www/philosophy free-sw.html

[Richard M. Stallman]

CVSROOT:        /web/www
Module name:    www
Changes by:     Richard M. Stallman <rms>       21/02/02 18:19:20

Modified files:
        philosophy     : free-sw.html 

Log message:
        Explain why more clearly why the four freedoms must apply to
        commercial activity.  Explain why the four freedoms imply the freedom
        not to run the program and the freedom to delete it, so there is no
        need to state those as separate requirements.

CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/philosophy/free-sw.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.168&r2=1.169

Patches:
Index: free-sw.html
===================================================================
RCS file: /web/www/www/philosophy/free-sw.html,v
retrieving revision 1.168
retrieving revision 1.169
diff -u -b -r1.168 -r1.169
--- free-sw.html        30 Jul 2019 10:09:02 -0000      1.168
+++ free-sw.html        2 Feb 2021 23:19:19 -0000       1.169
@@ -109,23 +109,47 @@
 only A needs to be free; B is not pertinent to that plan.</p>
 
 <p>
-&ldquo;Free software&rdquo; does not mean &ldquo;noncommercial&rdquo;.  A free
-program must be available for commercial use, commercial development,
-and commercial distribution.  Commercial development of free software
-is no longer unusual; such free commercial software is very important.
-You may have paid money to get copies of free software, or you may have
-obtained copies at no charge.  But regardless of how you got your copies,
-you always have the freedom to copy and change the software, even to 
-<a href="/philosophy/selling.html">sell copies</a>.
+&ldquo;Free software&rdquo; does not mean &ldquo;noncommercial&rdquo;.
+On the contrary, a free program must be available for commercial use,
+commercial development, and commercial distribution.  This policy is
+of fundamental importance&mdash;without this, free software could not
+achieve its aims.
 </p>
 
 <p>
-A free program must offer the four freedoms to any user that obtains a
-copy of the software, provided the user has complied thus far with the
-conditions of the free license covering the software.  Putting some of
-the freedoms off limits to some users, or requiring that users pay, in
-money or in kind, to exercise them, is tantamount to not granting the
-freedoms in question, and thus renders the program nonfree.
+We want to invite everyone to use the GNU system, including businesses
+and their workers.  That requires allowing commercial use.  We hope
+that free replacement programs will supplant comparable proprietary
+programs, but they can't do that if businesses are forbidden to use
+them.  We want commercial products that contain software to include
+the GNU system, and that would constitute commercial distribution for
+a price.  Commercial development of free software is no longer
+unusual; such free commercial software is very important.  Paid,
+professional support for free software fills an important need.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thus, to exclude commercial use, commercial development or commercial
+distribution would hobble the free software community and obstruct its
+path to success.  We must conclude that a program licensed with such
+restrictions does not qualify as free software.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A free program must offer the four freedoms to any would-be user that
+obtains a copy of the software, who has complied thus far with the
+conditions of the free license covering the software in any previous
+distribution of it.  Putting some of the freedoms off limits to some
+users, or requiring that users pay, in money or in kind, to exercise
+them, is tantamount to not granting the freedoms in question, and thus
+renders the program nonfree.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+You may have paid money to get copies of a free program, or you may
+have obtained copies at no charge.  But regardless of how you got your
+copies, you always have the freedom to copy and change the software,
+even to <a href="/philosophy/selling.html">sell copies</a>.
 </p>
 
 <h3>Clarifying the line at various points</h3>
@@ -163,6 +187,10 @@
 communities to make and distribute modified versions without the
 arbitrary nuisance code.</p>
 
+<p>&ldquo;As you wish&rdquo; includes, optonally, &ldquo;not at
+all&rdquo; if that is what you wish.  So there is no need for a
+separate &ldquo;freedom not to run a program.&rdquo;<p>
+
 <h4>The freedom to study the source code and make changes</h4>
 
 <p>
@@ -199,6 +227,12 @@
 someone else considers an improvement, that program is not free.
 </p>
 
+<p>
+One special case of freedom 1 is to delete the program's code so it
+returns after doing nothing, or make it invoke some other program.
+Thus, freedom 1 includes the &ldquo;freedom to delete the program.&rdquo;
+</p>
+
 <h4>The freedom to redistribute if you wish: basic requirements</h4>
 
 <p>Freedom to distribute (freedoms 2 and 3) means you are free to
@@ -460,6 +494,12 @@
 
 <ul>
 
+<li><a 
href="http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/www/philosophy/free-sw.html?root=www&amp;r1=1.168&amp;r2=1.169";>Version
+1.169</a>: Explain why more clearly why the four freedoms must apply
+to commercial activity.  Explain why the four freedoms imply the
+freedom not to run the program and the freedom to delete it, so there
+is no need to state those as separate requirements.</li>
+
 <li><a 
href="http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/www/philosophy/free-sw.html?root=www&amp;r1=1.164&amp;r2=1.165";>Version
 1.165</a>: Clarify that arbitrary annoyances in the code do not
 negate freedom 0, and that freedoms 1 and 3 enable users to remove them.</li>
@@ -653,7 +693,7 @@
 
 <p class="unprintable">Updated:
 <!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2019/07/30 10:09:02 $
+$Date: 2021/02/02 23:19:19 $
 <!-- timestamp end -->
 </p>
 </div>