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<title>Comments on Roderick Long's Article
- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
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<h2>Comments on Roderick Long's Article</h2>

<address class="byline">by <a href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard
Stallman</a></address>

<div class="introduction"><p>
The class="infobox">
<p>Richard Stallman states some points of disagreement with Roderick 
Long's article <a href="#long" id="long-rev"><sup>[1]</sup></a>.</p>
</div>

<div class="introduction">
<p>The ideas of the free software movement are compatible with
social-democratic (US liberal) views and with laissez-faire (US
libertarian <a href="#ft1"><sup>[1]</sup></a>) views.
</p></div>
libertarian) views.</p>
</div>

<p>Free software is a matter of freedom.  From our point of view,
precisely which legal mechanism <sup><a href="#ft2">[2]</a></sup> 
mechanism <a href="#mechanism" id="mechanism-rev"><sup>[2]</sup></a> 
is used to deny software users their freedom is just an implementation 
detail.  Whether it is done with copyright, with contracts, or in some 
other way, it is wrong to deny the public the freedoms necessary to 
form a community and cooperate. This is why it is inaccurate to 
understand the free software movement as specifically a matter of 
opposition to copyright on software.  It is both more and less than that.</p>

<p>However, you will often hear people of right-wing ideological
persuasion argue in vague way that some general moral principle of
property rights compels us to cede our freedom to a system of
copyright, regardless of how this affects our way of life.  The
right-wing Libertarian counterargument, coming as it does from a group 
that regards property rights as the highest moral principle, is useful 
as a refutation.  It shows that even if you adore property rights for
physical objects, you are not compelled to accept copyright.</p>

<div class="infobox">
<hr />
<ol>
<li id="ft1">Roderick T. Long, “The
<p><a href="#long-rev" id="long">[1]</a><a 
href="https://web.archive.org/web/20220325122805/http://freenation.org/a/f31l1.html">
<cite>The Libertarian Case Against Intellectual Property Rights” at <a
href="http://freenation.org/a/f31l1.html">freenation.org</a>, 1995.</li>
<li id="ft2">… Rights</cite></a>. 
Roderick T. Long, 1995.</p>

<p><a href="#mechanism-rev" id="mechanism">[2]</a>… or technical
mechanism, such as withholding the source code, or <a href="/philosophy/can-you-trust.html">tivoization</a>.</li>
</ol> 
href="/philosophy/can-you-trust.html">tivoization</a>.</p> 
</div>
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