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authorTong Hui <tonghuix@gmail.com>2016-03-25 16:52:03 +0800
committerTong Hui <tonghuix@gmail.com>2016-03-25 16:52:03 +0800
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+Generator: 'texi2html 1.82'
+description: Untitled Document
+distribution: global
+keywords: Untitled Document
+resource-type: document
+title: Untitled Document
+...
+
+1. Nonfree DRM’d Games on GNU/Linux: Good or Bad? {#nonfree-drmd-games-on-gnulinux-good-or-bad .chapter}
+=================================================
+
+A well known company, Valve, that distributes nonfree computer games
+with Digital Restrictions Management, recently announced it would
+distribute these games for GNU/Linux. What good and bad effects can this
+have?
+
+I suppose that availability of popular nonfree programs on GNU/Linux can
+boost adoption of the system. However, the aim of GNU goes beyond
+“success”; its purpose is to bring freedom to the users.[(1)](#FOOT1)
+Thus, the larger question is how this development affects users’
+freedom.
+
+The problem with these games is not that they are
+commercial.[(2)](#FOOT2) (We see nothing wrong with that.) It is not
+that the developers sell copies;[(3)](#FOOT3) that’s not wrong either.
+The problem is that the games contain software that is not free (free in
+the sense of freedom, of course).[(4)](#FOOT4)
+
+Nonfree game programs (like other nonfree programs) are unethical
+because they deny freedom to their users. (Game art is a different
+issue, because it isn’t software.) If you want freedom, one requisite
+for it is not having or running nonfree programs on your computer. That
+much is clear.
+
+However, if you’re going to use these games, you’re better off using
+them on GNU/Linux rather than on Microsoft Windows. At least you avoid
+the harm to your freedom that Windows would do.[(5)](#FOOT5)
+
+Thus, in direct practical terms, this development can do both harm and
+good. It might encourage GNU/Linux users to install these games, and it
+might encourage users of the games to replace Windows with GNU/Linux. My
+guess is that the direct good effect will be bigger than the direct
+harm. But there is also an indirect effect: what does the use of these
+games teach people in our community?
+
+Any GNU/Linux distro that comes with software to offer these games will
+teach users that the point is not freedom. Nonfree software in GNU/Linux
+distros[(6)](#FOOT6) already works against the goal of freedom. Adding
+these games to a distro would augment that effect.
+
+@firstcopyingnotice{{@footnoterule @smallskip Copyright © 2013 Free
+Software Foundation, Inc.\
+ {This version of this essay is part of @fsfsthreecite}
+
+Free software is a matter of freedom, not price. A free game need not be
+gratis. It is feasible to develop free games commercially, while
+respecting your freedom to change the software you use. Since the art in
+the game is not software, it does not need to be free. There is in fact
+free game software developed by companies, as well as free games
+developed noncommercially by volunteers. Crowdfunding development will
+only get easier.
+
+But if we suppose that it is *not feasible* in the current situation to
+develop a certain kind of free game—what would follow then? There’s no
+good in writing it as a nonfree game. To have freedom in your computing,
+requires rejecting nonfree software, pure and simple. You as a
+freedom-lover won’t use the nonfree game if it exists, so you won’t lose
+anything if it does not exist.
+
+If you want to promote the cause of freedom in computing, please take
+care not to talk about the availability of these games on GNU/Linux as
+support for our cause. Instead you could tell people about the
+LibreGameWiki[(7)](#FOOT7) that attempts to catalog free games, the
+FreeGameDev Forums,[(8)](#FOOT8) and the LibrePlanet Gaming Collective’s
+free gaming night.[(9)](#FOOT9)
+
+<div class="footnote">
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+### Footnotes
+
+### [(1)](#DOCF1)
+
+@raggedright See “Free Software Is Even More Important Now”
+(@pageref{More Important Now}) for more on this. @end raggedright
+
+### [(2)](#DOCF2)
+
+@raggedright See @pageref{Commercial} for an explanation of the
+confusion the term “commercial” can create. @end raggedright
+
+### [(3)](#DOCF3)
+
+@raggedright See “Selling Free Software” (@pageref{Selling}) for more on
+this issue. @end raggedright
+
+### [(4)](#DOCF4)
+
+@raggedright See @pageref{Definition} for the full definition of free
+software. @end raggedright
+
+### [(5)](#DOCF5)
+
+@raggedright See our campaign at <http://upgradefromwindows8.org/> for
+more on this issue. @end raggedright
+
+### [(6)](#DOCF6)
+
+@raggedright See <http://gnu.org/distros/common-distros.html> for an
+explanation of why we don’t endorse certain (often popular)
+distributions. @end raggedright
+
+### [(7)](#DOCF7)
+
+@raggedright See <https://libregamewiki.org/Main_Page>. @end raggedright
+
+### [(8)](#DOCF8)
+
+@raggedright See <http://forum.freegamedev.net/index.php>. @end
+raggedright
+
+### [(9)](#DOCF9)
+
+@raggedright See
+<http://libreplanet.org/wiki/Group:LibrePlanet_Gaming_Collective>. @end
+raggedright
+
+</div>
+
+------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+This document was generated by *tonghuix* on *March 25, 2016* using
+[*texi2html 1.82*](http://www.nongnu.org/texi2html/).\