# LANGUAGE translation of https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/google-engineering-talk.html # Copyright (C) YEAR Free Software Foundation, Inc. # This file is distributed under the same license as the original article. # FIRST AUTHOR , YEAR. # #, fuzzy msgid "" msgstr "" "Project-Id-Version: google-engineering-talk.html\n" "POT-Creation-Date: 2021-09-10 09:25+0000\n" "PO-Revision-Date: YEAR-MO-DA HO:MI+ZONE\n" "Last-Translator: FULL NAME \n" "Language-Team: LANGUAGE \n" "Language: \n" "MIME-Version: 1.0\n" "Content-Type: text/plain; charset=CHARSET\n" "Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit\n" #. type: Content of: msgid "" "GNU & The Free Software Foundation (Engineering Tech Talk at Google) - " "GNU Project - Free Software Foundation" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h2> msgid "GNU & The Free Software Foundation" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><address> msgid "by Richard Stallman" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "Engineering Tech Talk at Google, June 11, 2004" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><h3> msgid "Table of Contents" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#introduction\">1. Introduction</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#how-it-started\">2. How it started</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#gnu-operating-system\">3. GNU operating system</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#gnu-emacs\">4. GNU Emacs</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#expensive-habits\">5. Expensive habits</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#definition-of-free-software\">6. Definition of free software</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#freedom-2-moral-dilemma\">7. Freedom 2 moral dilemma</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#freedom-2-spirit-of-good-will\">8. Freedom 2 spirit of good " "will</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#freedom-0-to-run-a-program-freedom-1-to-modify-it\">9. Freedom 0 " "to run a program, Freedom 1 to modify it</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#drm-back-doors-bugs\">10. DRM, back doors, bugs</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#freedom-3-having-no-master\">11. Freedom 3 having no master</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#copyleft-forbidding-is-forbidden\">12. Copyleft forbidding is " "forbidden</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#general-public-license\">13. General Public License</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#developing-gnu\">13a. Developing GNU</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#making-money-off-free-software\">14. Making money off free " "software</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#why-write-free-software\">15. Why write free software</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#linux-kernel\">16. Linux kernel</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#gnu-vs-linux-confusion-problem-freedom\">17. GNU vs. Linux " "confusion problem freedom</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#enemies-of-free-software\">18. Enemies of free software</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#treacherous-computing\">19. Treacherous computing</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#help-gnu\">20. Help GNU</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#saint-ignucius\">21. Saint Ignucius</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#about-anonymity-credit-cards-cell-phones\">22. About anonymity, " "credit cards, cell phones</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#free-formats-copyright-microsoft\">23. Free formats, copyright, " "Microsoft</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#dangers-of-webmail-loss-of-freedom\">24. Dangers of webmail loss " "of freedom</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#copyright-art-vs-software\">25. Copyright art vs. software</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#malicious-free-software\">26. Malicious free software</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#patented-file-formats\">27. Patented file formats</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#games-as-free-software\">28. Games as free software</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#gpl-freedoms-for-cars-saving-seeds\">29. GPL freedoms for cars, " "saving seeds</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#no-software-is-better-than-non-free-software\">30. No software is " "better than nonfree software</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#portability-of-free-software\">31. Portability of free " "software</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#is-some-free-software-obfuscated-on-purpose\">32. Is some free " "software obfuscated on purpose?</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#proprietary-keeping-an-edge\">33. Proprietary keeping an edge</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#forbidding-is-forbidden-how-is-this-freedom\">34. Forbidding is " "forbidden how is this freedom?</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#can-google-help-free-software\">35. Can Google help free " "software</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#free-software-on-windows-good-or-bad\">36. Free software on " "windows, good or bad</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#scos-suit\">37. SCO's suit</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#stallmans-problem-typing\">38. Stallman's problem typing</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "" "<a href=\"#open-source-good-or-bad-pat-riot-act\">39. Open source, good or " "bad Pat-riot Act</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><ul><li> msgid "<a href=\"#the-end\">40. The end</a>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "1. Introduction" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>ED:</b> Well, thank you everybody for making it. I'm Ed Falk and this man " "needs very little introduction; if you don't know what the letters RMS stand " "for, you probably don't belong in this room." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Richard was the founder of the Free Software Foundation, in 1984 I believe " "it was, and as such could be considered the father of free software and, of " "course, Google's infrastructure is based on free software. So we owe the " "free software movement quite a great deal of thanks. [And my mic is dying on " "this microphone so I won't talk too long.] This is Richard Stallman and we " "thank him for being here on short notice and we thank our mutual friend Lile " "Elam who arranged all of this and I think with no further ado, I give you " "Richard!" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "[Richard bows]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "2. How it started" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> Please raise your hands if you cannot hear me. [Laughter] " "Yes, somebody raised his hand." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, the topic of my speech is free software. I didn't begin free software; " "there was free software going back to the early days of computing. As soon " "as there were a couple of computers of the same model, people could try " "sharing software. And they did." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "{This is not… This has a problem. How do we stop the feedback? Can " "someone do anything? I'm willing to get some feedback, but only from you, " "not from the PA system." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> [unintelligible]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> Well, that doesn't matter; I'm not an advocate of open " "source and never was and never will be.}" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So free software existed before I started programming and I had the good " "fortune, in the 1970s, of being part of a community of programmers who " "shared software. So I learned about free software as a way of life, by " "living it. And I came to appreciate what it meant to be free to share with " "people, not divided from the rest of the world by attitudes of secrecy and " "hostility." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But that community died in the early '80s and I found myself confronted by " "the prospect of spending the rest of my life in a world of proprietary " "software. And, worst of all, confronted by the prospect of signing a " "non-disclosure agreement {which I}. And I had concluded that it is unethical " "to sign a non-disclosure agreement for generally useful technical " "information, such as software. To promise not to share with one's fellows is " "a violation of human solidarity. So when I saw that the machine downstairs " "was asking me to sign an NDA, I just said, “I can't sign an " "NDA.” Well, fortunately, there was an option; they let me come in here " "and speak without signing it, otherwise you would have had to go outside to " "listen. [Laughter]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "(They asked a couple of other interesting questions; they asked about " "company, so I said I'm available tonight. [Looking at name tag][Laughter] " "And they asked for my host, so I put down fencepost.gnu.org. But that's just " "the hacker spirit.)" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So I found myself in a situation where the only way you could get a modern " "computer and start to use it was to sign a non-disclosure agreement for some " "proprietary operating system. Because all the operating systems for modern " "computers in 1983 were proprietary, and there was no lawful way to get a " "copy of those operating systems without signing a non-disclosure agreement, " "which was unethical. So I decided to try to do something about it, to try to " "change that situation. And the only way I could think of to change it was to " "write another operating system, and then say as the author “this " "system is free; you can have it without a non-disclosure agreement and " "you're welcome to redistribute it to other people. You're welcome to study " "how it works. You're welcome to change it.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, instead of being divided and helpless, the users of this system would " "live in freedom. Ordinary proprietary software is part of a scheme where " "users are deliberately kept divided and helpless. The program comes with a " "license that says you're forbidden to share it, and in most cases you can't " "get the source code, so you can't study it or change it. It may even have " "malicious features and you can't tell. With free software, we respect the " "user's freedom, and that's the whole point. The reason for the free software " "movement is so that the people of cyberspace can have freedom, so that there " "is a way to live in freedom and still use a computer, to avoid being kept " "divided and helpless." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "3. GNU operating system" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "You can't use a computer without an operating system, so a free software " "operating system was absolutely essential. And in 1983 I announced my plan " "to develop one: an operating system called GNU." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "I had decided to make the system UNIX-like so that it would be portable. The " "operating system that we had used for many years at the Artificial " "Intelligence Lab was the Incompatible Timesharing System, or ITS. It had " "been written in assembler language for the PDP-10, so when Digital " "discontinued the PDP-10, our many years of work turned into dust and blew " "away. I didn't want to write another system and have the same thing happen, " "so I decided this system had better be portable. But there was only one " "successful portable operating system I knew of, and that was UNIX. So I " "decided to follow the design of UNIX, figuring that way I'd have a good " "chance of succeeding in making a system that was useful and portable. And " "then I decided to make the system upward-compatible with the interfaces of " "UNIX, and the reason for this was so that users could switch to it without " "an incompatible change." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "I realized that I could take the best ideas from the various systems I had " "helped develop or use and add my pet ideas and make my dream operating " "system. But this would have been incompatible, and the users would mostly " "have rejected it, saying “it would be too much work to switch, so " "we're just not going to.” So, by making the system upward-compatible " "with UNIX, I could spare the users that obstacle and make more of a chance " "that users would actually use the system." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "If the users had rejected it, I would have had a perfect excuse. I could " "have said “I offered them freedom and they rejected it; it's their " "fault.” But I wanted to make more than just an excuse. I wanted to " "build a community where people would actually live in freedom, which meant I " "had to develop a system people would actually use. So I decided to make the " "system upward-compatible with UNIX." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, UNIX consists of many components that communicate through interfaces " "that are more or less documented. And the users use those interfaces. So to " "be compatible with UNIX required using the same interfaces, which meant that " "the initial design decisions were already made, except one: what range of " "target machines to support. UNIX had been designed to support 16-bit " "machines, which was a lot of extra work, because programs had to be kept " "small; so I decided to save that extra work by not supporting anything less " "than a 32-bit machine. I figured it would take many years to get the system " "done and by then people would normally be using 32-bit machines anyway, and " "that turned out to be true." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So then the only thing that I needed before I could start work was a " "name. Now, to be a hacker means to enjoy playful cleverness—in " "programming, and in other areas of life, any area of life [where] you could " "be playfully clever. And there was a hacker tradition that when you were " "writing a program that was similar to some existing program, you could give " "your new program a name that's a recursive acronym, saying it is not the " "other program." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "For instance, in the '60s and '70s there were many TECO text editors, more " "or less similar; typically each system would have a TECO and it would be " "called something-or-other-TECO. But one clever hacker called his program " "TINT, for “TINT Is Not TECO”—the first recursive acronym. " "And we thought that was very funny. So after I developed the first Emacs " "extensible text editor in 1975, there were many imitations, and some were " "called this-or-that-Emacs. But one was called FINE for “FINE Is Not " "Emacs” and there was SINE for “SINE Is Not Emacs,” and " "EINE for “EINE Is Not Emacs,” and MINCE for “MINCE Is Not " "Complete Emacs.” Then EINE was mostly rewritten, and version two was " "called ZWEI for “ZWEI Was EINE Initially.” [Laughter]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So I looked for a recursive acronym for “Something is not UNIX,” " "but the usual four-letter method was no good, because none of those was a " "word. And if it doesn't have some other meaning, it's not funny. So I " "thought, “what else can I do, hmm?” Nothing came to me, so I " "thought, “I'll make a contraction, then I could get a three-letter " "recursive acronym.” I started substituting all 26 letters: ANU, BNU, " "CNU, DNU, ENU, FNU, GNU! Well, “gnu” is the funniest word in the " "English language, so that had to be the choice. If you can call something " "“GNU,” it makes no sense to pick anything else." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, of course, the reason why the word “gnu” is used for so much " "word-play is that, according to the dictionary, it's pronounced " "“new.” So people started asking each other, “hey, what's " "g-nu,” as a joke, long before you could answer “GNU's Not " "UNIX.” But now you can give that answer and the best part is, it " "sounds like you're obnoxiously telling the person what it isn't, instead of " "answering his question. But the fact is, you're giving the exact meaning of " "GNU; so you are, in fact, answering the question in the most exact possible " "way, but it gives the appearance that you're refusing to." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "In any case, when it's the name of our operating system, please pronounce a " "hard G; don't follow the dictionary. If you talk about the “new” " "operating system, you'll get people very confused. We've been working on it " "for 20 years now, so it's not new anymore. But it still is, and always will " "be, GNU, no matter how many people call it Linux by mistake." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "{[<b>AUDIENCE:</b> unintelligible] [<b>RICHARD:</b> Thank you!]}" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, having the name I could start work. I quit my job at MIT to begin " "writing pieces of the GNU operating system, in January 1984. I had to quit " "my job because, had I remained an MIT employee, that would have enabled MIT " "to claim to own all the code I was writing, and MIT could have turned it " "into proprietary software products. And since MIT had already done that kind " "of thing, I certainly couldn't trust them not to do so here. And I didn't " "want to have to argue with the MIT administration about all the details of " "the license I was going to use. So, by quitting my job, I took them out of " "the equation, and I have never had a job since then. However, the head of " "the AI Lab was nice enough to let me keep using the facilities, so I began " "using a UNIX machine at the AI Lab to start bootstrapping pieces of the GNU " "system." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "I had never used UNIX before that time. I was never a UNIX wizard and I " "chose to follow the design of UNIX for the exact reason that I've told you, " "not because UNIX was my favorite system or anything. Sometimes people write " "that it was changes in UNIX's licensing policy that inspired GNU. Well, this " "is not true; in fact, UNIX was never free software. They were more or less " "restrictive and more or less nasty about enforcing the requirements, but it " "was never free software, so those changes actually made no difference and, " "in any case, they took place long before I ever saw an actual UNIX machine." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "4. GNU Emacs" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, at the time, I thought that I and the other people I was recruiting to " "try to help would develop all these pieces and make a complete system and " "then we'd say, “come and get it.” But that's not how it " "happened. In September '84, I started developing GNU Emacs, which was my " "second implementation of the extensible programmable text editor. And by " "early '85, it was suitable for me to do all my editing with it. Now, that " "was a big relief. You see, I had absolutely no intention of learning to use " "Vi. [Laughter, applause] So, until that point, I did my editing on other " "machines where there was an Emacs and copied the files through the net, in " "order to test them on the UNIX machine. Once GNU Emacs was running, I could " "do my editing on the UNIX machine." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But other people wanted to get copies of GNU Emacs to use it for their " "editing, to use it on their UNIX systems. There was no GNU system yet, there " "were just a few pieces. But this one piece turned out to be interesting by " "itself. People asked me for copies, so I had to work out the details of how " "to distribute it. Of course, I put a copy in the anonymous FTP server, and " "that was good for people on the net, but in 1985, most programmers were not " "on the Internet. So they asked me for copies; what was I going to say? I " "could have said, “I want to spend my time writing more pieces of the " "GNU system, not writing mag tapes, so please find a friend who can download " "it and put it on tape for you,” and they would have found people " "sooner or later, because programmers generally know other programmers." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "5. Expensive habits" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But I had no job, and I was looking for some way to make some money through " "my work on free software. So I announced, “send me $150 and I'll mail " "you a tape of GNU Emacs.” And the orders began dribbling in. By the " "middle of the year, they were trickling in, eight to ten orders a month, " "which, if necessary, I could have lived on." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "That's because I make efforts to resist expensive habits. An expensive habit " "is like a trap; it's dangerous. Now most Americans have the exact opposite " "attitude: if they make this much money, they look for how to spend this " "much, [makes ample gesture] which is completely imprudent. So they start " "buying houses and cars and boats and planes and rare stamps and artwork and " "adventure travel and children, [laughter] all sorts of expensive luxuries " "that use up a lot of the world's resources, especially the children." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And then, the next thing they know, they've got to desperately struggle all " "day long to get money to pay for these things, so they have no time even to " "enjoy them, which is especially sad when it's a matter of children. The " "other things, I guess, can get repossessed. So then they become puppets of " "money, unable to decide what they're going to do with their lives. If you " "don't want to be a puppet of money, then resist the expensive habits, so " "that the less you need to spend to live on, the more flexibility you've got " "and the less of your life you're forced to spend to make that money." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "So I still live, basically, like a student, and I want it to be that way." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "6. Definition of free software" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But people sometimes used to say to me, “what do you mean, it's free " "software, if it costs $150?” Well, the English word “free” " "has multiple meanings and they were confused by that. It even took me a few " "years to realize that I needed to clarify this. One meaning, you see, refers " "to price, and another meaning refers to freedom. When we speak of free " "software, we're talking about freedom, not price. So think of “free " "speech,” not “free beer.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Some users got their copies of GNU Emacs from me through the net, and did " "not pay. Some users got their copies from me on a tape, and did pay. And " "some got their copies from someone else, not from me, because everyone who " "had a copy was free to redistribute it. And did they pay that somebody else? " "Well, I don't know; that was between them. They didn't have to tell me. So " "GNU Emacs was gratis for some users and paid for for other users, but it was " "free software for all of them, because all of them had certain essential " "freedoms, which are the definition of free software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So let me now give you the definition of free software. You see, it's very " "easy to say “I'm in favor of freedom.” I mean, even Bush can say " "that. [Laughter] I don't think he knows what it means. But the point is, " "unless you make a person get more specific, it's just cheap talk. So let me " "give you—let me get more specific now, and give you the definition of " "free software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "A program is free software for you, a particular user, if you have the " "following four freedoms:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Freedom 0 is the freedom to run the program however you like; Freedom 1 is " "the freedom to help yourself by studying the source code to see what the " "program really does and then changing it to do what you want; Freedom 2 is " "the freedom to help your neighbor by distributing copies to others; and " "Freedom 3 is the freedom to help build your community, that is the freedom " "to publish a modified version so others can benefit from your changes;" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "All four of these freedoms are essential. They are not levels of freedom, " "they are four freedoms, all of which you must have in order for the program " "to qualify as free software. All of these are freedoms that no computer user " "should ever be denied." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "[<a href=\"/philosophy/free-sw.html\">gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html</a>]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "7. Freedom 2 moral dilemma" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "Why these particular freedoms? Why should we define it this way?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Freedom 2 is necessary so that you can live an upright life, so that you can " "be ethical, be a good member of society. If you use a program that does not " "give you Freedom 2, the freedom to help your neighbor, the freedom to " "distribute copies to others, then you are facing a potential moral dilemma " "that could happen at any moment, when somebody comes up and says, " "“could I have a copy of that program?” At that point, what are " "you going to do? You're forced to choose between two evils. One evil is to " "make a copy of the program for that person and violate the license. The " "other evil is to comply with the license, but be a bad neighbor. So you've " "got to choose the lesser evil, which is to make a copy for that person and " "violate the license. [Laughter, applause]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "You see, in this case, this evil is lesser because it's directed at somebody " "who intentionally tried to divide you from the rest of society, and thus did " "something extremely wrong to you; and therefore deserves it. However, it's " "not good to live your life by lying to people. When somebody {asks you to " "promise that} says, “I'll let you have a copy of this, but you'll have " "to promise not to share it with anyone,” the right thing to do is say " "no. Once you have thought about this moral dilemma, you should anticipate " "that when you start using that program it's going to lead you to choose " "between two evils, and therefore you should refuse to use that program. You " "should just say “no, thanks” to it, and that's the principle " "that I believe in. If someone offers me a program that I'm not free to share " "with you, I'm going to say no, on principle." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "In fact, I was once in the audience when John Perry Barlow was giving a " "speech and he said, “raise your hands if you have no unauthorized " "copies of software.” And he was surprised to see someone raise his " "hand, until he saw it was me. And then he said, “oh, of course, " "you,” because he knew why I have no unauthorized copies; that's " "because all my copies of software are free software, and everybody's " "authorized to make copies. That's the whole point." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "8. Freedom 2 spirit of good will" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The most essential resource of any society is the spirit of good will, the " "willingness to help your neighbor; not necessarily every time you're asked, " "but fairly often. This is what makes the difference between a livable " "society and a dog-eat-dog jungle. This spirit is not going to be 100% and " "it's not going to be zero, but it's going to be somewhere in " "between—and cultural actions can influence it, can raise it or lower " "it. And it's essential to work to raise it some, because that makes life " "easier for everyone. So it's no accident that the world's major religions " "have been encouraging this spirit of good will for thousands of years." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So what does it mean when powerful social institutions say that it's wrong " "to share? They're poisoning this vital resource, something no society can " "afford. Now what does it mean when they say that if you share with your " "neighbor, you're a pirate? They're saying that helping your neighbor is the " "moral equivalent of attacking a ship. Well, nothing could be more wrong than " "that. Attacking ships is very, very bad; helping your neighbor is good." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And what does it mean when they establish harsh punishments for anyone " "caught sharing? How much fear do you think it's going to take before " "everyone's too scared to help his neighbor? And do you want that terror " "campaign to go on in our society? I hope that the answer is no. We need to " "abolish the war on copying that is being imposed on our society. We need to " "say, loud and clear, “copying and sharing with your neighbor is good, " "it's legitimate, and laws that prohibit this are wrong.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "9. Freedom 0 to run a program, Freedom 1 to modify it" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So that's the reason for Freedom 2; it's essentially an ethical reason. You " "can't live an ethical life if you don't have Freedom 2." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Freedom 0 is needed for a completely different reason: so you can control " "your own computer. If you are restricted in when or how much or how you can " "run the program, clearly you're not using your computer in freedom. So " "Freedom 0 is obvious, but freedom 0 is not enough, because with Freedom 0 " "all you can do is use the program the way it was programmed by its " "developer. You're free to do this [makes hand sign] or nothing. To really be " "free, you've got to be in control of what the program does, so you need " "Freedom 1, which is the freedom to help yourself, the freedom to study the " "source code and then change it to do what you want." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "If you don't have Freedom 1, you don't know what the program's doing. The " "developer is saying, “just trust me” and blind faith is the only " "way you can do it. And you have to be really blind, given that it's not " "unusual for proprietary programs to have malicious features, features that " "are put in not to serve the user, but rather to impose on, harm or restrict " "the user. For instance, spyware is quite common." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "[51 seconds of missing audio were filled in by RMS in Aug 2010]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Microsoft Windows spies on the user; specific spy features have been found. " "Windows Media Player spies too; it reports to Microsoft whatever the user " "looks at." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "[End replacement for 51 seconds of missing audio]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "course do it. RealPlayer, for instance, spies on you. The TiVo spies on " "you. Some people were excited about the TiVo, enthusiastic about it, because " "it uses some free software inside. But it also has nonfree software in it " "and it spies on you. So this shows it's not enough. We shouldn't cheer when " "something uses some free software; we should cheer when it respects the " "user's freedom." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "10. DRM, back doors, bugs" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But spyware is not as bad as it gets. There are nonfree software packages " "that are deliberately designed to refuse to work. This is called DRM, " "Digital Restrictions Management, where the program says, “I won't let " "you look at that file; I won't let you copy this; I won't let you edit " "this.” Well, who the hell is this program to stop you? And sometimes " "nonfree programs will reconfigure your machine, for instance make it display " "advertisements, figuring that you won't know it's going to happen and you " "won't know how to undo it afterward." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And sometimes they have actual back doors. For instance, Windows XP has a " "back door: when it asks for an upgrade, it tells Microsoft who you are, so " "Microsoft can give you an upgrade designed just for you. And this upgrade " "could have secret accounts, it could have special spy features, it could " "just refuse to work. And there's essentially nothing you can do. So that's " "the back door that Microsoft knows about and we know about." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "[Added in 2010: We later learned that Microsoft can force " "“upgrades”—a much nastier back door.]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "There might be other back doors that we don't know about and maybe even " "Microsoft doesn't know about. When I was in India in January, I was told " "some programmers in India had been arrested and accused of working for " "Al-Qaeda, trying to introduce back doors into Windows XP. So, apparently, " "that effort failed. But did some others succeed? There's no way we can tell." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, I won't claim that all developers of nonfree software put in malicious " "features. There are some who try to put in features so that they will be " "convenient for the user and only for that. But they are humans, so they make " "mistakes. They can design features with all the best will that you don't " "like, or they can write bugs in their code. And when that happens, you're " "helpless too; you're the helpless prisoner of any decision that they " "make. Whether it's malicious or made with good will, if you don't like it, " "you're stuck." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, we, the developers of free software, are also human, we also make " "mistakes. I have designed features that users didn't like. I have written " "code that had bugs in it. The difference is, {with our} you're not a " "prisoner of our decisions, because we don't keep you helpless. If you don't " "like my decisions, you can change them, because you have the freedom to " "change them. I won't blame the developers of nonfree, user-subjugating " "software for being human and making mistakes; I will blame them for keeping " "you helpless prisoner of their mistakes by denying you the freedom to " "correct those mistakes yourself." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "11. Freedom 3 having no master" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But Freedom 1 is not enough. Freedom 1 is the freedom personally to study " "and change the source code. Freedom 1 is not enough because there are " "millions of users who use computers, but don't know how to program, so they " "can't take advantage of Freedom 1, not personally. And Freedom 1 is not " "enough even for us programmers, because there's just so much software, even " "so much free software, that nobody has the time to study it all and master " "it all and make all the changes that she wants." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So the only way we can really, fully have control over our own software is " "if we do so together. And that's what Freedom 3 is for. Freedom 3 is the " "freedom to publish a modified version, so others can use it too. And this is " "what enables us to work together, taking control of our software. Because I " "could make this change in a program and publish the modified version, and " "then you could make that change and publish the modified version, and " "someone else can make that change and publish the modified version. And now " "we've got a version with all three changes in it and everybody can switch to " "that if everybody likes it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "With this freedom, any collectivity of users can take control together and " "make the software do what they together want. Suppose there are 1,000,000 " "users who would like a certain change. Well, by luck, some of them will be " "programmers; let's say there are 10,000 of them who know how to " "program. Well, sooner or later, a few of them will make the change and " "publish the modified version and then all of those million users can switch " "to it. You know, most of them don't know how to program, but they can still " "switch to it. So they all get what they want." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now let's suppose there are only 1,000 people who want some other change and " "none of them knows how to program. They can still make use of these " "freedoms. They can form an organization and each put in money, so if each " "puts in $100, that makes $100,000. And at that point they can go to a " "programming company and say, “will you make this change for $100,000 " "and when can you have it done?” And if they don't like the answer from " "there, they can go to another programming company and say, “will you " "make this change and when can you have it done?” Which shows us, first " "of all, that these 1,000 users who don't know how to program can, by using " "the four freedoms, get the change that they want. And second, it shows that " "free software means a free market for support." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Proprietary software typically means a monopoly for support. Only the " "developer has the source code in most cases, so only the developer can offer " "any support. If you want a change, you've got to go to the developer and " "beg. Now, if you're very big and important, maybe the developer will pay " "attention. If you're not, the developer will say, “go away, don't " "bother me.” Or maybe the developer will say, “pay us and we'll " "let you report a bug.” And if you do that, the developer will say, " "“thank you. In six months there will be an upgrade. Buy the upgrade " "and you'll see if this bug was fixed and you will see what new bugs we have " "for you.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But with free software, you're dealing with a free market, so that those who " "really value support can, in general, get better support for their money by " "using free software. Now, one paradoxical consequence of this is, when you " "have a choice between several nonfree programs to do a job, this is actually " "a choice between monopolies. If you pick this program, the support for it " "afterwards will be a monopoly. If you pick this program, [points hand in " "different direction] the support for it will be a different monopoly, and if " "you pick this program, [points hand in different direction] the support for " "it will be yet another monopoly. So you're choosing one of these three " "monopolies." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, what this shows is that merely having a choice between a discrete set " "of options is not freedom. Freedom is something much deeper and much broader " "than having a few choices you can make. Many people try to equate freedom " "with having some choice and they're missing the point completely. Freedom " "means that you get to make the decisions about how to live your life. {It " "doesn't mean, you know} Having three choices about being able to choose this " "master or this master or this master is just a choice of masters, and a " "choice of masters is not freedom. Freedom is having no master." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "12. Copyleft forbidding is forbidden" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So I've explained the reasons for the four freedoms. And thus I've explained " "to you what free software means. A program is free software for you, a " "particular user, if you have all of these four freedoms. Why do I define it " "that way? The reason is that sometimes the same code can be free software " "for some users and nonfree for the rest. This might seem strange, so let me " "give you an example to show how it happens." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The biggest example I know of is the X Window System. It was developed at " "MIT in the late '80s and released under a license that gave the user all " "four freedoms, so if you got X in source code under that license, it was " "free software for you. Among those who got it were various computer " "manufacturers that distributed UNIX systems. They got the source code for X, " "they changed it as necessary to run on their platform, they compiled it and " "they put the binaries into their UNIX system, and they distributed only the " "binaries to all of their customers under the same license as the rest of " "UNIX—the same non-disclosure agreement." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, for those many users, the X Window System was no more free than the rest " "of UNIX. In this paradoxical situation, the answer to the question “is " "X free software or not?” depended on where you made the " "measurement. If you made the measurement coming out of the developer's " "group, you'd say, “I observe all four freedoms; it's free " "software.” If you made the measurement among the users, you'd say, " "“most of them don't have these freedoms; it's not free " "software.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The developers of X did not consider this a problem, because their goal was " "not to give users freedom, it was to have a big success, and as far as they " "were concerned, those many users who were using the X Window System without " "freedom were just a part of their big success. But, in the GNU Project, our " "goal specifically was to give the users freedom. If what happened to X had " "happened to GNU, GNU would be a failure." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So I looked for a way to stop this from happening. And the method I came up " "with is called copyleft. Copyleft is based legally on copyright law, and you " "can think of it as taking copyright and flipping it over to get copyleft." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Here's how it works: we start with a copyright notice which legally doesn't " "actually make a difference anymore, but it reminds people that the program " "is copyrighted, which means that, by default, it's prohibited to copy, " "distribute or modify this program." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But then we say, “you are authorized to make copies, you are " "authorized to distribute them, you are authorized to modify this program and " "you are authorized to publish modified or extended versions.” But " "there is a condition, and the condition says that any program you distribute " "that contains any substantial part of this must, as a whole, be distributed " "under these conditions, no more and no less. Which means that, no matter how " "many people modify the program or how much, as long as any substantial " "amount of our code is in there, that program must be free software in the " "same way. In effect, we guarantee that nobody can put himself between you " "and me and strip off the freedom and pass the code on to you missing the " "freedom. In other words, forbidding is forbidden." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "13. GNU General Public License" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Copyleft makes the four freedoms into inalienable rights for all users, so " "that wherever the code goes, the freedom goes with it. The specific license " "that we use to implement the general concept of copyleft is called the GNU " "General Public License, or GNU GPL for short. This license is used for " "around two thirds or three quarters of all free software packages. But that " "still leaves a substantial number that have other licenses. Some of those " "licenses are copyleft licenses, some are not. So we have copylefted free " "software and we have non-copylefted free software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "In both cases, the developers have respected your freedom; they have not " "tried to trample your freedom. The difference is, with copyleft we go " "further and we actively defend your freedom against anyone who would try to " "be a middleman and take it away from you, whereas the developers of " "non-copylefted free software don't do that. They have not tried to take away " "your freedom, but they don't actively protect your freedom from anyone " "else. So I think that they could do more for the sake of freedom. But they " "haven't done anything bad; insofar as they have done things, those things " "are good. So I won't say that they are wrong, I will just say that they " "could do more. I think that they're making a mistake." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But their work is free software, so it does contribute to our community and, " "in fact, that software can be part of a free operating system such as GNU." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "13a. Developing GNU" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "During the 1980s, our work on the GNU Project was to develop or find all " "these pieces of GNU so that we could have a complete GNU system. In some " "cases, someone else wrote a program and made it free software and we were " "able to use it, and that was good because it shortened the work that we had " "to do. For instance, the X Window System is one of the programs that was " "developed by others for reasons of their own, but they did make it free " "software, so we could use it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, people were saying the job was so big, we'd never finish it. Well, I " "thought we would eventually get a free operating system but I agreed the job " "was big; we had to look for shortcuts. So, for instance, I always wanted to " "have windowing facilities in GNU. I had written a couple of window systems " "at the AI LAB before even starting GNU, so of course I wanted that in the " "system. But we never developed a GNU window system because someone else " "developed X first. I looked at it and I said, “well, it's not " "copylefted, but it is free, it's popular, it's powerful, so let's just use " "it.” And so we saved one big chunk of work. So we took it, X, and we " "put it into the GNU system and we started making other pieces of GNU work " "with X. Because the goal was to have a free operating system, not to have a " "free operating system every piece of which had been written purposely by us " "just for that." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "14. Making money off free software" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "However, it only happened occasionally that someone else released some free " "software that was useful in GNU and when it happened, it was a coincidence, " "because they were not writing this software in order to have a free " "operating system. So when it happened, that was great, but there were lots " "of other pieces we had to develop. Some were developed by staff of the Free " "Software Foundation. The Free Software Foundation is a tax-exempt charity to " "promote free software which we founded in October, '85, after GNU Emacs' " "popularity suggested that people might actually start donating money to the " "GNU project." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So we founded the Free Software Foundation and it asked for donations, but " "also took over selling the tapes of GNU Emacs. And it turns out that most of " "the FSF's income for the first many years came from that, from selling " "things, from selling copies of software and manuals that everyone was free " "to copy. Now this is interesting, because this was supposedly impossible; " "but we did it anyway." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now that meant I had to find some other way to make a living. As the " "president of the FSF, I did not want to compete with it; I thought that " "would be unfair and not correct behavior. So I started making my living by " "commissions to change the software I had written and teaching classes about " "it. So people would want some change to be made in Emacs or GCC, and they " "would think of hiring me, because they figured I was the author so I could " "do a better job faster. So I started charging as much as $250 an hour and I " "calculated I could make a living in 7 weeks of paid work per year—and " "that meant enough money to spend, an equal amount to save, and an equal " "amount for taxes. And [when I reached] that point I figured, “I won't " "take any more paid work this year, I've got other, better things to " "do.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So I've actually had three different free software businesses during the " "period I've been working on GNU. I've described two of them; the third one " "is, I get paid for some of my speeches. Whether I get paid for this speech, " "I don't yet know. [Laughter] I said, “please pay me what you " "can.” Now, I think Google ought to be able to afford to pay me some " "handsome amount, but whether it will, I don't know. Anyway, I figured it's " "worth doing the speech just for the good it will do for the movement." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "15. Why write free software" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So this raises the question of why people develop free software. You see, " "there are people who believe that no one would ever write software except to " "get paid, that that's the only motive that anyone would ever have to write " "code. It's amazing, the kind of utterly stupid, simplistic theories that " "people will sometimes believe because that's part of a prevailing ideology." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, human nature is very complex. Whatever it is people are doing, they " "might do for various reasons. In fact, one person will often have multiple " "motives simultaneously for a single act. Nonetheless, there are people who " "say, “if the software is free, that means nobody's paid to write it, " "so no one will write it.” Now, obviously they were confusing the two " "meanings of the word “free,” so their theory was based on a " "confusion. In any case, we can compare their theory with empirical fact and " "we can see that at least hundreds, maybe thousands of people are paid to " "work on free software, including some people here, I believe, and there are " "about a million or so people developing free software at all for the many " "different reasons they have. {So to say that nobody} This simplistic theory " "about motivation is absurd." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So let's see what motivates people to write free software; what are the real " "motives? Well, I don't necessarily know about them. There could always be a " "person who has a motive that I don't know about or I've forgotten about. I " "can only tell you the motives that I recall encountering." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "One motive is political idealism: making the world a better place where we " "can live together in freedom. Now, that's a very important motive for me, " "but it's not my only motive. And there are others who write free software " "and don't agree with that motive at all." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Another motive that's very important is fun. Programming is tremendous " "fun. Not for everybody, of course, but for a lot of the best " "programmers. And these are the people whose contributions we want most. In " "fact, it's so much fun, it's especially fun, when no one can tell you what " "to do, which is why so many people who have jobs programming like to write " "free software in their spare time." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But this is not the only motive; another motive is to be appreciated. If 1% " "of our community is using your program, that's hundreds of thousands of " "users. That's a lot of people admiring you." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Another related, but different, motive is professional reputation. If 1% of " "our community is using your program, you can put that on your resume and it " "proves you're a good programmer. You don't even have to go to school." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Another motivation is gratitude. If you've been using the community's free " "software for years and appreciating it, then when you write a program, " "that's your opportunity to pay something back to the community that has " "given you so much." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Another motivation is hatred for Microsoft. [Laughter] Now, this is a rather " "foolish motive, because Microsoft is really just one of many developers of " "nonfree software and they're all doing the same evil thing. It's a mistake " "to focus [solely] on Microsoft, and this mistake can have bad " "consequences. When people focus too much on Microsoft, they start forgetting " "that all the others are doing something just as bad. And they may end up " "thinking that anything that competes with Microsoft is good, even if it is " "also nonfree software and thus inherently just as evil." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, it's true that these other companies have not subjugated as many users " "as Microsoft has, but that's not for want of trying; they just haven't " "succeeded in mistreating as many people as Microsoft has, which is hardly, " "ethically speaking, an excuse. Nonetheless, {when this particular motive " "motivates} this motive does motivate people to develop free software, so we " "have to count it as one of the motives that has this result." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And another motive is money. When people were being paid to develop free " "software, that's part of their motive for the work that they're doing. In " "fact, when I was paid to make improvements in various programs I had " "written, that money was part of my motive for doing those particular jobs, " "too." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "[RMS, 2010: A motive I forgot to mention is improving a free program because " "you want to use the improvement yourself.]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So there are many possible motives to write free software. And, fortunately, " "there are many developers of free software and a lot of free software is " "being developed." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "16. The Kernel, Linux" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, during the 1980s we were filling in these missing pieces of the GNU " "operating system. By the early '90s we had almost everything necessary. Only " "one important piece was missing, one essential piece for an initial system, " "and that was the kernel. We started developing a kernel in 1990. {I was " "looking for some way to} I was looking for some shortcut, some way we could " "start from something existing. I thought that debugging a kernel would be " "painful, because you don't get to do it with your symbolic debugger, and " "when it crashes, it's sort of annoying." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So I was looking for a way to bypass that work, and I found one eventually, " "a microkernel called Mach that had been developed as a funded project at " "Carnegie Mellon. Now, Mach doesn't have all the features of UNIX; the idea " "is, it provides certain general low-level features and you implement the " "rest in user programs. Well, that, I thought, would be easy to debug, " "because they're user programs; when they crash, the system isn't dead. So " "people began working on those user programs, which we called the GNU Hurd, " "because it's a herd of GNU servers (you see, gnus live in herds)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Anyway, I thought that this design would enable us to get the job done " "faster, but it didn't work out that way; it actually took many years to get " "the Hurd to run, partly because Mach was unreliable, partly because the " "debugging environment wasn't very good, partly because it's hard to debug " "these multithreaded, asynchronous programs and partly because this was " "somewhat of a research project. At least that's as far as I can tell; I was " "never involved in the actual development of the Hurd." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Fortunately, we didn't have to wait for that, because in 1991, Linus " "Torvalds, a Finnish college student, developed his own kernel, using the " "traditional monolithic design, and he got it to barely run in less than a " "year. Initially, Linux—that's what this kernel's name was—was " "not free, but in 1992 he re-released it under the GNU General Public License " "and at that point it was free software. And so it was possible, by combining " "Linux and the GNU system, to make a complete free operating system. And " "thus, the goal we had set out for, that I had announced in 1983, had been " "reached: there was, for the first time, a complete modern operating system " "for modern computers, and it was possible to get a modern computer and run " "it without betraying the rest of humanity, without being subjugated. You " "could do this by installing the GNU + Linux operating system." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "17. GNU vs. Linux confusion problem freedom" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But the people who combined GNU and Linux got confused and they started " "naming the entire thing Linux, which was actually the name of one piece. And " "somehow that confusion spread faster than we have been able to correct " "it. So I'm sure you've heard many people speaking of Linux as an operating " "system, an operating system {most of which} which basically started in 1984 " "under the name of the GNU Project." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, this clearly isn't right. This system isn't Linux; it contains Linux, " "Linux is the kernel, but the system as a whole is basically GNU. So I ask " "you: please don't call it Linux. If you call it Linux, you're giving Linus " "Torvalds credit for our work. Now, he contributed one important piece of the " "system, but he didn't contribute the biggest part and the overall vision was " "there long before he got involved. We started developing the system when he " "was in junior high school. So please give us equal mention; surely we " "deserve at least that. You can do that by calling the system GNU/Linux, or " "GNU+Linux, or GNU&Linux, whichever punctuation mark you feel expresses " "it best." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "[<a href=\"/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html\">gnu.org/gnu/gnu-linux-faq.html</a>]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, of course, part of the reason why I'm asking for this is that we " "deserve credit, but that's not really a very important thing. If it were " "just a matter of credit, it wouldn't be worth making a fuss about. But there " "more at stake here. You see, when people think that the system is Linux, " "they then assume incorrectly that it was mainly developed and started by " "Linus Torvalds and then they assume incorrectly that the overall vision came " "from him, so they look at his vision and follow that. Now, his vision is " "apolitical. He's not motivated to fight for freedom. He doesn't believe that " "computer users deserve the freedom to share and change software. He has " "never supported our philosophy. Well, he has a right to his views and the " "fact that he disagrees with us doesn't reduce the value of his contribution." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The reason we have the GNU+Linux system is because of a many-year campaign " "for freedom. We in the GNU Project didn't develop Linux, just as we didn't " "develop X, or TeX, or various other free programs that are now important " "parts of the system. But people who didn't share our values, who weren't " "motivated by the determination to live in freedom, would have seen no reason " "to aim for a complete system, and they would never have done so, and never " "have produced such a thing, if not for us." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But this tends to be forgotten nowadays. You will see, if you look around, " "most of the discussion of the GNU system calls it Linux, and tends to refer " "to it as “open source” rather than as “free " "software,” and doesn't mention freedom as an issue. This issue, which " "is the reason for the system's existence, is mostly forgotten. You see many " "techies who prefer to think of technical questions in a narrowly technical " "context, without looking beyond at social effects of their technical " "decisions. Whether the software tramples your freedom or respects your " "freedom, that's part of the social context. That's exactly what techies tend " "to forget or devalue." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "We have to work constantly to remind people to pay attention to freedom and, " "unfortunately, while we keep doing this, the users of our system often don't " "pay attention because they don't know it's our system. They don't know it's " "the GNU system, they think it's Linux. And that's why it makes a real " "difference if you remind people where the system came from." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "People will say to me that it doesn't look good to ask for credit. Well, " "I'm not asking for credit for me personally; I'm asking for credit for the " "GNU Project, which includes thousands of developers. But they are right, " "it's true: people who are looking for some reason to see evil can see evil " "in that. So they go on and say, “you should let it drop, and when " "people call the system Linux, you can smile to yourself and take pride in a " "job well done.” That would be very wise advice if the assumption were " "correct: the assumption that the job is done." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "We've made a great beginning, but that's all. We haven't finished the " "job. We will have finished the job when every computer is running a free " "operating system and free application programs exclusively. The job is to " "liberate the inhabitants of cyberspace. We've made a great beginning; we've " "developed free operating systems and free GUI desktops and free office " "suites and there are now tens of millions of users of these. But there are " "hundreds of millions of users of proprietary systems, so we have a long way " "to go. And, despite this wide range of free software, there are still a lot " "of application things that there is no free software to do; so we have a lot " "more work ahead of us." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "We've come in view of finishing the job, you know. Maybe we're only one " "order of magnitude away, having come through many orders of magnitude. But " "that doesn't mean that what's left is easy. And today we have something that " "we didn't have before: we have enemies; powerful, rich enemies, powerful " "enough to buy governments." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "18. Enemies of free software" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "At the beginning, GNU and the free software movement had no enemies. There " "were people who weren't interested, lots of them, but nobody was actively " "trying to stop us from developing and releasing a free operating " "system. Nowadays, they are trying to stop us and the main obstacle we face " "is this, rather than the work itself." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "In the US, there are two different laws that prohibit various kinds of free " "software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "One of them is the DMCA, which has been used to prohibit the free software " "to play a DVD. If you buy a DVD, it's lawful for you to view it in your " "computer, but the free software that would enable you to do this on your " "GNU/Linux system has been censored in the US. Now, this affects a fairly " "narrow range of software: software to view encrypted media. But many users " "may want to do that, and if they can't do that with free software, they may " "take that as a reason to use nonfree software, if they don't value their " "freedom." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But the big danger comes from patent law, because the US allows software " "ideas to be patented. Now, writing a non-trivial program means combining " "hundreds of different ideas. It's very hard to do that if any one of those " "ideas might be someone's monopoly. It makes software development like " "crossing a mine field, because at each design decision, probably nothing " "happens to you, but there's a certain chance that you will step on a patent " "and it will blow up your project. And, considering how many steps you have " "to take, that adds up into a serious problem. We have a long list of " "features that free software packages don't have, because we're scared to " "implement them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "[<a href=\"https://endsoftwarepatents.org\">endsoftwarepatents.org</a>]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And now, the FCC is considering applying the broadcast flag regulation to " "software. The FCC adopted a regulation {prohibiting digital TV tuners " "unless} requiring digital TV tuners to have a mechanism to block copying and " "this has to be tamper-resistant, meaning it can't be implemented in free " "software. They haven't finished deciding whether this applies to software or " "not, but if they do, they will have prohibited GNU Radio, which is free " "software that can decode digital TV broadcasts." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Then, there's the threat from hardware that has secret specifications or is " "designed to interfere with the user's control. Nowadays there are many " "pieces of hardware you can get for your PC whose specifications are " "secret. They'll sell you the hardware, but they won't tell you how to run " "it. So how do we write free software to run it? Well, we either have to " "figure out the specs by reverse engineering or we have to put market " "pressure on those companies. And in both cases, we are weakened by the fact " "that so many of the users of GNU/Linux don't know why this system was " "developed and have never heard of these ideas that I'm telling you " "today. And the reason is that, when they hear about the system, they hear it " "called Linux and it's associated with the apolitical philosophy of Linus " "Torvalds." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Linus Torvalds is still working on developing Linux. {which is, you know} " "Developing the kernel was an important contribution to our community. At the " "same time, he is setting a very public bad example by using a nonfree " "program to do the job. Now, if he were using a nonfree program privately, I " "would never even have heard about it and I wouldn't make a fuss about " "it. But by inviting the other people who work on Linux to use it with him, " "he's setting a very public example legitimizing the use of nonfree " "software. So when people see that, you know, if they think that's okay, " "they can't possibly believe that nonfree software is bad. So then, when " "these companies say, “yes, {we support} our hardware supports Linux, " "here is this binary-only driver you can install, and then it will " "work,” these people see nothing wrong in that, so they don't apply " "their market pressure and they don't feel motivated to help in reverse " "engineering." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So when we face the various dangers that we must confront, we are weakened " "by the lack of resolve. Now, having strong motivation to fight for freedom " "won't guarantee that we win all of these fights, but it will sure help. It " "will make us try harder, and if we try harder, we'll win more of them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "19. Treacherous computing" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "We are going to have to politically organize to keep from being completely " "prohibited from writing free software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Today, one of the most insidious threats to the future of free software " "comes from treacherous computing, which is a conspiracy of many large " "corporations. They call it “trusted computing,” but what do they " "mean by that? What they mean is that an application developer can trust your " "computer to obey him and disobey you. So, from your point of view, it's " "_treacherous computing_, because your computer won't obey you anymore. The " "purpose of this plan is that you won't control your computer." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "[<a " "href=\"/philosophy/can-you-trust.html\">gnu.org/philosophy/can-you-trust.html</a>]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And there are various different things that treacherous computing can be " "used to do, things like prohibit you from running any program that hasn't " "been authorized by the operating system developer. That's one thing they " "could do. But they may not feel they dare go that far. But another thing " "that they plan to do is to have data that's only available to a particular " "application. The idea is that an application will be able to write data in " "an encrypted form, such that it can only be decrypted by the same " "application, such that nobody else can independently write another program " "to access that data. And, of course, they would use that for limiting access " "to published works, you know, something to be a replacement for DVDs so that " "it would be not only illegal, but impossible to write the free software to " "play it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But they don't have to stop at doing this to published data. They could do " "it to your data too. Imagine if treacherous computing is common in 10 years " "and Microsoft decides to come out with a new version of Word format that " "uses treacherous computing to encrypt your data. Then it would be impossible " "to write free software to read word files. Microsoft is trying every " "possible method to prevent us from having free software to read Word " "files. First, they switched to a secret Word format, so people had to try to " "figure out the format. Well, we more or less have figured it out. There are " "free programs that will read most Word files (not all)." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But then they came up with another idea. They said, “let's use " "XML.” Now here's what Microsoft means when they speak of using " "XML. The beginning of the file has a trivial thing that says “this is " "XML and here comes binary Word format data,” and then there's the " "binary Word format data and then there's something at the end that says, " "“that was binary Word format data.” And they patented this. {so " "that… I'm not sure} I don't know exactly what the patent does and " "doesn't cover, but, you know, there are things we could do, either reading " "or writing that file format, probably they could try suing us about. And I'm " "sure that, if treacherous computing is available for them to use, they'll " "use that too." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This is why we have a campaign to refuse to read Word files. Now there are " "many reasons you should refuse to read Word files. One is, they could have " "viruses in them. If someone sends you a Word file, you shouldn't look at " "it. But the point is, you shouldn't even try to look at it. Nowadays there " "are free programs that will read most Word files. But it's really better, " "better than trying to read the file is if you send a message back saying, " "“please send that to me in a format that isn't secret. It's not a good " "idea to send people Word files.” And the reason is, we have to " "overcome the tendency in society for people to use these secret formats for " "communication." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "We have to convince people to insist on publicly documented standard formats " "that everyone is free to implement. And Word format is the worst offender " "and so that's the best place to start. If somebody sends you a Word file, " "don't try to read it. Write back, saying “you really shouldn't do " "that.” And there's a page in www.gnu.org/philosophy which is good to " "reference. It gives an explanation of why this is an important issue." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "[<a " "href=\"/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html\">gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html</a>]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "20. Help GNU" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, www.gnu.org is the website of the GNU Project. So you can go there for " "more information. In the /gnu directory you'll find the history and in the " "/philosophy directory you'll find articles about the philosophy of free " "software and in the /directory you'll find the Free Software Directory, " "which now lists over 3,000 usable free software packages that will run the " "on GNU/Linux system." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "[It is now over 6000, and located in directory.fsf.org]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, I'm about to close my speech, but before I do, I'd like to mention that " "I've got some stickers here to give away. These stickers show a flying gnu " "and a flying penguin, both rather unrealistic, but they're superheroes. And " "{I also have some things} if people don't mind, I've got some things I'm " "selling on behalf of the Free Software Foundation, so if you buy them, " "you're supporting us. I've got these buttons that say, “ask me about " "free software—it's all about freedom” and I've got some GNU " "keyrings and GNU pins that are sort of pretty. So you can buy those. You " "can also support us by becoming an associate member. Now, you can do that " "just through our website, but I also have some cards you can have if you " "would like to join [right now]." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "21. Saint Ignucius" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So now I will close my speech by presenting my alter ego. See, people " "sometimes accuse me of having a “holier than thou” " "attitude. Now, I hope that's not true. I'm not going to condemn somebody " "just for not being as firmly committed as I am. I will try to encourage him " "to become more so, but that's different. So I don't think I really have a " "“holier than thou” attitude, but I have a holy attitude because " "I'm a saint; it's my job to be holy." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "[Dons a black robe and a magnetic disk halo]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "[Laughter, applause]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "[Richard holds a laptop like a holy book and waves]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "I am Saint Ignucius of the Church of Emacs. I bless your computer, my child." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Emacs started out as a text editor which became a way of life for many " "computer users and then a religion. Does anyone know what the " "alt.religion.emacs newsgroup was used for? I know it existed, but since I'd " "never read net news, I don't know what was said in it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "In any case, now we even have a great schism between two rival versions of " "Emacs, and we also have saints; no gods, though." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "To be a member of the Church of Emacs, you must recite the Confession of the " "Faith: you must say, “There is no system but GNU, and Linux is one of " "its kernels.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The Church of Emacs has advantages compared with other churches I might " "name. To be a saint in the Church of Emacs does not require celibacy. So if " "you're looking for a church in which to be holy, you might consider ours." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "However, it does require making a commitment to live a life of moral " "purity. You must exorcise the evil proprietary operating systems that " "possess all the computers under either your practical control or your " "authority, and you must install a wholly [i.e., holy] free operating system, " "where “wholly” can be spelled in more than one way, and then " "only install free software on top of that. If you make this commitment and " "live by it, then you, too, will be a saint and you, too, may eventually have " "a halo—if you can find one, because they don't make them anymore." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Sometimes people ask me if, in the Church of Emacs, it is a sin to use " "Vi. Well, it's true that VI-VI-VI is the editor of the Beast, [laughter] but " "using a free version of Vi is not a sin, it's a penance." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And sometimes people ask me if my halo is really an old computer " "disk. [Points at halo] This is no computer disk, this is my halo. But it was " "a computer disk in a previous existence." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "So, thank you everyone." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "[Applause]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "22. About anonymity, credit cards, cell phones" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "So I can answer questions for a while." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> Yeah, do you know, or can you tell us why Linus Torvalds, " "who has very very different attitudes with yours, released Linux under your " "[unintelligible]? What motivated him?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> I don't know why Linus Torvalds switched to the GNU GPL for " "Linux. You'd have to ask him that. I don't recall ever seeing the reason for " "that. I don't know." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> Can you say something about the current effort to put " "security in the network itself?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> I don't know… he said, “efforts to plug " "security into the network.” I don't know what that means." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> [unintelligible] remove anonymity from the network itself." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> Remove anonymity? Well, I don't know about those efforts, " "but I think it's horrible. I don't do e-commerce because I don't like to buy " "things with credit cards. I want to buy things anonymously and I do so by " "paying cash in a store. I don't like giving Big Brother any records about " "me. For the same reason, I do not have a cell phone. I don't want to carry a " "personal tracking device. We have to fight more to preserve our privacy from " "surveillance systems. So, although I'm not familiar with the specific " "efforts you're talking about, I find them dangerous, much more dangerous " "than computer insecurity. Now, perhaps that's because I'm not a Windows " "user; so I have less problem to deal with." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "23. Free formats, copyright, Microsoft" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> No, we can't. Basically he's asking if we can monopolize " "file formats. Well, the answer is, we can't do so using our copyright-based " "licenses, because copyright does not cover any idea, principle, method of " "operation or system; it only covers the details of expression of a work of " "authorship. So we can't, using our licenses like the GNU GPL, prohibit " "anyone from writing his own code to handle the same format." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "We could conceivably get patents; however, it turns out patents are very, " "very different from copyright; they have almost nothing in common, and it " "turns out it costs a lot of money to get a patent and even more money to " "keep the patent going. And the other thing is, {Microsoft doesn't need to " "get} you shouldn't assume that what Microsoft is getting a patent on is " "important because it's a big improvement. It just has to be " "different. Microsoft can get a patent on something about a file format " "that's different and then they can force most users to switch over to a new " "format that uses that idea. And Microsoft can do this because of its market " "power, its control." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "We can't do that. The whole thing about the free software is, the developers " "don't have any power; the users are in control. We can't force users to " "switch over to anything, not even for their own safety." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "You know, we've been trying since around 1992 or so to convince users to " "stop using GIF format, because that format is patented and some users will " "get sued. So we said, “everybody please stop using GIF format for the " "sake of those who get sued if the public uses this format.” And people " "haven't listened. So the thing is, we can't do what Microsoft does, because " "that's based on using the power that they have, and since we have chosen to " "respect people's freedom, we don't have power over the public." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "24. Dangers of webmail loss of freedom" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> So, when somebody's using Google, they don't have access to " "the source code that we use, so they have no way of [unintelligible] what we " "do, so using that violates their freedom." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> When a person is accessing the Google server, they don't " "have either the binaries or the source code of the program that Google is " "using, because it's Google that's using the program; that person is not " "using the program. So I wouldn't expect to have the authority to change the " "software that's running on your computer. You should have the freedom to " "change the software that's running on your computer, but I would never " "expect that I would have the freedom to go into your computer and change the " "software there. Why should you let me do that? So that's the way I see it " "when a person is using Google server to do a search." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, there is a possible danger there. The danger doesn't come from things " "like Google. The danger comes from things like Hotmail. When people start " "using a server on the net to store their data and to do the jobs that they " "really could be doing on their own computer, that introduces a danger. I've " "never understood the people who said that thin clients were the future, " "because I can't imagine why I would ever do things that way. I've got a PC " "and it's capable of doing things like running a mail reader; I'm going to " "have the mail on my own computer, I'm not going to leave it on anybody's " "server. Especially not a server I have no reason to trust. And these days, " "of course, if you allow your personal data to be on somebody's server, you " "might as well be handing it straight to Ashcroft and his gestapo." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "[RMS, 2010: Gmail is comparable to Hotmail in this regard. See also <a " "href=\"/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html\"> " "gnu.org/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html</a> for another " "issue that applies to some, but not all, network services.]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> unintelligible" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> He's asking, “if people were using a thin client and " "all the computation were done on a remote server.” Yes, it does mean " "that people lose freedom, because, clearly, you can't change the software " "that's set up on somebody else's server, so if you're using the software on " "somebody else's server, instead of running it on your own computer, you lose " "control. Now, I don't think that's a good thing, and therefore I'm going to " "encourage people not to go along with it. People will keep on developing the " "software to do these jobs on your own machine." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "{Leaving so soon? [Laughter] I hope it wasn't something I said. And gee, now " "I won't get to meet her. Anyway.}" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "25. Copyright art vs. software" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> Are the Creative Commons a different denomination of the " "same religion or a different religion?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> {Creative Commons} Well, first of all, this isn't a " "religion, except as a joke. The Church of Emacs is a joke. Please keep in " "mind, taking any church too seriously can be hazardous to your health, even " "the Church of Emacs. So this has nothing to do with religion." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This is a matter of ethics. It's a matter of what makes for a good society " "and what kind of society we want to live in. These are not questions of " "dogma, these are questions of philosophy and politics." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The Creative Commons licenses are designed for artistic works, and I think " "that they are good for artistic works. The issue for artistic works is not " "exactly the same as for software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Software is an example of a practical, functional work. You use it do to a " "job. The main purpose of a program is not that people will read the code and " "think, “boy, how fascinating, what a great job they did.” The " "main purpose of software is, you run it and it does something. And yes, " "those people who are interested in software will also read it and learn, but " "that's not the main purpose. It's interesting because of the job it will do, " "not just because of how nice it is to read. Whereas with art, the main use " "of art is the sensation that you get when you look at it or listen to it. So " "these are very different ways of being used and, as a result, the ethical " "issues about copying and modification are different." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "For practical, functional works, people have to be free with the four " "freedoms, including free to publish a modified version. But for art I " "wouldn't say that. I think that there's a certain minimum freedom that we " "must always have for using any published work, and that is the freedom to " "non-commercially distribute verbatim, exact copies. But I wouldn't say that " "it has to go further than that necessarily. So I think the Creative Commons " "licenses are a very useful and good thing to use for art." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "26. Malicious free software" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> Since everybody has the freedom to modify the code and " "republish it, how do you keep out saboteurs?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> Well, you don't. The point is, you can't ever. So you just " "look at these different versions and you see which one you actually " "like. You can't keep the saboteurs out of nonfree software either; in fact, " "the developer could be the saboteur. The developers often put in, as I said, " "malicious features. And then you're completely helpless. At least with free " "software, you can read the source code, you can compare the two versions. If " "you're thinking of switching from this version to that version, you can " "compare them and see what's different and look for some malicious code." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "27. Patented file formats" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> Do you happen to know which popular file formats are secret " "and which ones are public?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> Well, of the popular file formats, the only ones that I know " "of that are secret are some Microsoft ones. But, on the other hands, there " "are others that have patent problems. For instance, there's still a patent " "covering LZW compression, which is used in GIF format. And someone has a " "patent he claims covers JPEG format and is actually suing a bunch of " "companies. And then there's a patent on MP3 audio, so that the free software " "MP3 encoders have been driven underground in the US [<a " "href=\"#ft1\">1</a>]. That's why people should switch to Ogg Vorbis " "format. And then, if you look at, say, MPEG-2 video, there are 39 different " "US patents said to cover aspects of MPEG-2. So there are a lot of such " "problems." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "28. Games as free software" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> Is there any software that sort of mixes between the " "Creative Commons and functional software, such as games or…?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> Well, {you can say that a game} in many cases you can look " "at a game as the combination of a program and a scenario. And then it would " "make sense to treat the program like a program and the scenario like a work " "of fiction. On the other hand, what you see is that it's quite useful for " "the users to edit and republish modified versions of these scenarios. So, " "although those are like fiction and art, not like software, it really seems " "to be useful for users to be free to change them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "29. GPL freedoms for cars, saving seeds" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> Do you envision this free software philosophy to go across, " "off the boundary to products, commodities…" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> When you say, “products, commodities,” could you " "be concrete?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> [unintelligible] cars" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> So should the free software philosophy apply to cars? Okay, " "well the free software philosophy is, you should be free to copy and modify " "them. So, if you have a car copier, I think you should be free to copy any " "car. But there are no car copiers, so that really is a meaningless " "question. And then, second, modifying. Well, yeah, I think if you've got a " "car, you should be free to modify it and, in fact, lots of people do modify " "their cars. So, there may be some restrictions on that, but to a large " "extent that freedom exists. So what you see is that this isn't really a " "meaningful question when you're talking about physical objects. There are, " "in general, no copiers for physical objects." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "If we imagine, someday in the future, that such copiers exist, well that " "will be a different situation and yeah, that change would have consequences " "for ethics and politics. If we had food copiers, I'm sure that agribusiness " "would be trying to forbid people from having and using food copiers. And " "that would be a tremendous political issue, just as today there's a " "tremendous political issue about whether farmers ought to be allowed to save " "seeds. Now, I believe that they have a fundamental right to save seeds and " "that it's tyranny to stop them. A democratic government would never do that." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "30. No software is better than nonfree software" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> [roughly] Do you see a problem with free software being " "under-produced because nobody wants to invest money [unintelligible]?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> I don't know what you mean by “under-produced.” " "We see that some people develop free software and some don't. So we could " "imagine more people developing free software and, if so, we'd have more of " "it. But, you see, the tragedy of the commons really is a matter of " "overuse. And that's something that can happen maybe with a field, but it " "doesn't happen with software; you can't overuse a program, you don't wear it " "out. So, really, there's no analogy there." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> Well, the example you gave is, let's say there's a useful " "program and a thousand people want a change to it. You said they could get " "their money together and go hire a programmer to make the change. But each " "individual in that group can say, “well, I'll just let the 999 pay for " "the change.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> Well, they can do that, but that would be pretty stupid, " "because if they saw that the result was, it wasn't getting done, then if " "it's of some importance to them, then they're much better off joining and " "contributing their money so that the change gets made. And whether they do " "this or not, either way I won't agree that anything tragic has happened. If " "they join and they pay for their change and they get it, that's good, and if " "they don't join and they don't pay for that change, that's good too; I guess " "they didn't want it enough. Either one's okay." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Nonfree software is evil and we're better off with nothing than with nonfree " "software. The tragedy of the commons can happen either through overuse or " "under-contribution, but overuse is impossible in software. " "Under-contribution happens when a program is proprietary. Then it's a " "failure to contribute to the commons. And so I would like that proprietary " "software to stop being developed. A nonfree program is worse than no " "program, because neither one allows you to get a job done in freedom, but " "the nonfree program might tempt people to give up their freedom and that's " "really bad." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "31. Portability of free software" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> Is their a potential conflict between the free software " "philosophy and the portability of [unintelligible]?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> No, {I don't see} this makes no sense to me at all. I see no " "conflict between the philosophy of free software and portability. And in " "the free software world we've worked very hard to achieve portability from " "all sides. We make our software very portable and we make our software " "standardized so that other people can easily have portability, so we are " "aiding portability from every possible direction. Meanwhile, you see " "Microsoft deliberately introducing incompatibilities and deliberately " "blocking interoperability. Microsoft can do that because it has power. We " "can't do that. If we make a program incompatible and the users don't like " "it, they can change it. They can change it to be compatible. So we are not " "in a position where we could impose incompatibility on anybody, because we " "have chosen not to try to have power over other people." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "32. Is some free software obfuscated on purpose?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> Something [unintelligible] obfuscated [unintelligible] " "understand it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> Well, I disagree with you. Please, this is silly. If you're " "saying a program is hard to understand, that's not the same as the people " "are restricting it. It's not the same as saying, “you're forbidden to " "see it.” Now, if you find it unclear, you can work on making it " "clearer. The fact is, the developers probably are trying to keep it clear, " "but it's a hard job and, unless you want to compare our software with " "proprietary software and see which one is clearer, you have no basis to make " "the claim that you're making. From what I hear, nonfree software is " "typically much worse and the reason is that the developers figure no one " "will ever see it, so they'll never be embarrassed by how bad it is." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "33. Proprietary keeping an edge" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> You hear the argument a lot from people who manufacture " "devices or [unintelligible] hardware that they need to have proprietary " "software in order to give them an edge, because, if they gave away the " "software for free, then a competitor could manufacture the device " "[unintelligible]." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> I don't believe this. I think it's all bullshit, because " "there they are competing with each other and each one's saying, “we " "need to make the software proprietary to have an edge over the " "others.” Well, if none of them did it, they might all lose their edge? " "I mean, so what? We shouldn't buy this. And I mean, we shouldn't buy what " "they're saying and we shouldn't buy their products either." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "34. Forbidding is forbidden how is this freedom?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> I might be saying [unintelligible]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> Please don't. The issue that you want to raise may be a good " "issue, but please try to raise it in a neutral way, rather than raising it " "with an attack." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> There's something in my mind, so I'll just speak up. The " "thing is, by actually registering [unintelligible] thing and saying that " "“you can redistribute this software but you have to comply with these " "four freedoms,” is that not restricting my freedom too?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> No, it's restricting you from having power. To stop A from " "subjugating B is not a denial of freedom to A, because to subjugate others " "is not freedom. That's power." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, there may be people who would like to exercise power and we're stopping " "them, but that's good and that's not denying anyone freedom." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "I mean, you could just as well say if you're overthrowing a dictator, the " "dictator's saying, “you're taking away my freedom to dictate to " "everyone!” But that's not freedom, that's power." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So I'm making the distinction between freedom, which is having control over " "your own life, and power, which is having control over other people's " "lives. We've got to make this distinction; if we ignore the difference " "between freedom and power, then we lose the ability to judge whether a " "society is free or not. You know, if you lose this distinction, then you " "look at Stalinist Russia and you say, “well, there was just as much " "freedom there, it's just that Stalin had it all.” No! In Stalinist " "Russia, Stalin had power and people did not have freedom; the freedom wasn't " "there, because it's only freedom when it's a matter of controlling your own " "life. Controlling other people's lives is not freedom at all, not for either " "of the people involved." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "35. Can Google help free software" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> In your opinion, is there anything that Google as a company " "could do better in the spirit of free software?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> I actually don't know enough about what Google is doing to " "have any opinion. But if Google would like to donate some money to the Free " "Software Foundation, we would gladly accept it. {I gather that, I mean} I " "met some people here who are working on a particular free program, namely " "Linux, the kernel. And I didn't ask actually if they publish their " "improvements. [<b>AUDIENCE:</b> They do] Oh good, so that's contributing. I " "mean, if you want to contribute to other pieces of free software, that would " "be nice too, but I don't know if you have a need to do that. And, of course, " "if you ever have a chance to release some other generally useful new piece " "of free software, that would be good too." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "[RMS, 2010: Google now distributes some large nonfree programs. Some are " "written in Javascript, and servers install them without your noticing.]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "36. Free software on windows, good or bad" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "I'll take three more questions." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> So, if I develop free software for a proprietary system " "such as Windows, essentially I'm supporting the proprietary system. Am I " "doing a good or a bad thing here?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> Well, there's a good aspect and a bad aspect. In regard to " "the use of your code, you're respecting other people's freedom, so that's " "good, but the fact that it only runs on Windows is bad. So, really, you " "shouldn't develop it on Windows. You shouldn't use Windows. Using Windows is " "bad. {That is, in itself} It's not as bad as being the developer of Windows, " "but it's still bad and you shouldn't do that." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> So you're saying, just don't do it at all." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> Yeah, don't use Windows. Use GNU/Linux and develop your free " "program for GNU/Linux instead. And then it will be good in both ways." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> But couldn't it open Windows users to this ideology?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> It could, but there's enough free software available for use " "on Windows to have that effect. And the thing is, developing software for " "Windows is going to create a practical incentive for people to use Windows, " "rather than use GNU/Linux. So, please don't." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "[RMS, 2010: to put it more clearly, making free programs run also on Windows " "can be useful as he said; however, writing a free program only for Windows " "is a waste.]" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "37. SCO's suit" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> What would be the impact of SCO winning their argument " "against Linux? So what would be the impact on…" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> I don't know, it depends. It would have no effect on the " "GPL. But {it might have some effect} some code might have to be removed from " "Linux. And whether that would be a big problem or a tiny problem depends on " "what code, so there's no way of saying. But I don't think SCO is a real " "problem. I think software patents and treacherous computing and hardware " "with secret specs, those are the real problems. That's what we've got to be " "fighting against." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "38. Stallman's problem typing" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> I have a non-ideology question. I'm personally very " "interested in your battle with repetitive stress injuries and the impact " "that it had on the development of GNU Hurd." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> None, because I was never working on the GNU Hurd. {I've " "never} We hired a person to write the GNU Hurd. I had nothing to do with " "writing it. And there were a few years when I couldn't type much and then we " "hired people to type for me. And then I found, by using keyboards with a " "light touch, I could type again." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "39. Open source, good or bad Pat-riot Act." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<b>AUDIENCE:</b> Can you give us your opinion of open source?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<b>RICHARD:</b> Well, the open source movement is sort of like the free " "software movement, except with the philosophical foundation discarded. So " "they don't talk about right and wrong, or freedom, or inalienable rights, " "they just don't present it in ethical terms. They say that they have a " "development methodology that they say typically results in technically " "superior software. So they only appeal to practical, technical values." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And what they're saying may be right and if this convinces some people to " "write free software, that's a useful contribution. But I think they're " "missing the point when they don't talk about freedom, because that's what " "makes our community weak, that we don't talk about and think about freedom " "enough. People who don't think about freedom won't value their freedom and " "they won't defend their freedom and they'll lose it. Look at the USA " "Pat-riot Act. You know, people who don't value their freedom will lose it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "40. The end" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "So thank you, and if anyone wants to buy any of these FSF things or…" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h3> msgid "Footnote" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ol><li> msgid "All the patents on MP3 will have expired by 2018." msgstr "" #. TRANSLATORS: Use space (SPC) as msgstr if you don't have notes. #. type: Content of: <div> msgid "*GNUN-SLOT: TRANSLATOR'S NOTES*" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to <a " "href=\"mailto:gnu@gnu.org\"><gnu@gnu.org></a>. There are also <a " "href=\"/contact/\">other ways to contact</a> the FSF. Broken links and " "other corrections or suggestions can be sent to <a " "href=\"mailto:webmasters@gnu.org\"><webmasters@gnu.org></a>." msgstr "" #. TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph, #. replace it with the translation of these two: # #. We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality #. translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection. #. Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard #. to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org"> # #. <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p> # #. <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of #. our web pages, see <a #. href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations #. README</a>. #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "Please see the <a " "href=\"/server/standards/README.translations.html\">Translations README</a> " "for information on coordinating and contributing translations of this " "article." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "Copyright © 2004, 2021 Richard Stallman" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This page is licensed under a <a rel=\"license\" " "href=\"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/\">Creative Commons " "Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>." msgstr "" #. TRANSLATORS: Use space (SPC) as msgstr if you don't want credits. #. type: Content of: <div><div> msgid "*GNUN-SLOT: TRANSLATOR'S CREDITS*" msgstr "" #. timestamp start #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "Updated:" msgstr ""