# LANGUAGE translation of https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/rms-nyu-2001-transcript.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: rms-nyu-2001-transcript.html\n" "POT-Creation-Date: 2021-12-25 21:25+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 "" "Free Software: Freedom and Cooperation - GNU Project - Free Software " "Foundation" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><h2> msgid "Free Software: Freedom and Cooperation" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><address> msgid "by Richard Stallman" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "Transcript of a speech that was given at New York University in New York, " "NY, on 29 May 2001." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><div><p> msgid "" "A <a href=\"/philosophy/rms-nyu-2001-transcript.txt\">plain text</a> version " "of this transcript and a <a " "href=\"/philosophy/rms-nyu-2001-summary.txt\">summary</a> of the speech are " "also available." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>URETSKY</strong>: I'm Mike Uretsky. I'm over at the Stern School of " "Business. I'm also one of the Co-Directors of the Center for Advanced " "Technology. And, on behalf of all of us in the Computer Science Department, " "I want to welcome you here. I want to say a few comments, before I turn it " "over to Ed, who is going to introduce the speaker." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The role of a university is a place to foster debate and to have interesting " "discussions. And the role of a major university is to have particularly " "interesting discussions. And this particular presentation, this seminar " "falls right into that mold. I find the discussion of open source " "particularly interesting. In a sense … <i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: I do free software. Open source is a different " "movement. <i>[Laughter] [Applause]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>URETSKY</strong>: When I first started in the field in the '60's, " "basically software was free. And we went in cycles. It became free, and " "then software manufacturers, in the need to expand their markets, pushed it " "in other directions. A lot of the developments that took place with the " "entry of the PC moved in exactly the same kind of a cycle." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "There's a very interesting French philosopher, Pierre Levy, who talks about " "movement to this direction and who talks about the move into cyberspace as " "not only relating to technology but also relating to social restructuring, " "to political restructuring, through a change in the kinds of relationships " "that will improve the well-being of mankind. And we're hoping that this " "debate is a movement in that direction, that this debate is something that " "cuts across a lot of the disciplines that normally act as solace within the " "University. We're looking forward to some very interesting discussions. " "Ed?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>SCHONBERG</strong>: I'm Ed Schonberg from the Computer Science " "Department at the Courant Institute. Let me welcome you all to this event. " "Introducers are usually, and particularly, a useless aspect of public " "presentations, but in this case, actually, they serve a useful purpose, as " "Mike easily demonstrated, because an introducer for instance, told him, by " "making inaccurate comments, can allow him to straighten out and correct and " "<i>[Laughter]</i> sharpen considerably the parameters of the debate." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, let me make the briefest possible introduction to somebody who doesn't " "need one. Richard is the perfect example of somebody who, by acting " "locally, started thinking globally from problems concerning the " "unavailability of source code for printer drivers at the AI Lab many years " "ago. He has developed a coherent philosophy that has forced all of us to " "re-examine our ideas of how software is produced, of what intellectual " "property means, and what the software community actually represents. Let me " "welcome Richard Stallman. <i>[Applause]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Can someone lend me a watch? <i>[Laughter]</i> " "Thank you. So, I'd like to thank Microsoft for providing me the opportunity " "to <i>[Laughter]</i> be on this platform. For the past few weeks, I have " "felt like an author whose book was fortuitously banned somewhere. " "<i>[Laughter]</i> Except that all the articles about it are giving the wrong " "author's name, because Microsoft describes the GNU GPL as an open source " "license, and most of the press coverage followed suit. Most people, of " "course just innocently don't realize that our work has nothing to do with " "open source, that in fact we did most of it before people even coined the " "term open source." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "We are in the free software movement, and I'm going to speak about what the " "free software movement is about, what it means, what we have done, and, " "because this is partly sponsored by a school of business, I'll say some " "things more than I usually do about how free software relates to business, " "and some other areas of social life." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, some of you may not ever write computer programs, but perhaps you " "cook. And if you cook, unless you're really great, you probably use " "recipes. And, if you use recipes, you've probably had the experience of " "getting a copy of a recipe from a friend who's sharing it. And you've " "probably also had the experience—unless you're a total " "neophyte—of changing a recipe. You know, it says certain things, but " "you don't have to do exactly that. You can leave out some ingredients. Add " "some mushrooms, 'cause you like mushrooms. Put in less salt because your " "doctor said you should cut down on salt—whatever. You can even make " "bigger changes according to your skill. And if you've made changes in a " "recipe, and you cook it for your friends, and they like it, one of your " "friends might say, “Hey, could I have the recipe?” And then, " "what do you do? You could write down your modified version of the recipe and " "make a copy for your friend. These are the natural things to do with " "functionally useful recipes of any kind." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now a recipe is a lot like a computer program. A computer program's a lot " "like a recipe: a series of steps to be carried out to get some result that " "you want. So it's just as natural to do those same things with computer " "programs—hand a copy to your friend. Make changes in it because the " "job it was written to do isn't exactly what you want. It did a great job " "for somebody else, but your job is a different job. And after you've " "changed it, that's likely to be useful for other people. Maybe they have a " "job to do that's like the job you do. So they ask, “Hey, can I have a " "copy?” Of course, if you're a nice person, you're going to give a " "copy. That's the way to be a decent person." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So imagine what it would be like if recipes were packaged inside black " "boxes. You couldn't see what ingredients they're using, let alone change " "them, and imagine if you made a copy for a friend, they would call you a " "pirate and try to put you in prison for years. That world would create " "tremendous outrage from all the people who are used to sharing recipes. But " "that is exactly what the world of proprietary software is like. A world in " "which common decency towards other people is prohibited or prevented." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, why did I notice this? I noticed this because I had the good fortune in " "the 1970's to be part of a community of programmers who shared software. " "Now, this community could trace its ancestry essentially back to the " "beginning of computing. In the 1970's, though, it was a bit rare for there " "to be a community where people shared software. And, in fact, this was sort " "of an extreme case, because in the lab where I worked, the entire operating " "system was software developed by the people in our community, and we'd share " "any of it with anybody. Anybody was welcome to come and take a look, and " "take away a copy, and do whatever he wanted to do. There were no copyright " "notices on these programs. Cooperation was our way of life. And we were " "secure in that way of life. We didn't fight for it. We didn't have to " "fight for it. We just lived that way. And, as far as we knew, we would " "just keep on living that way. So there was free software, but there was no " "free software movement." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But then our community was destroyed by a series of calamities that happened " "to it. Ultimately it was wiped out. Ultimately, the PDP-10 computer which " "we used for all our work was discontinued. And you know, our " "system—the Incompatible Timesharing System—was written starting " "in the '60's, so it was written in assembler language. That's what you used " "to write an operating system in the '60's. So, of course, assembler " "language is for one particular computer architecture; if that gets " "discontinued, all your work turns into dust—it's useless. And that's " "what happened to us. The 20 years or so of work of our community turned " "into dust." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But before this happened, I had an experience that prepared me, helped me " "see what to do, helped prepare me to see what to do when this happened, " "because at certain point, Xerox gave the Artificial Intelligence Lab, where " "I worked, a laser printer, and this was a really handsome gift, because it " "was the first time anybody outside Xerox had a laser printer. It was very " "fast, printed a page a second, very fine in many respects, but it was " "unreliable, because it was really a high-speed office copier that had been " "modified into a printer. And, you know, copiers jam, but there's somebody " "there to fix them. The printer jammed and nobody saw. So it stayed jammed " "for a long time." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Well, we had an idea for how to deal with this problem. Change it so that " "whenever the printer gets a jam, the machine that runs the printer can tell " "our timesharing machine, and tell the users who are waiting for printouts, " "or something like that, you know, tell them, go fix the printer. Because if " "they only knew it was jammed, of course, if you're waiting for a printout " "and you know that the printer is jammed, you don't want to sit and wait " "forever, you're going to go fix it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But at that point, we were completely stymied, because the software that ran " "that printer was not free software. It had come with the printer, and it " "was just a binary. We couldn't have the source code; Xerox wouldn't let us " "have the source code. So, despite our skill as programmers—after all, " "we had written our own timesharing system—we were completely helpless " "to add this feature to the printer software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And we just had to suffer with waiting. It would take an hour or two to get " "your printout because the machine would be jammed most of the time. And " "only once in a while—you'd wait an hour figuring “I know it's " "going to be jammed. I'll wait an hour and go collect my printout,” and " "then you'd see that it had been jammed the whole time, and in fact, nobody " "else had fixed it. So you'd fix it and you'd go wait another half hour. " "Then, you'd come back, and you'd see it jammed again—before it got to " "your output. It would print three minutes and be jammed thirty minutes. " "Frustration up the whazzoo. But the thing that made it worse was knowing " "that we could have fixed it, but somebody else, for his own selfishness, was " "blocking us, obstructing us from improving the software. So, of course, we " "felt some resentment." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And then I heard that somebody at Carnegie Mellon University had a copy of " "that software. So I was visiting there later, so I went to his office and I " "said, “Hi, I'm from MIT. Could I have a copy of the printer source " "code?” And he said “No, I promised not to give you a " "copy.” <i>[Laughter]</i> I was stunned. I was so… I was angry, " "and I had no idea how I could do justice to it. All I could think of was to " "turn around on my heel and walk out of his room. Maybe I slammed the door. " "<i>[Laughter]</i> And I thought about it later on, because I realized that I " "was seeing not just an isolated jerk, but a social phenomenon that was " "important and affected a lot of people." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "This was—for me—I was lucky, I only got a taste of it, but other " "people had to live in this all the time. So I thought about it at length. " "See, he had promised to refuse to cooperate with us—his colleagues at " "MIT. He had betrayed us. But he didn't just do it to us. Chances are he " "did it to you too. <i>[Pointing at member of audience.]</i> And I think, " "mostly likely, he did it to you too. <i>[Pointing at another member of " "audience.] [Laughter]</i> And he probably did it to you as well. " "<i>[Pointing to third member of audience.]</i> He probably did it to most of " "the people here in this room—except a few, maybe, who weren't born yet " "in 1980. Because he had promised to refuse to cooperate with just about the " "entire population of the Planet Earth. He had signed a non-disclosure " "agreement." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, this was my first, direct encounter with a non-disclosure agreement, " "and it taught me an important lesson—a lesson that's important because " "most programmers never learn it. You see, this was my first encounter with " "a non-disclosure agreement, and I was the victim. I, and my whole lab, were " "the victims. And the lesson it taught me was that non-disclosure agreements " "have victims. They're not innocent. They're not harmless. Most " "programmers first encounter a non-disclosure agreement when they're invited " "to sign one. And there's always some temptation—some goody they're " "going to get if they sign. So, they make up excuses. They say, " "“Well, he's never going to get a copy no matter what, so why shouldn't " "I join the conspiracy to deprive him?” They say, “This is the " "way it's always done. Who am I to go against it?” They say, “If " "I don't sign this, someone else will.” Various excuses to gag their " "consciences." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But when somebody invited me to sign a non-disclosure agreement, my " "conscience was already sensitized. It remembered how angry I had been, when " "somebody promised not to help me and my whole lab solve our problem. And I " "couldn't turn around and do the exact same thing to somebody else who had " "never done me any harm. You know, if somebody asked me to promise not to " "share some useful information with a hated enemy, I would have said yes. " "You know? If somebody's done something bad, he deserves it. But, " "strangers—they haven't done me any harm. How could they deserve that " "kind of mistreatment? You can't let yourself start treating just anybody and " "everybody badly. Then you become a predator on society. So I said, " "“Thank you very much for offering me this nice software package. But " "I can't accept it in good conscience, on the conditions you are demanding, " "so I will do without it. Thank you so much.” And so, I have never " "knowingly signed a non-disclosure agreement for generally useful technical " "information such as software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now there are other kinds of information which raise different ethical " "issues. For instance, there's personal information. You know, if you " "wanted to talk with me about what was happening between you and your " "boyfriend, and you asked me not to tell anybody—you know, I could " "keep—I could agree to keep that a secret for you, because that's not " "generally useful technical information. At least, it's probably not " "generally useful. <i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "There is a small chance—and it's a possibility though—that you " "might reveal to me some marvelous new sex technique, <i>[Laughter]</i> and I " "would then feel a moral duty <i>[Laughter]</i> to pass it onto the rest of " "humanity, so that everyone could get the benefit of it. So, I'd have to put " "a proviso in that promise, you know? If it's just details about who wants " "this, and who's angry at whom, and things like that—soap " "opera—that I can keep private for you, but something that humanity " "could tremendously benefit from knowing, I mustn't withhold. You see, the " "purpose of science and technology is to develop useful information for " "humanity to help people live their lives better. If we promise to withhold " "that information—if we keep it secret—then we are betraying the " "mission of our field. And this, I decided I shouldn't do." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But, meanwhile my community had collapsed, and that was collapsing, and that " "left me in a bad situation. You see, the whole Incompatible Timesharing " "System was obsolete, because the PDP-10 was obsolete, and so there was no " "way that I could continue working as an operating system developer the way " "that I had been doing it. That depended on being part of the community " "using the community software and improving it. That no longer was a " "possibility, and that gave me a moral dilemma. What was I going to do? " "Because the most obvious possibility meant to go against that decision I had " "made. The most obvious possibility was to adapt myself to the change in the " "world. To accept that things were different, and that I'd just have to give " "up those principles and start signing non-disclosure agreements for " "proprietary operating systems, and most likely writing proprietary software " "as well. But I realized that that way I could have fun coding, and I could " "make money—especially if I did it other than at MIT—but at the " "end, I'd have to look back at my career and say, “I've spent my life " "building walls to divide people,” and I would have been ashamed of my " "life." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So I looked for another alternative, and there was an obvious one. I could " "leave the software field and do something else. Now I had no other special " "noteworthy skills, but I'm sure I could have become a waiter. " "<i>[Laughter]</i> Not at a fancy restaurant; they wouldn't hire me, " "<i>[Laughter]</i> but I could be a waiter somewhere. And many programmers, " "they say to me, “The people who hire programmers demand this, this and " "this. If I don't do those things, I'll starve.” It's literally the " "word they use. Well, you know, as a waiter, you're not going to starve. " "<i>[Laughter]</i> So, really, they're in no danger. But—and this is " "important, you see—because sometimes you can justify doing something " "that hurts other people by saying otherwise something worse is going to " "happen to me. You know, if you were <em>really</em> going to starve, you'd " "be justified in writing proprietary software. <i>[Laughter]</i> If " "somebody's pointing a gun at you, then I would say, it's forgivable. " "<i>[Laughter]</i> But, I had found a way that I could survive without doing " "something unethical, so that excuse was not available. So I realized, " "though, that being a waiter would be no fun for me, and it would be wasting " "my skills as an operating system developer. It would avoid misusing my " "skills. Developing proprietary software would be misusing my skills. " "Encouraging other people to live in the world of proprietary software would " "be misusing my skills. So it's better to waste them than misuse them, but " "it's still not really good." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So for those reasons, I decided to look for some other alternative. What " "can an operating system developer do that would actually improve the " "situation, make the world a better place? And I realized that an operating " "system developer was exactly what was needed. The problem, the dilemma, " "existed for me and for everyone else because all of the available operating " "systems for modern computers were proprietary. The free operating systems " "were for old, obsolete computers, right? So for the modern " "computers—if you wanted to get a modern computer and use it, you were " "forced into a proprietary operating system. So if an operating system " "developer wrote another operating system, and then said, “Everybody " "come and share this; you're welcome to this”—that would give " "everybody a way out of the dilemma, another alternative. So I realized that " "there was something I could do that would solve the problem. I had just the " "right skills to be able to do it. And it was the most useful thing I could " "possibly imagine that I'd be able to do with my life. And it was a problem " "that no one else was trying to solve. It was just sort of sitting there, " "getting worse, and nobody was there but me. So I felt, “I'm elected. " "I have to work on this. If not me, who?” So I decided I would develop " "a free operating system, or die trying … of old age, of course. " "<i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, of course I had to decide what kind of operating system it should be. " "There are some technical design decisions to be made. I decided to make the " "system compatible with Unix for a number of reasons. First of all, I had " "just seen one operating system that I really loved become obsolete because " "it was written for one particular kind of computer. I didn't want that to " "happen again. We needed to have a portable system. Well, Unix was a " "portable system. So if I followed the design of Unix, I had a pretty good " "chance that I could make a system that would also be portable and workable. " "And furthermore, why <i>[Tape unclear]</i> be compatible with it in the " "details. The reason is, users hate incompatible changes. If I had just " "designed the system in my favorite way—which I would have loved doing, " "I'm sure—I would have produced something that was incompatible. You " "know, the details would be different. So, if I wrote the system, then the " "users would have said to me, “Well, this is very nice, but it's " "incompatible. It will be too much work to switch. We can't afford that " "much trouble just to use your system instead of Unix, so we'll stay with " "Unix,” they would have said." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, if I wanted to actually create a community where there would be people " "in it, people using this free system, and enjoying the benefits of liberty " "and cooperation, I had to make a system people would use, a system that they " "would find easy to switch to, that would not have an obstacle making it fail " "at the very beginning. Now, making the system upward compatible with Unix " "actually made all the immediate design decisions, because Unix consists of " "many pieces, and they communicate through interfaces that are more or less " "documented. So if you want to be compatible with Unix, you have to replace " "each piece, one by one, with a compatible piece. So the remaining design " "decisions are inside one piece, and they could be made later by whoever " "decides to write that piece. They didn't have to be made at the outset." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So all we had to do to start work was find a name for the system. Now, we " "hackers always look for a funny or naughty name for a program, because " "thinking of people being amused by the name is half the fun of writing the " "program. <i>[Laughter]</i> And we had a tradition of recursive acronyms, to " "say that the program that you're writing is similar to some existing " "program. You can give it a recursive acronym name which says: this one's not " "the other. So, for instance, there were many Tico text editors in the '60's " "and '70's, and they were generally called something-or-other Tico. Then one " "clever hacker called his Tint, for Tint Is Not Tico—the first " "recursive acronym. In 1975, I developed the first Emacs text editor, and " "there were many imitations of Emacs, and a lot of them were called " "something-or-other 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. <i>[Laughter]</i> That was a " "stripped down imitation. And then, Eine was almost completely rewritten, " "and the new version was called Zwei, for Zwei Was Eine Initially. " "<i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So I looked for a recursive acronym for Something is not Unix. And I tried " "all 26 letters, and discovered that none of them was a word. " "<i>[Laughter]</i> Hmm, try another way. I made a contraction. That way I " "could have a three-letter acronym, for Something's not Unix. And I tried " "letters, and I came across the word “GNU”—the word " "“GNU” is the funniest word in the English language. " "<i>[Laughter]</i> That was it. Of course, the reason it's funny is that " "according to the dictionary, it's pronounced “new.” You see? And " "so that's why people use it for a lot of wordplay. Let me tell you, this is " "the name of an animal that lives in Africa. And the African pronunciation " "had a click sound in it. <i>[Laughter]</i> Maybe still does. And so, the " "European colonists, when they got there, they didn't bother learning to say " "this click sound. So they just left it out, and they wrote a " "“G” which meant “there's another sound that's supposed to " "be here which we are not pronouncing.” <i>[Laughter]</i> So, tonight " "I'm leaving for South Africa, and I have begged them, I hope they're going " "to find somebody who can teach me to pronounce click sounds, " "<i>[Laughter]</i> so that I'll know how to pronounce GNU the correct way, " "when it's the animal." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But, when it's the name of our system, the correct pronunciation is " "“guh-NEW”—pronounce the hard “G.” If you talk " "about the “new” operating system, you'll get people very " "confused, because we've been working on it for 17 years now, so it is not " "new any more. <i>[Laughter]</i> But it still is, and always will be, " "GNU—no matter how many people call it Linux by mistake. " "<i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, in January 1984, I quit my job at MIT to start writing pieces of GNU. " "They were nice enough to let me keep using their facilities though. And, at " "the time, I thought we would write all these pieces, and make an entire GNU " "system, and then we'd say, “Come and get it,” and people would " "start to use it. That's not what happened. The first pieces I wrote were " "just equally good replacements, with fewer bugs for some pieces of Unix, but " "they weren't tremendously exciting. Nobody particularly wanted to get them " "and install them. But then, in September 1984, I started writing GNU Emacs, " "which was my second implementation of Emacs, and by early 1985, it was " "working. I could use it for all my editing, which was a big relief, because " "I had no intention of learning to use VI, the Unix editor. <i>[Laughter]</i> " "So, until that time, I did my editing on some other machine, and saved the " "files through the network, so that I could test them. But when GNU Emacs " "was running well enough for me to use it, it was also—other people " "wanted to use it too." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So I had to work out the details of distribution. Of course, I put a copy " "in the anonymous FTP directory, and that was fine for people who were on the " "net. They could then just pull over a tar file, but a lot of programmers " "then even were not on the net in 1985. They were sending me emails saying " "“How can I get a copy?” I had to decide what I would answer " "them. Well, I could have said, I want to spend my time writing more GNU " "software, not writing tapes, so please find a friend who's on the internet " "and who is willing to download it and put it on a tape for you. And I'm " "sure people would have found some friends, sooner or later, you know. They " "would have got copies. But I had no job. In fact, I've never had a job " "since quitting MIT in January 1984. So, I was looking for some way I could " "make money through my work on free software, and therefore I started a free " "software business. I announced, “Send me $150, and I'll mail you a " "tape of Emacs.” And the orders began dribbling in. By the middle of " "the year they were trickling in." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "I was getting 8 to 10 orders a month. And, if necessary, I could have lived " "on just that, because I've always lived cheaply. I live like a student, " "basically. And I like that, because it means that money is not telling me " "what to do. I can do what I think is important for me to do. It freed me " "to do what seemed worth doing. So make a real effort to avoid getting " "sucked into all the expensive lifestyle habits of typical Americans. " "Because if you do that, then people with the money will dictate what you do " "with your life. You won't be able to do what's really important to you." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, that was fine, but people used to ask me, “What do you mean it's " "free software if it costs $150?” <i>[Laughter]</i> Well, the reason " "they asked this was that they were confused by the multiple meanings of the " "English word “free.” One meaning refers to price, and another " "meaning refers to freedom. When I speak of free software, I'm referring to " "freedom, not price. So think of free speech, not free beer. " "<i>[Laughter]</i> Now, I wouldn't have dedicated so many years of my life to " "making sure programmers got less money. That's not my goal. I'm a " "programmer and I don't mind getting money myself. I won't dedicate my whole " "life to getting it, but I don't mind getting it. And I'm not—and " "therefore, ethics is the same for everyone. I'm not against some other " "programmer getting money either. I don't want prices to be low. That's not " "the issue at all. The issue is freedom. Freedom for everyone who's using " "software, whether that person be a programmer or not." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So at this point I should give you the definition of free software. I " "better get to some real details, you see, because just saying “I " "believe in freedom” is vacuous. There's so many different freedoms " "you could believe in, and they conflict with each other, so the real " "political question is: Which are the important freedoms, the freedoms that " "we must make sure everybody has?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And now, I will give my answer to that question for the particular area of " "using software. A program is free software for you, a particular user, if " "you have the following freedoms:" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "" "First, Freedom Zero is the freedom to run the program for any purpose, any " "way you like." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "" "Freedom One is the freedom to help yourself by changing the program to suit " "your needs." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "" "Freedom Two is the freedom to help your neighbor by distributing copies of " "the program." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><ul><li> msgid "" "And Freedom Three is the freedom to help build your community by publishing " "an improved version so others can get the benefit of your work." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "If you have all of these freedoms, the program is free software, for " "you—and that's crucial. That's why I phrase it that way. I'll " "explain why later, when I talk about the GNU General Public License, but " "right now I'm explaining what free software means, which is a more basic " "question." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, Freedom Zero's pretty obvious. If you're not even allowed to run the " "program anyway you like, it is a pretty damn restrictive program. But as it " "happens, most programs will at least give you Freedom Zero. And Freedom " "Zero follows, legally, as a consequence of Freedoms One, Two, and " "Three—that's the way that copyright law works. So the freedoms that " "distinguish free software from typical software are Freedoms One, Two, and " "Three, so I'll say more about them and why they are important." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Freedom One is the freedom to help yourself by changing the software to suit " "your needs. This could mean fixing bugs. It could mean adding new " "features. It could mean porting it to a different computer system. It " "could mean translating all the error messages into Navajo. Any change you " "want to make, you should be free to make." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, it's obvious that professional programmers can make use of this freedom " "very effectively, but not just them. Anybody of reasonable intelligence can " "learn a little programming. You know, there are hard jobs, and there are " "easy jobs, and most people are not going to learn enough to do hard jobs. " "But lots of people can learn enough to do easy jobs, just the way, you know, " "50 years ago, lots and lots of American men learned to repair cars, which is " "what enabled the U.S. to have a motorized army in World War II and win. So, " "very important, having lots of people tinkering." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And if you are a people person, and you really don't want to learn " "technology at all, that probably means that you have a lot of friends, and " "you're good at getting them to owe you favors. <i>[Laughter]</i> Some of " "them are probably programmers. So you can ask one of your programmer " "friends. “Would you please change this for me? Add this " "feature?” So, lots of people can benefit from it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, if you don't have this freedom, it causes practical, material harm to " "society. It makes you a prisoner of your software. I explained what that " "was like with regard to the laser printer. You know, it worked badly for " "us, and we couldn't fix it, because we were prisoners of our software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But it also affects people's morale. You know if the computer is constantly " "frustrating to use, and people are using it, their lives are going to be " "frustrating, and if they're using it in their jobs, their jobs are going to " "be frustrating; they're going to hate their jobs. And you know, people " "protect themselves from frustration by deciding not to care. So you end up " "with people whose attitude is, “Well, I showed up for work today. " "That's all I have to do. If I can't make progress, that's not my problem; " "that's the boss's problem.” And when this happens, it's bad for those " "people, and it's bad for society as a whole. That's Freedom One, the " "freedom to help yourself." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Freedom Two is the freedom to help your neighbor by distributing copies of " "the program. Now, for beings that can think and learn, sharing useful " "knowledge is a fundamental act of friendship. When these beings use " "computers, this act of friendship takes the form of sharing software. " "Friends share with each other. Friends help each other. This is the nature " "of friendship. And, in fact, this spirit of goodwill—the spirit of " "helping your neighbor, voluntarily—is society's most important " "resource. It makes the difference between a livable society and a " "dog-eat-dog jungle. Its importance has been recognized by the world's major " "religions for thousands of years, and they explicitly try to encourage this " "attitude." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "When I was going to kindergarten, the teachers were trying to teach us this " "attitude—the spirit of sharing—by having us do it. They figured " "if we did it, we'd learn. So they said, “If you bring candy to " "school, you can't keep it all for yourself; you have to share some with the " "other kids.” Teaching us, the society was set up to teach, this spirit " "of cooperation. And why do you have to do that? Because people are not " "totally cooperative. That's one part of human nature, and there are other " "parts of human nature. There are lots of parts of human nature. So, if you " "want a better society, you've got to work to encourage the spirit of " "sharing. You know, it'll never get to be 100%. That's understandable. " "People have to take care of themselves too. But if we make it somewhat " "bigger, we're all better off." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Nowadays, according to the U.S. Government, teachers are supposed to do the " "exact opposite. “Oh, Johnny, you brought software to school. Well, " "don't share it. Oh no. Sharing is wrong. Sharing means you're a " "pirate.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "What do they mean when they say “pirate”? They're saying that " "helping your neighbor is the moral equivalent of attacking a ship. " "<i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "What would Buddha or Jesus say about that? Now, take your favorite religious " "leader. I don't know, maybe Manson would have said something different. " "<i>[Laughter]</i> Who knows what L. Ron Hubbard would say? But …" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: <i>[Inaudible]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Of course, he's dead. But they don't admit " "that. What?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: So are the others, also dead. <i>[Laughter] " "[Inaudible]</i> Charles Manson's also dead. <i>[Laughter]</i> They're dead, " "Jesus's dead, Buddha's dead…" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Yes, that's true. <i>[Laughter]</i> So I guess, " "in that regard, L. Ron Hubbard is no worse than the others. " "<i>[Laughter]</i> Anyway—<i>[Inaudible]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: L. Ron always used free software—it freed " "him from Zanu. <i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Anyway, so, I think this is actually the most " "important reason why software should be free: We can't afford to pollute " "society's most important resource. It's true that it's not a physical " "resource like clean air and clean water. It's a psycho-social resource, but " "it's just as real for all that, and it makes a tremendous difference to our " "lives. You see, the actions we take influence the thoughts of other " "people. When we go around telling people, “Don't share with each " "other,” if they listen to us, we've had an effect on society, and it's " "not a good one. That's Freedom Two, the freedom to help your neighbor." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Oh, and by the way, if you don't have that freedom, it doesn't just cause " "this harm to society's psycho-social resource, it also causes " "waste—practical, material harm. If the program has an owner, and the " "owner arranges a state of affairs where each user has to pay in order to be " "able to use it, some people are going to say, “Never mind, I'll do " "without it.” And that's waste, deliberately inflicted waste. And the " "interesting thing about software, of course, is that fewer users doesn't " "mean you have to make less stuff. You know, if fewer people buy cars, you " "can make fewer cars. There's a saving there. There are resources to be " "allocated, or not allocated, into making cars. So that you can say that " "having a price on a car is a good thing. It prevents people from diverting " "lots of wasted resources into making cars that aren't really needed. But if " "each additional car used no resources, it wouldn't be doing any good saving " "the making of these cars. Well, for physical objects, of course, like cars, " "it is always going to take resources to make an additional one of them, each " "additional exemplar." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But for software that's not true. Anybody can make another copy. And it's " "almost trivial to do it. It takes no resources, except a tiny bit of " "electricity. So there's nothing we can save, no resource we're going to " "allocate better by putting this financial disincentive on the use of the " "software. You often find people taking economic, the consequences of " "economic reasoning, based on premises that don't apply to software, and " "trying to transplant them from other areas of life where the premises may " "apply, and the conclusions may be valid. They just take the conclusions and " "assume that they're valid for software too, when the argument is based on " "nothing, in the case of software. The premises don't work in that case. It " "is very important to examine how you reach the conclusion, and what premises " "it depends on, to see where it might be valid. So, that's Freedom Two, the " "freedom to help your neighbor." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Freedom Three is the freedom to help build your community by publishing an " "improved version of the software. People used to say to me, “If the " "software's free, then nobody will get paid to work on it, so why should " "anybody work on it?” Well, of course, they were confusing the two " "meanings of free, so their reasoning was based on a misunderstanding. But, " "in any case, that was their theory. Today, we can compare that theory with " "empirical fact, and we find that hundreds of people are being paid to write " "free software, and over 100,000 are doing it as volunteers. We get lots of " "people working on free software, for various different motives." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "When I first released GNU Emacs—the first piece of the GNU system that " "people actually wanted to use—and when it started having users, after " "a while, I got a message saying, “I think I saw a bug in the source " "code, and here's a fix.” And I got another message, “Here's code " "to add a new feature.” And another bug fix. And another new feature. " "And another, and another, and another, until they were pouring in on me so " "fast that just making use of all this help I was getting was a big job. " "Microsoft doesn't have this problem. <i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Eventually, people noted this phenomenon. You see, in the 1980's a lot of " "us thought that maybe free software wouldn't be as good as the nonfree " "software, because we wouldn't have as much money to pay people. And, of " "course, people like me, who value freedom and community said, “Well, " "we'll use the free software anyway.” It's worth making a little " "sacrifice in some mere technical convenience to have freedom. But what " "people began to note, around 1990 was that our software was actually " "better. It was more powerful, and more reliable, than the proprietary " "alternatives." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "In the early '90's, somebody found a way to do a scientific measurement of " "reliability of software. Here's what he did. He took several sets of " "comparable programs that did the same jobs—the exact same " "jobs—in different systems. Because there were certain basic Unix-like " "utilities. And the jobs that they did, we know, was all, more or less, " "imitating the same thing, or they were following the POSIX spec, so they " "were all the same in terms of what jobs they did, but they were maintained " "by different people, written separately. The code was different. So they " "said, OK, we'll take these programs and run them with random data, and " "measure how often they crash, or hang. So they measured it, and the most " "reliable set of programs was the GNU programs. All the commercial " "alternatives which were proprietary software were less reliable. So he " "published this and he told all the developers, and a few years later, he did " "the same experiment with the newest versions, and he got the same result. " "The GNU versions were the most reliable. People—you know there are " "cancer clinics and 911 operations that use the GNU system, because it's so " "reliable, and reliability is very important to them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Anyway, there's even a group of people who focus on this particular benefit " "as the reason they give, the main reason they give, why users should be " "permitted to do these various things, and to have these freedoms. If you've " "been listening to me, you've noticed, you've seen that I, speaking for the " "free software movement, I talk about issues of ethics, and what kind of a " "society we want to live in, what makes for a good society, as well as " "practical, material benefits. They're both important. That's the free " "software movement." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "That other group of people—which is called the open source " "movement—they only cite the practical benefits. They deny that this " "is an issue of principle. They deny that people are entitled to the freedom " "to share with their neighbor and to see what the program's doing and change " "it if they don't like it. They say, however, that it's a useful thing to " "let people do that. So they go to companies and say to them, “You " "know, you might make more money if you let people do this.” So, what " "you can see is that to some extent, they lead people in a similar direction, " "but for totally different, for fundamentally different, philosophical " "reasons." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Because on the deepest issue of all, you know, on the ethical question, the " "two movements disagree. You know, in the free software movement we say, " "“You're entitled to these freedoms. People shouldn't stop you from " "doing these things.” In the open source movement, they say, " "“Yes, they can stop you if you want, but we'll try to convince them to " "deign to let you to do these things.” Well, they have " "contributed—they have convinced a certain number of businesses to " "release substantial pieces of software as free software in our community. " "So they, the open source movement, has contributed substantially to our " "community. And so we work together on practical projects. But, " "philosophically, there's a tremendous disagreement." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Unfortunately, the open source movement is the one that gets the support of " "business the most, and so most articles about our work describe it as open " "source, and a lot of people just innocently think that we're all part of the " "open source movement. So that's why I'm mentioning this distinction. I " "want you to be aware that the free software movement, which brought our " "community into existence and developed the free operating system, is still " "here—and that we still stand for this ethical philosophy. I want you " "to know about this, so that you won't mislead someone else unknowingly." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "But also, so that you can think about where you stand." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "You know, which movement you support is up to you. You might agree with the " "free software movements and my views. You might agree with the open source " "movement. You might disagree with them both. You decide where you stand on " "these political issues." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But if you agree with the free software movement—if you see that " "there's an issue here that the people whose lives are controlled and " "directed by this decision deserve a say in it—then I hope you'll say " "that you agree with the free software movement, and one way you can do that " "is by using the term free software and just helping people know we exist." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, Freedom Three is very important both practically and psycho-socially. " "If you don't have this freedom, it causes practical material harm, because " "this community development doesn't happen, and we don't make powerful, " "reliable software. But it also causes psycho-social harm, which affects the " "spirit of scientific cooperation—the idea that we're working together " "to advance human knowledge. You see, progress in science crucially depends " "on people being able to work together. And nowadays though, you often find " "each little group of scientists acting like it's a war with each other gang " "of scientists and engineers. And if they don't share with each other, " "they're all held back." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, those are the three freedoms that distinguish free software from typical " "software. Freedom One is the freedom to help yourself, making changes to " "suit your own needs. Freedom Two is the freedom to help your neighbor by " "distributing copies. And Freedom Three is the freedom to help build your " "community by making changes and publishing them for other people to use. If " "you have all of these freedoms, the program is free software for you. Now, " "why do I define it that way in terms of a particular user? Is it free " "software for you? <i>[Pointing at member of audience.]</i> Is it free " "software for you? <i>[Pointing at another member of audience.]</i> Is it " "free software for you? <i>[Pointing at another member of audience.]</i> Yes?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: Can you explain a bit about the difference " "between Freedom Two and Three? <i>[inaudible]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Well, they certainly relate, because if you don't " "have freedom to redistribute at all, you certainly don't have freedom to " "distribute a modified version, but they're different activities." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: Oh." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Freedom Two is, you know, read it, you make an " "exact copy, and hand it to your friends, so now your friend can use it. Or " "maybe you make exact copies and you sell them to a bunch of people, and then " "they can use it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Freedom Three is where you make improvements—or at least you think " "they're improvements, and some other people may agree with you. So that's " "the difference. Oh, and by the way, one crucial point. Freedoms One and " "Three depend on your having access to the source code. Because changing a " "binary-only program is extremely hard. <i>[Laughter]</i> Even trivial " "changes like using four digits for the date, <i>[Laughter]</i> if you don't " "have source. So, for compelling, practical reasons, access to the source " "code is a precondition, a requirement, for free software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, why do I define it in terms of whether it's free software for " "<em>you</em>? The reason is that sometimes the same program can be free " "software for some people, and nonfree for others. Now, that might seem like " "a paradoxical situation, so let me give you an example to show you how it " "happens. A very big example—maybe the biggest ever—of this " "problem was the X Window System which was developed at MIT and released " "under a license that made it free software. If you got the MIT version with " "the MIT license, you had Freedoms One, Two, and Three. It was free software " "for you. But among those who got copies were various computer manufacturers " "that distributed Unix systems, and they made the necessary changes in X to " "run on their systems. You know, probably just a few thousand lines out of " "the hundreds of thousands of lines of X. And, then they compiled it, and " "they put the binaries into their Unix system and distributed it under the " "same non-disclosure agreement as the rest of the Unix system. And then, " "millions of people got these copies. They had the X Window System, but they " "had none of these freedoms. It was not free software for <em>them</em>." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, the paradox was that whether X was free software depended on where you " "made the measurement. If you made the measurement coming out of the " "developers' group, you'd say, “I observe all these freedoms. It's " "free software.” If you made the measurements among the users you'd " "say, “Hmm, most users don't have these freedoms. It's not free " "software.” Well, the people who developed X didn't consider this a " "problem, because their goal was just popularity, ego, essentially. They " "wanted a big professional success. They wanted to feel, “Ah, lots of " "people are using our software.” And that was true. Lots of people " "were using their software but didn't have freedom." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Well, in the GNU project, if that same thing had happened to GNU software, " "it would have been a failure, because our goal wasn't just to be popular; " "our goal was to give people liberty, and to encourage cooperation, to permit " "people to cooperate. Remember, never force anyone to cooperate with any " "other person, but make sure that everybody's allowed to cooperate, everyone " "has the freedom to do so, if he or she wishes. If millions of people were " "running nonfree versions of GNU, that wouldn't be success at all. The whole " "thing would have been perverted into nothing like the goal." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, I looked for a way to stop that from happening. The method I came up " "with is called “copyleft.” It's called copyleft because it's " "sort of like taking copyright and flipping it over. <i>[Laughter]</i> " "Legally, copyleft works based on copyright. We use the existing copyright " "law, but we use it to achieve a very different goal. Here's what we do. We " "say, “This program is copyrighted.” And, of course, by default, " "that means it's prohibited to copy it, or distribute it, or modify it. But " "then we say, “You're authorized to distribute copies of this. You're " "authorized to modify it. You're authorized to distribute modified versions " "and extended versions. Change it any way you like.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But there is a condition. And the condition, of course, is the reason why " "we go to all this trouble, so that we could put the condition in. The " "condition says: Whenever you distribute anything that contains any piece of " "this program, that whole program must be distributed under these same terms, " "no more and no less. So you can change the program and distribute a " "modified version, but when you do, the people who get that from you must get " "the same freedom that you got from us. And not just for the parts of " "it—the excerpts that you copied from our program—but also for " "the other parts of that program that they got from you. The whole of that " "program has to be free software for them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The freedoms to change and redistribute this program become inalienable " "rights—a concept from the Declaration of Independence. Rights that we " "make sure can't be taken away from you. And, of course, the specific " "license that embodies the idea of copyleft is the GNU General Public " "License, a controversial license because it actually has the strength to say " "no to people who would be parasites on our community." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "There are lots of people who don't appreciate the ideals of freedom. And " "they'd be very glad to take the work that we have done, and use it to get a " "head start in distributing a nonfree program and tempting people to give up " "their freedom. And the result would be—you know, if we let people do " "that—that we would developing these free programs, and we'd constantly " "have to compete with improved versions of our own programs. That's no fun." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And, a lot of people also feel—you know, I'm willing to volunteer my " "time to contribute to the community, but why should I volunteer my time to " "contribute to that company's, to improving that company's, proprietary " "program? You know, some people might not even think that that's evil, but " "they want to get paid if they're going to do that. I, personally, would " "rather not do it at all." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But both of these groups of people—both the ones like me who say, " "“I don't want to help that nonfree program to get a foothold in our " "community” and the ones that say, “Sure, I'd work for them, but " "then they better pay me”—both of us have a good reason to use " "the GNU General Public License. Because that says to that company, " "“You can't just take my work, and distribute it without the " "freedom.” Whereas, the non-copyleft licenses, like the X Windows " "license, do permit that." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So that is the big division between the two categories of free " "software—license-wise. There are the programs that are copylefted so " "that the license defends the freedom of the software for every user. And " "there are the non-copylefted programs for which nonfree versions are " "allowed. Somebody <em>can</em> take those programs and strip off the " "freedom. You may get that program in a nonfree version." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And that problem exists today. There are still nonfree versions of X " "Windows being used on our free operating systems. There is even " "hardware—which is not really supported—except by a nonfree " "version of X Windows. And that's a major problem in our community. " "Nonetheless, I wouldn't say that X Windows is a bad thing, you know. I'd say " "that the developers did not do the best possible thing that they could have " "done. But they <em>did</em> release a lot of software that we could all " "use." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "You know, there's a big difference between less than perfect, and evil. " "There are many gradations of good and bad. We have to resist the temptation " "to say, if you didn't do the absolute best possible thing, then you're no " "good. You know, the people that developed X Windows made a big contribution " "to our community. But there's something better that they could have done. " "They could have copylefted parts of the program and prevented those " "freedom-denying versions from being distributed by others." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, the fact that the GNU General Public License defends your freedom, uses " "copyright law to defend your freedom, is, of course, why Microsoft is " "attacking it today. See, Microsoft would really like to be able to take all " "the code that we wrote and put it into proprietary programs, have somebody " "make some improvements, or even just incompatible changes is all they need. " "<i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "You know, with Microsoft's marketing clout, they don't need to make it " "better to have their version supplant ours. They just have to make it " "different and incompatible. And then, put it on everybody's desktop. So " "they really don't like the GNU GPL. Because the GNU GPL won't let them do " "that. It doesn't allow “embrace and extend.” It says, if you " "want to share our code in your programs, you can. But, you've got to share " "and share alike. The changes that you make we have to be allowed to share. " "So, it's a two-way cooperation, which is real cooperation." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Many companies—even big companies like IBM and HP are willing to use " "our software on this basis. IBM and HP contribute substantial improvements " "to GNU software. And they develop other free software. But, Microsoft " "doesn't want to do that, so they give it out that businesses just can't deal " "with the GPL. Well, if businesses don't include IBM, and HP and SUN, then " "maybe they're right. <i>[Laughter]</i> More about that later." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "I should finish the historical story. You see, we set out in 1984 not just " "to write some free software but to do something much more coherent: to " "develop an operating system that was entirely free software. So that meant " "we had to write piece after piece after piece. Of course, we were always " "looking for shortcuts. The job was so big that people said we'd never be " "able to finish. And, I thought that there was at least a chance that we'd " "finish it but, obviously, it's worth looking for shortcuts. So we kept " "looking around. Is there any program that somebody else has written that we " "could manage to adapt, to plug into here, and that way we won't have to " "write it from scratch? For instance, the X Window system. It's true it " "wasn't copylefted, but it was free software, so we could use it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, I had wanted to put a window system into GNU from day one. I wrote a " "couple of window systems at MIT before I started GNU. And so, even though " "Unix had no window system in 1984, I decided that GNU would have one. But, " "we never ended up writing a GNU window system, because X came along. And I " "said, Goody! One big job we don't have to do. We'll use X. So I basically " "said, let's take X, and put it into the GNU system. And we'll make the " "other parts of GNU, you know, work with X, when appropriate. And we found " "other pieces of software that had been written by other people, like the " "text formatter TeX, some library code from Berkeley. At that time there was " "Berkeley Unix, but it was not free software. This library code, initially, " "was from a different group at Berkeley, that did research on floating " "point. And, so, we kept, we fit in these pieces." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "In October 1985, we founded the Free Software Foundation. So please note, " "the GNU project came first. The Free Software Foundation came after, about " "almost two years after the announcement of the Project. And the Free " "Software Foundation is a tax-exempt charity that raises funds to promote the " "freedom to share and change software. And in the 1980's, one of the main " "things we did with our funds was to hire people to write parts of GNU. And " "essential programs, such as the shell and the C library were written this " "way, as well as parts of other programs. The <code>tar</code> program, " "which is absolutely essential, although not exciting at all " "<i>[Laughter]</i> was written this way. I believe GNU grep was written this " "way. And so, we're approaching our goal." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "By 1991, there was just one major piece missing, and that was the kernel. " "Now, why did I put off the kernel? Probably because it doesn't really matter " "what order you do the things in, at least technically it doesn't. You've " "got to do them all anyway. And partly because I'd hoped we'd be able to " "find a start at a kernel somewhere else. And we did. We found Mach, which " "had been developed at Carnegie Mellon. And it wasn't the whole kernel; it " "was the bottom half of the kernel. So we had to write the top half, but I " "figured, you know, things like the file system, the network code, and so " "on. But running on top of Mach they're running essentially as user " "programs, which ought to make them easier to debug. You can debug with a " "real source-level debugger running at the same time. And so, I thought that " "way we'd be able to get these, the higher level parts of the kernel, done in " "a short time. It didn't work out that way. These asynchronous, " "multi-threaded processes, sending messages to each other turned out to be " "very hard to debug. And the Mach-based system that we were using to " "bootstrap with had a terrible debugging environment, and it was unreliable, " "and various problems. It took us years and years to get the GNU kernel to " "work." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But, fortunately, our community did not have to wait for the GNU kernel. " "Because in 1991, Linus Torvalds developed another free kernel called Linux. " "And he used the old-fashioned monolithic design and it turns out that he got " "his working much faster than we got ours working. So maybe that's one of " "the mistakes that I made: that design decision. Anyway, at first, we didn't " "know about Linux, because he never contacted us to talk about it. Although " "he did know about the GNU Project. But he announced it to other people and " "other places on the net. And so other people then did the work of combining " "Linux with the rest of the GNU system to make a complete free operating " "system. Essentially, to make the GNU plus Linux combination." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But, they didn't realize that's what they were doing. You see, they said, " "We have a kernel—let's look around and see what other pieces we can " "find to put together with the kernel. So, they looked around—and lo " "and behold, everything they needed was already available. What good " "fortune, they said. <i>[Laughter]</i> It's all here. We can find " "everything we need. Let's just take all these different things and put it " "together, and have a system." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "They didn't know that most of what they found was pieces of the GNU system. " "So they didn't realize that they were fitting Linux into the gap in the GNU " "system. They thought they were taking Linux and making a system out of " "Linux. So they called it a Linux system." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Can't hear you—what?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Well, it's just not—you know, it's " "provincial." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: But it's more good fortune then finding X and " "Mach?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Right. The difference is that the people who " "developed X and Mach didn't have the goal of making a complete free " "operating system. We're the only ones who had that. And, it was our " "tremendous work that made the system exist. We actually did a larger part " "of the system than any other project. No coincidence, because those " "people—they wrote useful parts of the system. But they didn't do it " "because they wanted the system to be finished. They had other reasons." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now the people who developed X—they thought that designing across the " "network window system would be a good project, and it was. And it turned " "out to help us make a good free operating system. But that's not what they " "hoped for. They didn't even think about that. It was an accident. An " "accidental benefit. Now, I'm not saying that what they did was bad. They " "did a large free software project. That's a good thing to do. But they " "didn't have that ultimate vision. The GNU Project is where that vision was." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And, so, we were the ones whose—every little piece that didn't get " "done by somebody else, we did it. Because we knew that we wouldn't have a " "complete system without it. And even if it was totally boring and " "unromantic, like <code>tar</code> or <code>mv</code>. <i>[Laughter]</i> We " "did it. Or <code>ld</code>, you know there's nothing very exciting in " "<code>ld</code>—but I wrote one. <i>[Laughter]</i> And I did make " "efforts to have it do a minimal amount of disk I/O so that it would be " "faster and handle bigger programs. But, you know, I like to do a good job. " "I like to improve various things about the program while I'm doing it. But " "the reason that I did it wasn't that I had brilliant ideas for a better " "<code>ld</code>. The reason I did it is that we needed one that was free. " "And we couldn't expect anyone else to do it. So, we had to do it, or find " "someone to do it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, although at this point thousands of people in projects have contributed " "to this system, there is one project which is the reason that this system " "exists, and that's the GNU Project. It <em>is</em> basically the GNU " "System, with other things added since then." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, however, the practice of calling the system Linux has been a great blow " "to the GNU Project, because we don't normally get credit for what we've " "done. I think Linux, the kernel, is a very useful piece of free software, " "and I have only good things to say about it. But, well, actually, I can " "find a few bad things to say about it. <i>[Laughter]</i> But, basically, I " "have good things to say about it. However, the practice of calling the GNU " "system, Linux, is just a mistake. I'd like to ask you please to make the " "small effort necessary to call the system GNU/Linux, and that way to help us " "get a share of the credit." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: You need a mascot! Get yourself a stuffed animal! " "<i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: We have one." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: You do?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: We have an animal—a gnu. <i>[Laughter]</i> " "Anyway. So, yes, when you draw a penguin, draw a gnu next to it. " "<i>[Laughter]</i> But, let's save the questions for the end. I have more to " "go through." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, why am I so concerned about this? You know, why do I think it is worth " "bothering you and perhaps giving you a, perhaps lowering your opinion of me, " "<i>[Laughter]</i> to raise this issue of credit? Because, you know, some " "people when I do this, some people think that it's because I want my ego to " "be fed, right? Of course, I'm not saying—I'm not asking you to call it " "“Stallmanix,” right? <i>[Laughter] [Applause]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "I'm asking you to call it GNU, because I want the GNU Project to get " "credit. And there's a very specific reason for that, which is a lot more " "important than anybody getting credit, in and of itself. You see, these " "days, if you look around in our community most of the people talking about " "it and writing about it don't ever mention GNU, and they don't ever mention " "these goals of freedom—these political and social ideals, either. " "Because the place they come from is GNU." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "The ideas associated with Linux—the philosophy is very different. It " "is basically the apolitical philosophy of Linus Torvalds. So, when people " "think that the whole system is Linux, they tend to think: “Oh, it must " "have been all started by Linux Torvalds. His philosophy must be the one " "that we should look at carefully.” And when they hear about the GNU " "philosophy, they say: “Boy, this is so idealistic, this must be " "awfully impractical. I'm a Linux-user, not a GNU-user.” " "<i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "What irony! If they only knew! If they knew that the system they " "liked—or, in some cases, love and go wild over—is our " "idealistic, political philosophy made real." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "They still wouldn't have to agree with us. But at least they'd see a reason " "to take it seriously, to think about it carefully, to give it a chance. " "They would see how it relates to their lives. You know, if they realized, " "“I'm using the GNU system. Here's the GNU philosophy. This philosophy " "is <em>why</em> this system that I like very much exists,” they'd at " "least consider it with a much more open mind. It doesn't mean that " "everybody will agree. People think different things. That's OK. You know, " "people should make up their own minds. But I want this philosophy to get " "the benefit of the credit for the results it has achieved." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "If you look around in our community, you'll find that almost everywhere, the " "institutions are calling the system Linux. You know, reporters mostly call " "it Linux. It's not right, but they do. The companies mostly say it that " "package the system. Oh, and most of these reporters, when they write " "articles, they usually don't look at it as a political issue, or social " "issue. They're usually looking at it purely as a business question or what " "companies are going to succeed more or less, which is really a fairly minor " "question for society. And, if you look at the companies that package the " "GNU/Linux system for people to use, well, most of them call it Linux. And " "they <em>all</em> add nonfree software to it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "See, the GNU GPL says that if you take code, and some code out of a " "GPL-covered program, and add some more code to make a bigger program, that " "whole program has to be released under the GPL. But you could put other " "separate programs on the same disk (of either kind, hard disk, or CD), and " "they can have other licenses. That's considered mere aggregation, and, " "essentially, just distributing two programs to somebody at the same time is " "not something we have any say over. So, in fact, it is not " "true—sometimes, I wish it were true—that if a company uses a " "GPL-covered program in a product that the whole product has to be free " "software. It's not—it doesn't go to that range—that scope. " "It's the whole program. If there are two separate programs that communicate " "with each other at arm's length—like by sending messages to each " "other—then, they're legally separate, in general. So, these " "companies, by adding nonfree software to the system, are giving the users, " "philosophically and politically, a very bad idea. They're telling the " "users, “It is OK to use nonfree software. We're even putting it on " "this as a bonus.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "If you look at the magazines about the use of the GNU/Linux system, most of " "them have a title like “Linux-something or other.” So they're " "calling the system Linux most of the time. And they're filled with ads for " "nonfree software that you could run on top of the GNU/Linux system. Now " "those ads have a common message. They say: Nonfree Software Is Good For " "You. It's So Good That You Might Even <em>Pay</em> To Get It. " "<i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And they call these things “value-added packages,” which makes a " "statement about their values. They're saying: Value practical convenience, " "not freedom. And, I don't agree with those values, so I call them " "“freedom-subtracted packages.” <i>[Laughter]</i> Because if you " "have installed a free operating system, then you now are living in the free " "world. You enjoy the benefits of liberty that we worked for so many years " "to give you. Those packages give you an opportunity to buckle on a chain." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And then if you look at the trade shows—about the use of the, " "dedicated to the use of, the GNU/Linux system, they all call themselves " "“Linux” shows. And they're filled with booths exhibiting " "nonfree software, essentially putting the seal of approval on the nonfree " "software. So, almost everywhere you look in our community, the institutions " "are endorsing the nonfree software, totally negating the idea of freedom " "that GNU was developed for. And the only place that people are likely to " "come across the idea of freedom is in connection with GNU, and in connection " "with free software, the term, free software. So this is why I ask you: " "please call the system GNU/Linux. Please make people aware where the system " "came from and why." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Of course, just by using that name, you won't be making an explanation of " "the history. You can type four extra characters and write GNU/Linux; you " "can say two extra syllables. But, GNU/Linux is fewer syllables than Windows " "2000. <i>[Laughter]</i> But, you're not telling them a lot, but you're " "preparing them, so that when they hear about GNU, and what it's all about, " "they'll see how that connects to them and their lives. And that, " "indirectly, makes a tremendous difference. So please help us." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "You'll note that Microsoft called the GPL an “open source " "license.” They don't want people to be thinking in terms of freedom as " "the issue. You'll find that they invite people to think in a narrow way, as " "consumers, and, of course, not even think very rationally as consumers, if " "they're going to choose Microsoft products. But they don't want people to " "think as citizens or statesmen. That's inimical to them. At least it's " "inimical to their current business model." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, how does free software…well, I can tell you about how free " "software relates to our society. A secondary topic that might be of " "interest to some of you is how free software relates to business. Now, in " "fact, free software is <em>tremendously</em> useful for business. After " "all, most businesses in the advanced countries use software. Only a tiny " "fraction of them develop software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And free software is tremendously advantageous for any company that uses " "software, because it means that you're in control. Basically, free software " "means the users are in control of what the program does. Either " "individually, if they care enough to be, or, collectively, when they care " "enough to be. Whoever cares enough can exert some influence. If you don't " "care, you don't buy. Then you use what other people prefer. But, if you do " "care, then you have some say. With proprietary software, you have " "essentially no say." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "With free software, you can change what you want to change. And it doesn't " "matter that there are no programmers in your company; that's fine. You " "know, if you wanted to move the walls in your building, you don't have to be " "a carpentry company. You just have to be able to go find a carpenter and " "say, “What will you charge to do this job?” And if you want to " "change around the software you use, you don't have to be a programming " "company. You just have to go to a programming company and say, “What " "will you charge to implement these features? And when will you have it " "done?” And if they don't do the job, you can go find somebody else." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "There's a free market for support. So, any business that cares about " "support will find a tremendous advantage in free software. With proprietary " "software, support is a monopoly, because one company has the source code, or " "maybe a small number of companies that paid a gigantic amount of money have " "the source code, if it's Microsoft's shared source program, but, it's very " "few. And so, there aren't very many possible sources of support for you. " "And that means, that unless you're a real giant, they don't care about you. " "Your company is not important enough for them to care if they lose your " "business, or what happens. Once you're using the program, they figure " "you're locked in to getting the support from them, because to switch to a " "different program is a gigantic job. So, you end up with things like paying " "for the privilege of reporting a bug. <i>[Laughter]</i> And once you've " "paid, they tell you, “Well, OK, we've noted your bug report. And in a " "few months, you can buy an upgrade, and you can see if we've fixed " "it.” <i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Support providers for free software can't get away with that. They have to " "please the customers. Of course, you can get a lot of good support gratis. " "You post your problem on the Internet. You may get an answer the next day. " "But that's not guaranteed, of course. If you want to be confident, you " "better make an arrangement with a company and pay them. And this is, of " "course, one of the ways that free software business works." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Another advantage of free software for businesses that use software is " "security and privacy. And this applies to individuals as well, but I " "brought it up in the context of businesses. You see, when a program is " "proprietary, you can't even tell what it really does." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "It could have features, deliberately put in that you wouldn't like if you " "knew about them, like it might have a backdoor to let the developer get into " "your machine. It might snoop on what you do and send information back. " "This is not unusual. Some Microsoft software did this. But it's not only " "Microsoft. There are other proprietary programs that snoop on the user. " "And you can't even tell if it does this. And, of course, even assuming that " "the developer's totally honest, every programmer makes mistakes. There " "could be bugs that affect your security which are nobody's fault. But the " "point is: If it's not free software, you can't find them. And you can't fix " "them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Nobody has the time to check the source of every program he runs. You're " "not going to do that. But with free software there's a large community, and " "there are people in that community who are checking things. And you get the " "benefit of their checking, because if there's an accidental bug, there " "surely are, from time to time, in any program, they might find it and fix " "it. And people are much less likely to put in a deliberate Trojan horse, or " "a snooping feature, if they think they might get caught. The proprietary " "software developers figure they won't get caught. They'll get away with it " "undetected. But a free software developer has to figure that people will " "look at that and see it's there. So, in our community, we don't feel we can " "get away with ramming a feature down the users' throats that the users " "wouldn't like. So we know that if the users don't like it, they'll make a " "modified version which doesn't have it. And then, they'll all start using " "that version." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "In fact, we can all reason enough, we can all figure this out enough steps " "ahead, that we probably won't put in that feature. After all, you're " "writing a free program; you want people to like your version; you don't want " "to put in a thing that you know a lot of people are going to hate, and have " "another modified version catch on instead of yours. So you just realize " "that the user is king in the world of free software. In the world of " "proprietary software, the customer is <em>not</em> king. Because you are " "only a customer. You have no say in the software you use." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "In this respect, free software is a new mechanism for democracy to operate. " "Professor Lessig, now at Stanford, noted that code functions as a kind of " "law. Whoever gets to write the code that just about everybody uses for all " "intents and purposes is writing the laws that run people's lives. With free " "software, these laws get written in a democratic way. Not the classical " "form of democracy—we don't have a big election and say, " "“Everybody vote which way should this feature be done.” " "<i>[Laughter]</i> Instead we say, basically, those of you who want to work " "on implementing the feature this way, do it. And if you want to work on " "implementing the feature that way, do it. And, it gets done one way or the " "other, you know? And so, if a lot of people want it this way, it'll get done " "this way. So, in this way, everybody contributes to the social decision by " "simply taking steps in the direction that he wants to go." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And you're free to take as many steps, personally, as you want to take. A " "business is free to commission as many steps as they find useful to take. " "And, after you add all these things up, that says which direction the " "software goes." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And it's often very useful to be able to take pieces out of some existing " "program, presumably usually large pieces, of course, and then write a " "certain amount of code of your own, and make a program that does exactly " "what you need, which would have cost you an arm and a leg to develop, if you " "had to write it all from scratch, if you couldn't cannibalize large pieces " "from some existing free software package." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Another thing that results from the fact that the user is king is that we " "tend to be very good about compatibility and standardization. Why? Because " "users like that. Users are likely to reject a program that has gratuitous " "incompatibilities in it. Now, sometimes there's a certain group of users " "which actually have a need for a certain kind of incompatibility, and then " "they'll have it. That's OK. But when users want is to follow a standard, we " "developers have to follow it, and we know that. And we do it. By contrast, " "if you look at proprietary software developers, they often find it " "advantageous to deliberately <em>not</em> follow a standard, and not because " "they think that they're giving the user an advantage that way, but rather " "because they're imposing on the user, locking the user in. And you'll even " "find them making changes in their file formats from time to time, just to " "force people to get the newest version." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Archivists are finding a problem now, that files written on computers ten " "years ago often can't be accessed; they were written with proprietary " "software that's essentially lost now. If it were written with free " "software, then it could be brought up-to-date and run. And those things " "would not, those records would not be lost, would not be inaccessible. They " "were even complaining about this on NPR recently in citing free software as " "a solution. And so, in effect, by using a nonfree program to store your own " "data, you are putting your head in a noose." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, I've talked about how free software affects most business. But how does " "it affect that particular narrow area which is software business? Well, the " "answer is mostly not at all. And the reason is that 90% of the software " "industry, from what I'm told, is development of custom software, software " "that's not meant to be released at all. For custom software, this issue, or " "the ethical issue of free or proprietary, doesn't arise. You see, the issue " "is, are you users free to change, and redistribute, the software? If there's " "only one user, and that user owns the rights, there's no problem. That user " "<em>is</em> free to do all these things. So, in effect, any <em>custom</em> " "program that was developed by one company for use in-house is free software, " "as long as they have the sense to insist on getting the source code and all " "the rights." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And the issue doesn't really arise for software that goes in a watch or a " "microwave oven or an automobile ignition system. Because those are places " "where you don't download software to install. It's not a real computer, as " "far as the user is concerned. And so, it doesn't raise these issues enough " "for them to be ethically important. So, for the most part, the software " "industry will go along, just as it's been going. And the interesting thing " "is that since such a large fraction of the jobs are in that part of the " "industry, even if there were no possibilities for free software business, " "the developers of free software could all get day jobs writing custom " "software. <i>[Laughter]</i> There's so many; the ratio is so big." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But, as it happens, there is free software business. There are free " "software companies, and at the press conference that I'm going to have, " "people from a couple of them will join us. And, of course, there are also " "companies which are <em>not</em> free software businesses but do develop " "useful pieces of free software to release, and the free software that they " "produce is substantial." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, how do free software businesses work? Well, some of them sell copies. " "You know, you're free to copy it but they can still sell thousands of copies " "a month. And others sell support and various kinds of services. I, " "personally, for the second half of the '80's, I sold free software support " "services. Basically I said, for $200 an hour, I'll change whatever you want " "me to change in GNU software that I'd written. And, yes, it was a stiff " "rate, but if it was a program that I was the author of, people would figure " "that I might get the job done in a lot fewer hours. <i>[Laughter]</i> And I " "made a living that way. In fact, I'd made more than I'd ever made before. " "I also taught classes. And I kept doing that until 1990, when I got a big " "prize and I didn't have to do it any more." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But, 1990 was when the first corporation free software business was formed, " "which was Cygnus Support. And their business was to do, essentially, the " "same kind of thing that I'd been doing. I certainly could have worked for " "them, if I had needed to do that. Since I didn't need to, I felt it was " "good for the movement if I remained independent of any one company. That " "way, I could say good and bad things about the various free software and " "nonfree software companies, without a conflict of interest. I felt that I " "could serve the movement more. But, if I had needed that to make a living, " "sure, I would have worked for them. It's an ethical business to be in. No " "reason I would have felt ashamed to take a job with them. And that company " "was profitable in its first year. It was formed with very little capital, " "just the money its three founders had. And it kept growing every year and " "being profitable every year until they got greedy, and looked for outside " "investors, and then they messed things up. But it was several years of " "success, before they got greedy." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, this illustrates one of the exciting things about free software. Free " "software demonstrates that you don't need to raise capital to develop free " "software. I mean, it's useful; it <em>can</em> help. You know, if you do " "raise some capital, you can hire people and have them write a bunch of " "software. But you can get a lot done with a small number of people. And, " "in fact, the tremendous efficiency of the process of developing free " "software is one of the reasons it's important for the world to switch to " "free software. And it also belies what Microsoft says when they say the GNU " "GPL is bad, because it makes it harder for them to raise capital to develop " "nonfree software and take our free software and put our code into their " "programs that they won't share with us. Basically, we don't need to have " "them raising capital that way. We'll get the job done anyway. We are " "getting the job done." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "People used to say we could never do a complete free operating system. Now " "we've done that and a tremendous amount more. And I would say that we're " "about an order of magnitude away from developing all the general purpose " "published software needs of the world. And this is in a world where more " "than 90% of the users don't use our free software yet. This is in a world " "where, although in certain areas of business, you know, more than half of " "all the web servers in the world are running on GNU/Linux with Apache as the " "web server." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: <i>[Inaudible]</i> … What did you say " "before, Linux?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: I said GNU/Linux." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: You did?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Yes, if I'm talking about the kernel, I call it " "Linux. You know, that's it's name. The kernel was written by Linus " "Torvalds, and we should only call it by the name that he chose, out of " "respect for the author." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Anyway, but in general, in business most users are not using it. Most home " "users are not using our system yet. So, when they are, we should " "automatically get 10 times as many volunteers and 10 times as many customers " "for the free software businesses that there will be. And so that will take " "us that order of magnitude. So at this point, I am pretty confident that we " "<em>can</em> do the job." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And, this is important, because Microsoft asks us to feel desperate. They " "say, The only way you can have software to run, the only way you can have " "innovation, is if you give us power. Let us dominate you. Let us control " "what you can do with the software you're running, so that we can squeeze a " "lot of money out of you, and use a certain fraction of that to develop " "software, and take the rest as profit." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Well, you shouldn't ever feel that desperate. You shouldn't ever feel so " "desperate that you give up your freedom. That's very dangerous." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Another thing that Microsoft, well, not just Microsoft, people who don't " "support free software generally adopt a value system in which the only thing " "that matters is short-term practical benefits: How much money am I going to " "make this year? What job can I get done today? Short-term thinking and " "narrow thinking. Their assumption is that it is ridiculous to imagine that " "anybody ever might make a sacrifice for the sake of freedom." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Yesterday, a lot of people were making speeches about Americans who made " "sacrifices for the freedom of their compatriots. Some of them made great " "sacrifices. They even sacrificed their lives for the kinds of freedom that " "everyone in our country has heard about, at least. (At least, in some of " "the cases; I guess we have to ignore the war in Vietnam.)" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<i>[Editor's note: The day before was “Memorial Day” in the " "USA. Memorial Day is a day where war heros are commemorated.]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But, fortunately, to maintain our freedom in using software, doesn't call " "for big sacrifices. Just tiny, little sacrifices are enough, like learning a " "command-line interface, if we don't have a GUI interface program yet. Like " "doing the job in this way, because we don't have a free software package to " "do it that way, yet. Like, paying some money to a company that's going to " "develop a certain free software package, so that you can have it in a few " "years. Various little sacrifices that we can all make. And, in the long " "run, even we will have benefited from it. You know, it is really an " "investment more than a sacrifice. We just have to have enough long-term " "view to realize it's good for us to invest in improving our society, without " "counting the nickels and dimes of who gets how much of the benefit from that " "investment." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "So, at this point, I'm essentially done." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "I'd like to mention that there's a new approach to free software business " "being proposed by Tony Stanco, which he calls “Free Developers,” " "which involves a certain business structure which hopes eventually to pay " "out a certain share of the profits to every, to all the authors of the free " "software who've joined the organization. And they're looking at the " "prospects of getting me some rather large government software development " "contracts in India now, because they're going to be using free software as " "the basis, having tremendous cost savings that way." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "And so now I guess that I should ask for questions." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Could you speak up a bit louder please? I can't " "really hear you." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: How could a company like Microsoft include a free " "software contract?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Well, actually, Microsoft is planning to shift a " "lot of its activity into services. And what they're planning to do is " "something dirty and dangerous, which is tie the services to the programs, " "one to the next, in a sort of zigzag, you know? So that to use this service, " "you've got to be using this Microsoft program, which is going to mean you " "need to use this service, to this Microsoft program, so it's all tied " "together. That's their plan." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, the interesting thing is that selling those services doesn't raise the " "ethical issue of free software or nonfree software. It might be perfectly " "fine for them to have the business for those businesses selling those " "services over the net to exist. However, what Microsoft is planning to do " "is to use them to achieve an even greater lock, an even greater monopoly, on " "the software and the services, and this was described in an article, I " "believe in Business Week, recently. And, other people said that it is " "turning the net into the Microsoft Company Town." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And this is relevant because, you know, the trial court in the Microsoft " "antitrust trial recommended breaking up the company, Microsoft. But in a " "way, that makes no sense—it wouldn't do any good at all—into the " "operating part and the applications part." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But having seen that article, I now see a useful, effective way to split up " "Microsoft into the services part and the software part, to require them to " "deal with each other only at arm's length, that the services must publish " "their interfaces, so that anybody can write a client to talk to those " "services, and, I guess, that they have to pay to get the service. Well, " "that's OK. That's a totally different issue." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "If Microsoft is split up in this way […] services and software, they " "will not be able to use their software to crush competition with Microsoft " "services. And they won't be able to use the services to crush competition " "with Microsoft software. And we will be able to make the free software, and " "maybe you people will use it to talk to Microsoft services, and we won't " "mind." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Because, after all, although Microsoft is the proprietary software company " "that has subjugated the most people—the others have subjugated fewer " "people, it's not for want of trying. <i>[Laughter]</i> They just haven't " "succeeded in subjugating as many people. So, the problem is not Microsoft " "and only Microsoft. Microsoft is just the biggest example of the problem " "we're trying to solve, which is proprietary software taking away users' " "freedom to cooperate and form an ethical society. So we shouldn't focus too " "much on Microsoft, you know, even though they did give me the opportunity " "for this platform. That doesn't make them all-important. They're not the " "be-all and end-all." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: Earlier, you were discussing the philosophical " "differences between open source software and free software. How do you feel " "about the current trend of GNU/Linux distributions as they head towards " "supporting only Intel platforms? And the fact that it seems that less and " "less programmers are programming correctly, and making software that will " "compile anywhere? And making software that simply works on Intel systems?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: I don't see an ethical issue there. Although, in " "fact, companies that make computers sometimes port the GNU/Linux system to " "it. HP apparently did this recently. And, they didn't bother paying for a " "port of Windows, because that would have cost too much. But getting " "GNU/Linux supported was, I think, five engineers for a few months. It was " "easily doable." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, of course, I encourage people to use <code>autoconf</code>, which is a " "GNU package that makes it easier to make your programs portable. I " "encourage them to do that. Or when somebody else fixes the bug that it " "didn't compile on that version of the system, and sends it to you, you " "should put it in. But I don't see that as an ethical issue." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: Two comments. One is: Recently, you spoke at " "MIT. I read the transcript. And someone asked about patents, and you said " "that “patents are a totally different issue. I have no comments on " "that.”" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Right. I actually have a lot to say about " "patents, but it takes an hour. <i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: I wanted to say this: It seems to me that there " "is an issue. I mean, there is a reason that companies call both patents and " "copyrights things like hard property in trying to get this concept which is, " "if they want to use the power of the State to create a course of monopoly " "for themselves. And so, what's common about these things is not that they " "revolve around the same issues, but that motivation is not really the public " "service issues but the motivation of companies to get a monopoly for their " "private interests." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: I understand. But, well, I want to respond " "because there's not too much time. So I'd like to respond to that." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "You're right that that's what they want. But there's another reason why " "they want to use the term intellectual property. It's that they don't want " "to encourage people to think carefully about copyright issues or patent " "issues. Because copyright law and patent law are totally different, and the " "effects of software copyrighted and software patents are totally different." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Software patents are a restriction on programmers, prohibiting them from " "writing certain kinds of programs, whereas copyright doesn't do that. With " "copyright, at least if you wrote it yourself, you're allowed to distribute " "it. So, it's tremendously important to separate these issues." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "They have a little bit in common, at a very low level, and everything else " "is different. So, please, to encourage clear thinking, discuss copyright or " "discuss patents. But don't discuss intellectual property. I don't have an " "opinion on intellectual property. I have opinions on copyrights and patents " "and software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: You mentioned at the beginning that a functional " "language, like recipes, are computer programs. There's a cross a little bit " "different than other kinds of language created on. This is also causing a " "problem in the DVD case." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: The issues are partly similar but partly " "different, for things that are not functional in nature. Part of the issue " "transfers but not all of it. Unfortunately, that's another hour speech. I " "don't have time to go into it. But I would say that all functional works " "ought to be free in the same sense as software. You know, textbooks, " "manuals, dictionaries, and recipes, and so on." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: I was just wondering on online music. There are " "similarities and differences created all through." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Right. I'd say that the minimum freedom that we " "should have for any kind of published information is the freedom to " "non-commercially redistribute it, verbatim. For functional works, we need " "the freedom to commercially publish a modified version, because that's " "tremendously useful to society. For non-functional works, you know, things " "that are to entertain, or to be aesthetic, or to state a certain person's " "views, you know, perhaps they shouldn't be modified. And, perhaps that " "means that it's OK, to have copyright covering all commercial distribution " "of them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Please remember that according to the U.S. Constitution, the purpose of " "copyright is to benefit the public. It is to modify the behavior of certain " "private parties, so that they will publish more books. And the benefit of " "this is that society gets to discuss issues and learn. And, you know, we " "have literature. We have scientific works. The purpose is encourage that. " "Copyrights do not exist for the sake of authors, let alone for the sake of " "publishers. They exist for the sake of readers and all those who benefit " "from the communication of information that happens when people write and " "others read. And that goal I agree with." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But in the age of the computer networks, the method is no longer tenable, " "because it now requires draconian laws that invade everybody's privacy and " "terrorize everyone. You know, years in prison for sharing with your " "neighbor. It wasn't like that in the age of the printing press. Then " "copyright was an industrial regulation. It restricted publishers. Now, " "it's a restriction imposed by the publishers on the public. So, the power " "relationship is turned around 180 degrees, even if it's the same law." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: So you can have the same thing—but like in " "making music from other music?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Right. That is an interesting …" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: And unique, new works, you know, it's still a lot " "of cooperation." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: It is. And I think that probably requires some " "kind of fair use concept. Certainly making a few seconds of sample and " "using that in making some musical work, obviously that should be fair use. " "Even the standard idea of fair use includes that, if you think about it. " "Whether courts agree, I'm not sure, but they should. That wouldn't be a " "real change in the system as it has existed." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: What do you think about publishing public " "information in proprietary formats?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Oh, it shouldn't be. I mean, the government " "should never require citizens to use a nonfree program to access, to " "communicate with the government in any way, in either direction." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: I have been, what I will now say, a GNU/Linux " "user…" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Thank you. <i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: …for the past four years. The one thing " "that has been problematical for me and is something that is essential, I " "think, to all of us, is browsing the web." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Yes." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: One thing that has been decidedly a weakness in " "using a GNU/Linux system has been browsing the web, because the prevailing " "tool for that, Netscape…" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: …is not free software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Let me respond to this. I want to get to the point, for the sake of getting " "in more. So, yes. There has been a terrible tendency for people to use " "Netscape Navigator on their GNU/Linux systems. And, in fact all the " "commercially packaged systems come with it. So this is an ironic situation: " "we worked so hard to make a free operating system, and now, if you go to the " "store, and you can find versions of GNU/Linux there, most of them are called " "Linux, and they're not free. Oh, well, part of them is. But then, there's " "Netscape Navigator, and maybe other nonfree programs as well. So, it's very " "hard to actually find a free system, unless you know what you're doing. Or, " "of course, you can not install Netscape Navigator." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Now, in fact, there have been free web browsers for many years. There is a " "free web browser that I used to use called Lynx. It's a free web browser " "that is non-graphical; it's text-only. This has a tremendous advantage, in " "you don't see the ads. <i>[Laughter] [Applause]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But anyway, there is a free graphical project called Mozilla, which is now " "getting to the point where you can use it. And I occasionally use it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: Konqueror 2.01 has been very good." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Oh, OK. So that's another free graphical " "browser. So, we're finally solving that problem, I guess." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: Can you talk to me about that " "philosophical/ethical division between free software and open source? Do you " "feel that those are irreconcilable? …" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<i>[Recording switches tapes; end of question and start of answer is " "missing]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: … to a freedom, and ethics. Or whether " "you just say, Well, I hope that you companies will decide it's more " "profitable to let us be allowed to do these things." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But, as I said, in a lot of practical work, it doesn't really matter what a " "person's politics are. When a person offers to help the GNU project, we " "don't say: “You have to agree with our politics.” We say that in " "a GNU package, you've got to call the system GNU/Linux, and you've got to " "call it free software. What you say when you're not speaking to the GNU " "Project, that's up to you." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: The company, IBM, started a campaign for " "government agencies, to sell their big new machines, that they used Linux as " "selling point, and say Linux." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Yes, of course, it's really the GNU/Linux " "systems. <i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: That's right! Well, tell the top sales person. " "He doesn't know anything for GNU." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: I have to tell who?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: The top sales person." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Oh yes. The problem is that they've already " "carefully decided what they want to say for reasons of their advantage. And " "the issue of what is a more accurate, or fair, or correct way to describe it " "is not the primary issue that matters to a company like that. Now, some " "small companies, yes, there'll be a boss. And if the boss is inclined to " "think about things like that, he might make a decision that way. Not a " "giant corporation though. It's a shame, you know." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "There's another more important and more substantive issue about what IBM is " "doing. They're saying that they're putting a billion dollars into " "“Linux.” But perhaps, I should also put quotes around " "“into,” as well, because some of that money is paying people to " "develop free software. That really is a contribution to our community. But " "other parts is paying to pay people to write proprietary software, or port " "proprietary software to run on top of GNU/Linux, and that is <em>not</em> a " "contribution to our community. But IBM is lumping that altogether into " "this. Some of it might be advertising, which is partly a contribution, even " "if it's partly wrong. So, it's a complicated situation. Some of what " "they're doing is contribution and some is not. And some is sort is " "somewhat, but not exactly. And you can't just lump it altogether and think, " "Wow! Whee! A billion dollars from IBM. <i>[Laughter]</i> That's " "oversimplification." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: Can you talk a little bit more about the thinking " "that went into the General Public License?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Well, here's the—I'm sorry, I'm answering " "his question now. <i>[Laughter]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>SCHONBERG</strong>: Do you want to reserve some time for the press " "conference? Or do you want to continue here?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Who is here for the press conference? Not a lot " "of press. Oh, three… OK. Can you afford if we… if I go on " "answering everybody's questions for another ten minutes or so? OK. So, " "we'll go on answering everybody's questions." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, the thinking that went into the GNU GPL? Part of it was that I wanted to " "protect the freedom of the community against the phenomena that I just " "described with X Windows, which has happened with other free programs as " "well. In fact, when I was thinking about this issue, X Windows was not yet " "released. But I had seen this problem happen in other free programs. For " "instance, TeX. I wanted to make sure that the users would all have " "freedom. Otherwise, I realized that I might write a program, and maybe a " "lot of people would use the program, but they wouldn't have freedom. And " "what's the point of that?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But the other issue I was thinking about was, I wanted to give the community " "a feeling that it was not a doormat, a feeling that it was not prey to any " "parasite who would wander along. If you don't use copyleft, you are " "essentially saying: <i>[speaking meekly]</i> “Take my code. Do what " "you want. I don't say no.” So, anybody can come along and say: " "<i>[speaking very firmly]</i> “Ah, I want to make a nonfree version of " "this. I'll just take it.” And, then, of course, they probably make " "some improvements, those nonfree versions might appeal to users, and replace " "the free versions. And then, what have you accomplished? You've only made a " "donation to some proprietary software project." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And when people see that that's happening, when people see, other people " "take what I do, and they don't ever give back, it can be demoralizing. And, " "this is not just speculation. I had seen that happen. That was part of " "what happened to wipe out the old community that I belonged to the '70's. " "Some people started becoming uncooperative. And we assumed that they were " "profiting thereby. They certainly acted as if they thought they were " "profiting. And we realized that they can just take off cooperation and not " "give back. And there was nothing we could do about it. It was very " "discouraging. We, those of us who didn't like the trend, even had a " "discussion and we couldn't come up with any idea for how we could stop it." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, the GPL is designed to stop that. And it says, Yes, you are welcome to " "join the community and use this code. You can use it to do all sorts of " "jobs. But, if you release a modified version, you've got to release that to " "our community, as part of our community, as part of the free world." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, in fact, there are still many ways that people can get the benefit of " "our work and not contribute, like you don't have to write any software. " "Lots of people use GNU/Linux and don't write any software. There's no " "requirement that you've got to do anything for us. But if you do a certain " "kind of thing, you've got to contribute to it. So what that means is that " "our community is not a doormat. And I think that that helped give people " "the strength to feel, Yes, we won't just be trampled underfoot by " "everybody. We'll stand up to this." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: Yes, my question was, considering free but not " "copylefted software, since anybody can pick it up and make it proprietary, " "is it not possible also for someone to pick it up and make some changes and " "release the whole thing under the GPL?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Yes, it is possible." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: Then, that would make all future copies then be " "GPL'ed." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: From that branch. But here's why we don't do " "that." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: Hmm?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Here's why we don't generally do that. Let me " "explain." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: OK, yes." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: We could, if we wanted to, take X Windows, and " "make a GPL-covered copy and make changes in that. But there's a much larger " "group of people working on improving X Windows and <em>not</em> GPL-ing it. " "So, if we did that, we would be forking from them. And that's not very nice " "treatment of them. And, they <em>are</em> a part of our community, " "contributing to our community." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "Second, it would backfire against us, because they're doing a lot more work " "on X than we would be. So, our version would be inferior to theirs, and " "people wouldn't use it, which means, why go to the trouble at all?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: Mmm hmm." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: So when a person has written some improvement to " "X Windows, what I say that person should do is cooperate with the X " "development team. Send it to them and let them use it their way. Because " "they are developing a very important piece of free software. It's good for " "us to cooperate with them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: Except, considering X, in particular, about two " "years ago, the X Consortium that was far into the nonfree open " "source…" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Well, actually it <em>wasn't</em> open sourced. " "It wasn't open sourced, either. They may have said it was. I can't " "remember if they said that or not. But it wasn't open source. It was " "restricted. You couldn't commercially distribute, I think. Or you couldn't " "commercially distribute a modified version, or something like that. There " "was a restriction that's considered unacceptable by both the Free Software " "movement and the Open Source movement." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "And yes, that's what using a non-copyleft license leaves you open to. In " "fact, the X Consortium, they had a very rigid policy. They say: If your " "program if copylefted even a little bit, we won't distribute it at all. We " "won't put it in our distribution." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "So, a lot of people were pressured in this way into not copylefting. And " "the result was that all of their software was wide open, later on. When the " "same people who had pressured a developer to be too all-permissive, then the " "X people later said, All right, now we can put on restrictions, which wasn't " "very ethical of them." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But, given the situation, would we really want to scrape up the resources to " "maintain an alternate GPL-covered version of X? And it wouldn't make any " "sense to do that. There are so many other things we need to do. Let's do " "them instead. We can cooperate with the X developers." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: Do you have a comment, is the GNU a trademark? " "And is it practical to include it as part of the GNU General Public License " "allowing trademarks?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: We are, actually, applying for trademark " "registration on GNU. But it wouldn't really have anything to do with that. " "It's a long story to explain why." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: You could require the trademark be displayed with " "GPL-covered programs." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: No, I don't think so. The licenses cover " "individual programs. And when a given program is part of the GNU Project, " "nobody lies about that. The name of the system as a whole is a different " "issue. And this is an aside. It's not worth discussing more." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>QUESTION</strong>: If there was a button that you could push and " "force all companies to free their software, would you press it?" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: Well, I would only use this for published " "software. You know, I think that people have the right to write a program " "privately and use it. And that includes companies. This is privacy issue. " "And it's true, there can be times when it is wrong to do that, like if it is " "tremendously helpful to humanity, and you are withholding it from " "humanity. That is a wrong but that's a different kind of wrong. It's a " "different issue, although it's in the same area." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "But yes, I think all published software should be free software. And " "remember, when it's not free software, that's because of government " "intervention. The government is intervening to make it nonfree. The " "government is creating special legal powers to hand out to the owners of the " "programs, so that they can have the police stop us from using the programs " "in certain ways. So I would certainly like to end that." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>SCHONBERG</strong>: Richard's presentation has invariably generated " "an enormous amount of intellectual energy. I would suggest that some of it " "should be directed to using, and possibly writing, free software." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "We should close the proceedings shortly. I want to say that Richard has " "injected into a profession which is known in the general public for its " "terminal apolitical nerditude a level of political and moral discussion " "which is, I think, unprecedented in our profession. And we owe him very big " "for this. I'd like to note to people that there is a break." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<i>[Applause]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "" "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: You are free to leave at any time, you " "know. <i>[Laughter]</i> I'm not holding you prisoner here." msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<i>[Audience adjourns…]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<i>[overlapping conversations…]</i>" msgstr "" #. type: Content of: <div><p> msgid "<strong>STALLMAN</strong>: One final thing. Our website: www.gnu.org" 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 © 2001, 2005, 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 ""