accompany productive activity. | |
495 The main causes of this are bureaucracy and isometric struggles against | |
496 competition. Free software will greatly reduce these drains in the | |
497 area of software production. We must do this, in order for technical | |
498 gains in productivity to translate into less work for us. | |
499 | |
500 ---------- Footnotes ---------- | |
501 | |
502 (1) The wording here was careless. The intention was that nobody | |
503 would have to pay for *permission* to use the GNU system. But the | |
504 words don't make this clear, and people often interpret them as saying | |
505 that copies of GNU should always be distributed at little or no charge. | |
506 That was never the intent; later on, the manifesto mentions the | |
507 possibility of companies providing the service of distribution for a | |
508 profit. Subsequently I have learned to distinguish carefully between | |
509 "free" in the sense of freedom and "free" in the sense of price. Free | |
510 software is software that users have the freedom to distribute and | |
511 change. Some users may obtain copies at no charge, while others pay to | |
512 obtain copies--and if the funds help support improving the software, so | |
513 much the better. The important thing is that everyone who has a copy | |
514 has the freedom to cooperate with others in using it. | |
515 | |
516 (2) This is another place I failed to distinguish carefully between | |
517 the two different meanings of "free". The statement as it stands is | |
518 not false--you can get copies of GNU software at no charge, from your | |
519 friends or over the net. But it does suggest the wrong idea. | |
520 | |
521 (3) Several such companies now exist. | |
522 | |
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523 (4) The Free Software Foundation raised most of its funds for 10 |
62337 | 524 years from a distribution service, although it is a charity rather |
525 than a company. | |
26119 | 526 |
62337 | 527 (5) A group of computer companies pooled funds around 1991 to |
528 support maintenance of the GNU C Compiler. | |
26119 | 529 |
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530 (6) In the 80s I had not yet realized how confusing it was to speak |
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531 of "the issue" of "intellectual property". That term is obviously |
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532 biased; more subtle is the fact that it lumps together various |
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533 disparate laws which raise very different issues. Nowadays I urge |
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534 people to reject the term "intellectual property" entirely, lest it |
62337 | 535 lead others to suppose that those laws form one coherent issue. The way to be |
64260 | 536 clear is to discuss patents, copyrights, and trademarks separately. |
62337 | 537 See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.xhtml for more explanation |
538 of how this term spreads confusion and bias. | |
62340 | 539 |
64143 | 540 (7) Subsequently we have learned to distinguish between "free |
541 software" and "freeware". The term "freeware" means software you are | |
542 free to redistribute, but usually you are not free to study and change | |
543 the source code, so most of it is not free software. See | |
544 http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/words-to-avoid.html for more | |
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545 explanation. |