/[www]/www/philosophy/free-sw.html

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-revision 1.160 by th_g,
Tue Jun 12 19:01:31 2018 UTC
+revision 1.167 by bandali,
Tue Jul 30 02:11:57 2019 UTC
 Line 1
  <!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
- <!-- Parent-Version: 1.85 -->
+ <!-- Parent-Version: 1.86 -->
  <title>What is free software?
  - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
  <style type="text/css" media="print,screen"><!--
 Line 119 
 you always have the freedom to copy and
  <a href="/philosophy/selling.html">sell copies</a>.
  </p>
- <p>The rest of this page clarifies certain points about what makes
+ <p>
- specific freedoms adequate or not.</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.
+ </p>
+ <h3>Clarifying the line at various points</h3>
+ <p>In the rest of this article we expain more precisely how far the
+ various freedoms need to extend, on various issues, in order for a
+ program to be free.</p>
  <h4>The freedom to run the program as you wish</h4>
-Line 142 
 functionality the program has, whether i
+Line 154 
 functionality the program has, whether i
  functioning in any given environment, or whether it is useful for any
  particular computing activity.</p>
+ <p>For example, if the code arbitrarily rejects certain meaningful
+ inputs&mdash;or even fails unconditionally&mdash;that may make the
+ program less useful, perhaps even totally useless, but it does not
+ deny users the freedom to run the program, so it does not conflict
+ with freedom 0.  If the program is free, the users can overcome the
+ loss of usefulness, because freedoms 1 and 3 permit users and
+ communities to make and distribute modified versions without the
+ arbitrary nuisance code.</p>
  <h4>The freedom to study the source code and make changes</h4>
  <p>
  In order for freedoms 1 and 3 (the freedom to make changes and the
- freedom to publish the changed versions) to be meaningful, you must have
+ freedom to publish the changed versions) to be meaningful, you need to have
  access to the source code of the program.  Therefore, accessibility of
  source code is a necessary condition for free software.  Obfuscated
  &ldquo;source code&rdquo; is not real source code and does not count
-Line 439 
 was changed.</p>
+Line 460 
 was changed.</p>
  <ul>
+ <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
+.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>
  <li><a href="http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/www/philosophy/free-sw.html?root=www&amp;r1=1.152&amp;r2=1.153">Version
 .153</a>: Clarify that freedom to run the program means nothing stops
  you from making it run.</li>
-Line 617 
 of this article.</p>
+Line 642 
 of this article.</p>
       There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers
       Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. -->
- <p>Copyright &copy; 1996, 2002, 2004-2007, 2009-2018
+ <p>Copyright &copy; 1996, 2002, 2004-2007, 2009-2019
  Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p>
  <p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
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 $Date$
+Line 657 
 $Date$
  <!-- timestamp end -->
  </p>
  </div>
- </div>
+ </div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include -->
  </body>
  </html>

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