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<title>Freedom Or Power? |
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- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title> |
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<meta http-equiv="Keywords" content="GNU, FSF, Free Software Foundation, Linux, general, public, license, gpl, general public license, freedom, software, power, rights" /> |
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<meta http-equiv="Description" content="In this essay, Freedom or Power?, Bradley M. Kuhn and Richard M. Stallman discuss the reasons that the free software movement doesn't advocate the so-called freedom to choose any license you want for software you write." /> |
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<div class="article reduced-width"> |
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<h2>Freedom or Power?</h2> |
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|
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<address class="byline">by Bradley M. Kuhn and Richard M. Stallman</address> |
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|
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<blockquote class="epigraph"> |
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<p>The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the |
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love of ourselves. —<i>William Hazlitt</i></p> |
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</blockquote> |
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<p> |
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In the free software movement, we stand for freedom for the users of |
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software. We formulated our views by looking at what freedoms are |
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necessary for a good way of life, and permit useful programs to foster a |
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community of goodwill, cooperation, and collaboration. <a |
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href="/philosophy/free-sw.html">Our criteria for free software</a> specify |
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the freedoms that a program's users need so that they can cooperate in a |
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community.</p> |
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|
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<p> |
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We stand for freedom for programmers as well as for other users. |
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Most of us are programmers, and we want freedom for ourselves as well |
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as for you. But each of us uses software written by others, and we |
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want freedom when using that software, not just when using our own |
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code. We stand for freedom for all users, whether they program often, |
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occasionally, or not at all.</p> |
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|
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<p> |
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However, one so-called freedom that we do not advocate is the |
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“freedom to choose any license you want for software you |
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write.” We reject this because it is really a form of power, |
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not a freedom.</p> |
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|
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<p> |
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This oft overlooked distinction is crucial. Freedom is being able to make |
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decisions that affect mainly you; power is being able to make decisions |
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that affect others more than you. If we confuse power with freedom, we |
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will fail to uphold real freedom.</p> |
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|
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<p> |
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Making a program proprietary is an exercise of power. Copyright law |
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today grants software developers that power, so they and only they |
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choose the rules to impose on everyone else—a relatively small |
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number of people make the basic software decisions for all users, |
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typically by denying their freedom. When users lack the |
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freedoms that define free software, they can't tell what the |
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software is doing, can't check for back doors, can't monitor possible |
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viruses and worms, can't find out what personal information is being |
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reported (or stop the reports, even if they do find out). If it breaks, |
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they can't fix it; they have to wait for the developer to exercise its |
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power to do so. If it simply isn't quite what they need, they are stuck |
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with it. They can't help each other improve it.</p> |
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|
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<p> |
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Proprietary software developers are often businesses. We in the free |
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software movement are not opposed to business, but we have seen what |
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happens when a software business has the “freedom” to |
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impose arbitrary rules on the users of software. Microsoft is an |
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egregious example of how denying users' freedoms can lead to direct |
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harm, but it is not the only example. Even when there is no monopoly, |
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proprietary software harms society. A choice of masters is not |
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freedom.</p> |
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|
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<p> |
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Discussions of rights and rules for software have often concentrated |
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on the interests of programmers alone. Few people in the world |
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program regularly, and fewer still are owners of proprietary software |
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businesses. But most of humanity now uses computers (specifically, smartphones) and thus uses |
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software, so software developers now control the way they live, |
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do business, communicate, and are entertained. The ethical and |
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political issues are not addressed by the slogan of “freedom of |
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choice (for developers only).”</p> |
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<p> |
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If “code is law,” <a href="#f1">(1)</a> then the real |
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question we face is: who should control the |
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code you use—you, or an elite few? We believe you are entitled |
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to control the software you use, and giving you that control is the |
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goal of free software.</p> |
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|
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<p> |
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We believe you should decide what to do with the software you use; |
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however, that is not what today's law says. Current copyright law places |
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us in the position of power over users of our code, whether we like it or |
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not. The ethical response to this situation is to proclaim freedom for |
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each user, just as the Bill of Rights was supposed to exercise government |
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power by guaranteeing each citizen's freedoms. That is what the <a |
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href="/licenses/copyleft.html">GNU General Public License</a> is for: |
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it puts you in control of your usage of the software while <a |
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href="/philosophy/why-copyleft.html">protecting you from others</a> who would |
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like to take control of your decisions.</p> |
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<p> |
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As more and more users realize that code is law, and come to feel that |
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they too deserve freedom, they will see the importance of the freedoms |
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we stand for, just as more and more users have come to appreciate the |
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practical value of the free software we have developed.</p> |
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<h3 class="footnote">Footnote</h3> |
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<ol> |
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<li id="f1">William J. Mitchell, |
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<cite>City of Bits: Space, Place, and the Infobahn</cite> (Cambridge, |
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Mass.: MIT Press, 1995), p. 111, as quoted by Lawrence Lessig in |
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<cite>Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace, Version 2.0</cite> (New York, NY: |
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Basic Books, 2006), p. 5.</li> |
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</ol> |
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<hr class="no-display" /> |
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<div class="edu-note c"><p id="fsfs">This essay is published in |
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<a href="https://shop.fsf.org/product/free-software-free-society/"><cite>Free |
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Software, Free Society: The Selected Essays of Richard |
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M. Stallman</cite></a>.</p></div> |
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<p class="unprintable">Updated: |
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$Date: 2021/09/05 07:59:45 $ |
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