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1. Nonfree DRM’d Games on GNU/Linux: Good or Bad? {#nonfree-drmd-games-on-gnulinux-good-or-bad .chapter}
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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>

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