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www/philosophy loyal-computers.html


From: Pavel Kharitonov
Subject: www/philosophy loyal-computers.html
Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 12:33:47 +0000

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Pavel Kharitonov <ineiev>       14/12/18 12:33:47

Added files:
        philosophy     : loyal-computers.html 

Log message:
        New article RT #968475.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/loyal-computers.html?cvsroot=www&rev=1.1

Patches:
Index: loyal-computers.html
===================================================================
RCS file: loyal-computers.html
diff -N loyal-computers.html
--- /dev/null   1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0000
+++ loyal-computers.html        18 Dec 2014 12:33:46 -0000      1.1
@@ -0,0 +1,193 @@
+<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
+<!-- Parent-Version: 1.77 -->
+<title>What Does It Mean for Your Computer to Be Loyal?
+- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
+<!--#include virtual="/server/gnun/initial-translations-list.html" -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
+
+<h2>What Does It Mean for Your Computer to Be Loyal?</h2>
+
+<p>by <a href="https://www.stallman.org/";>Richard Stallman</a></p>
+
+<p>We say that running <a href="/philosophy/free-sw.html">free
+software</a> on your computer means that its operation is <a
+href="/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html">under your
+control</a>.  Implicitly this presupposes that your computer will do
+what your programs tell it to do, and no more.  In other words, that
+your computer will be loyal to you.</p>
+
+<p>In 1990 we took that for granted; nowadays, many computers are
+designed to be disloyal to their users.  It has become necessary to
+spell out what it means for your computer to be a loyal platform that
+obeys your decisions, which you express by telling it to run certain
+programs.</p>
+
+<p>Our tentative definition consists of these principles.</p>
+
+<dl>
+<dt>Neutrality towards software</dt>
+
+<dd>
+<p>The computer will run, without prejudice, whatever software you
+install in it, and let that software do whatever its code says to
+do.</p>
+
+<p>A feature to check for signatures on the programs that run is
+compatible with this principle provided the signature checking is
+fully under the user's control.  When that is so, the feature helps
+implement the user's decision about which programs to run, rather than
+thwarting the user's decisions.  By contrast, signature checking that
+is not fully under the user's control violates this principle.</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>Neutrality towards protocols</dt>
+
+<dd>
+<p>The computer will communicate, without prejudice, through whatever
+protocol your installed software implements, with whatever users and
+whatever other networked computers you direct it to communicate
+with.</p>
+
+<p>This means that computer does not impose one particular service rather
+than another, or one protocol rather than another. It does not
+require the user to get anyone else's permission to communicate via a
+certain protocol.</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>Neutrality towards implementations</dt>
+
+<dd>
+<p>When the computer communicates using any given protocol, it will
+support doing so, without prejudice, via whatever code you choose
+(assuming the code implements the intended protocol), and it will do
+nothing to help any other part of the Internet to distinguish which
+code you are using or what changes you may have made in it, or to
+discriminate based on your choice.</p>
+
+<p>This entails that the computer rejects remote attestation, that is,
+that it does not permit other computers to determine over the network
+whether your computer is running one particular software load. Remote
+attestation gives web sites the power to compel you to connect to them
+only through an application with DRM that you can't break, denying you
+effective control over the software you use to communicate with them.
+Netflix is a notorious example of this.</p>
+
+<p>We can comprehend remote attestation as a general scheme to allow
+any web site to impose tivoization or &ldquo;lockdown&rdquo; on the
+local software you connect to it with.  Simple tivoization of a
+program bars modified versions from functioning properly; that makes
+the program nonfree.  Remote attestation by web sites bars modified
+versions from working with those sites that use it, which makes the
+program effectively nonfree when using those sites.  If a computer
+allows web sites to bar you from using a modified program with them,
+it is loyal to them, not to you.</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>Neutrality towards data communicated</dt>
+
+<dd>
+<p>When the computer receives data using whatever protocol, it will
+not limit what the program can do with the data received through that
+communication.</p>
+
+<p>Any hardware-level DRM violates this principle.  For instance, the
+hardware must not deliver video streams encrypted such that only the
+monitor can decrypt them.</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>Debugability</dt>
+
+<dd>
+<p>The computer always permits you to analyze the operation of a
+program that is running.</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>Documentation</dt>
+
+<dd>
+<p>The computer comes with full documentation of all the interfaces
+intended for software to use to control the computer.</p>
+</dd>
+
+<dt>Completeness</dt>
+
+<dd>
+<p>The principles above apply to all the computer's software
+interfaces and all communication the computer does.  The computer must
+not have any disloyal programmable facility or do any disloyal
+communication.</p>
+
+<p>For instance, the AMT functionality in recent Intel processors runs
+nonfree software that can talk to Intel remotely.  Unless disabled,
+this makes the system disloyal.</p>
+</dd>
+</dl>
+
+<p>We ask readers to send criticisms and suggestions about this
+definition to <a href="mailto:address@hidden";>
+&lt;address@hidden&gt;</a>.</p>
+
+</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above -->
+<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
+<div id="footer">
+<div class="unprintable">
+
+<p>Please send general FSF &amp; GNU inquiries to
+<a href="mailto:address@hidden";>&lt;address@hidden&gt;</a>.
+There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
+the FSF.  Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent
+to <a href="mailto:address@hidden";>&lt;address@hidden&gt;</a>.</p>
+
+<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph,
+        replace it with the translation of these two:
+
+        We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality
+        translations.  However, we are not exempt from imperfection.
+        Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard
+        to <a href="mailto:address@hidden";>
+        &lt;address@hidden&gt;</a>.</p>
+
+        <p>For information on coordinating and submitting translations of
+        our web pages, see <a
+        href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+        README</a>. -->
+Please see the <a
+href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
+README</a> for information on coordinating and submitting translations
+of this article.</p>
+</div>
+
+<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to
+     files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should
+     be under CC BY-ND 3.0 US.  Please do NOT change or remove this
+     without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first.
+     Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the
+     document.  For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the
+     document was modified, or published.
+     
+     If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too.
+     Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying
+     years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable
+     year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including
+     being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system).
+     
+     There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers
+     Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. -->
+
+<p>Copyright &copy; 2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p>
+
+<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
+href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/3.0/us/";>Creative
+Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License</a>.</p>
+
+<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" -->
+
+<p class="unprintable">Updated:
+<!-- timestamp start -->
+$Date: 2014/12/18 12:33:46 $
+<!-- timestamp end -->
+</p>
+</div>
+</div>
+</body>
+</html>



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