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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/nonfree-games.md | |
download | fsfs-zh-5d6f7b414de4b04ddc19629ac6d1f5e5f3cb42ac.tar.xz |
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diff --git a/docs/nonfree-games.md b/docs/nonfree-games.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9bd86b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/nonfree-games.md @@ -0,0 +1,135 @@ +--- +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/).\ |