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author | Tong Hui <tonghuix@gmail.com> | 2016-03-25 16:52:03 +0800 |
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committer | Tong Hui <tonghuix@gmail.com> | 2016-03-25 16:52:03 +0800 |
commit | 5d6f7b414de4b04ddc19629ac6d1f5e5f3cb42ac (patch) | |
tree | b7d47d7d26bf9cd76ceeae138c71d4a99c7ac662 /docs/freedom-or-power.md | |
download | fsfs-zh-5d6f7b414de4b04ddc19629ac6d1f5e5f3cb42ac.tar.xz |
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diff --git a/docs/freedom-or-power.md b/docs/freedom-or-power.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..24bd6c7 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/freedom-or-power.md @@ -0,0 +1,127 @@ +--- +Generator: 'texi2html 1.82' +description: Untitled Document +distribution: global +keywords: Untitled Document +resource-type: document +title: Untitled Document +... + +1. Freedom or Power? {#freedom-or-power .chapter} +==================== + +Written by Bradley M. Kuhn and Richard Stallman.\ + *The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the +love of ourselves.* + +—William Hazlitt + +\ + +In the free software movement, we stand for freedom for the users of +software. We formulated our views by looking at what freedoms are +necessary for a good way of life, and permit useful programs to foster a +community of goodwill, cooperation, and collaboration. Our criteria for +free software[(1)](#FOOT1) specify the freedoms that a program’s users +need so that they can cooperate in a community. + +@secondcopyingnotice{{@footnoterule @smallskip Copyright © 2001, 2009 +Bradley M. Kuhn and Richard Stallman\ + {This essay was originally published on <http://gnu.org>, in 2001. This +version is part of @fsfsthreecite} + +We stand for freedom for programmers as well as for other users. Most of +us are programmers, and we want freedom for ourselves as well as for +you. But each of us uses software written by others, and we want freedom +when using that software, not just when using our own code. We stand for +freedom for all users, whether they program often, occasionally, or not +at all. + +However, one so-called freedom that we do not advocate is the “freedom +to choose any license you want for software you write.” We reject this +because it is really a form of power, not a freedom. + +This oft overlooked distinction is crucial. Freedom is being able to +make decisions that affect mainly you; power is being able to make +decisions that affect others more than you. If we confuse power with +freedom, we will fail to uphold real freedom. + +Making a program proprietary is an exercise of power. Copyright law +today grants software developers that power, so they and only they +choose the rules to impose on everyone else—a relatively small number of +people make the basic software decisions for all users, typically by +denying their freedom. When users lack the freedoms that define free +software, they can’t tell what the software is doing, can’t check for +back doors, can’t monitor possible viruses and worms, can’t find out +what personal information is being reported (or stop the reports, even +if they do find out). If it breaks, they can’t fix it; they have to wait +for the developer to exercise its power to do so. If it simply isn’t +quite what they need, they are stuck with it. They can’t help each other +improve it. + +Proprietary software developers are often businesses. We in the free +software movement are not opposed to business, but we have seen what +happens when a software business has the “freedom” to impose arbitrary +rules on the users of software. Microsoft is an egregious example of how +denying users’ freedoms can lead to direct harm, but it is not the only +example. Even when there is no monopoly, proprietary software harms +society. A choice of masters is not freedom. + +Discussions of rights and rules for software have often concentrated on +the interests of programmers alone. Few people in the world program +regularly, and fewer still are owners of proprietary software +businesses. But the entire developed world now needs and uses software, +so software developers now control the way it lives, does business, +communicates, and is entertained. The ethical and political issues are +not addressed by the slogan of “freedom of choice (for developers +only).” + +If “code is law,”[(2)](#FOOT2) then the real question we face is: who +should control the code you use—you, or an elite few? We believe you are +entitled to control the software you use, and giving you that control is +the goal of free software. + +We believe you should decide what to do with the software you use; +however, that is not what today’s law says. Current copyright law places +us in the position of power over users of our code, whether we like it +or not. The ethical response to this situation is to proclaim freedom +for each user, just as the Bill of Rights was supposed to exercise +government power by guaranteeing each citizen’s freedoms. That is what +the GNU General Public License is for: it puts you in control of your +usage of the software while protecting you from others who would like to +take control of your decisions.[(3)](#FOOT3) + +As more and more users realize that code is law, and come to feel that +they too deserve freedom, they will see the importance of the freedoms +we stand for, just as more and more users have come to appreciate the +practical value of the free software we have developed. + +<div class="footnote"> + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +### Footnotes + +### [(1)](#DOCF1) + +@raggedright See @pageref{Definition} for the full list of these +criteria. @end raggedright + +### [(2)](#DOCF2) + +@raggedright William J. Mitchell, *City of Bits: Space, Place, and the +Infobahn* (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1995), p. 111, as quoted by +Lawrence Lessig in *Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version 2.0* (New +York, NY: Basic Books, 2006), p. 5. @end raggedright + +### [(3)](#DOCF3) + +@raggedright See “Why Copyleft?” (@pageref{Why Copyleft}) for more on +this issue. @end raggedright + +</div> + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +This document was generated by *tonghuix* on *March 25, 2016* using +[*texi2html 1.82*](http://www.nongnu.org/texi2html/).\ |