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Philosophy of the GNU Project

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Table of Contents

• About Free Software
• About the GNU Project
• Licensing Free Software
• Laws
• Terminology and Definitions
• GIFs
• Motivation
• Speeches
• Third Party Ideas
• Translations of these documents

About Free Software

Free software is a matter of freedom: people should be free to use software in all the ways that are socially useful. Software differs from material objects--such as chairs, sandwiches, and gasoline--in that it can be copied and changed much more easily. These possibilities make software as useful as it is; we believe software users should be able to make use of them.

• What is Free Software?
• Why Software Should Not Have Owners
• Why Software Should Be Free. (This is an older and longer essay about the same topic as the previous one.)
• Why Free Software Needs Free Documentation.
• Selling Free Software Can Be OK!
• Categories of Free and Non-Free Software (18k characters)
• Free software is more reliable!
• Regarding Gnutella

About the GNU Project

• Initial announcement of the GNU Project
• The GNU Manifesto (31k characters)
• Brief history of the GNU Project
• The GNU Project, a longer and more complete description of the project and its history.
• What is the Free Software Foundation?

Licensing Free Software

• Free Software Licenses
• What is Copyleft?
• Why you should not use the Library GPL for your next library..
• Copyleft: Pragmatic Idealism
• The X Windows Trap
• The Problems of the Apple License
• The BSD License Problem
• The Netscape Public License has serious problems.
• The Free Software Movement and UDI
• Is Microsoft the Great Satan?
• The Microsoft Antitrust Trial and Free Software
• On the Microsoft Verdict
• The Problems of the Plan 9 License
• The new Motif License
• Using the GNU FDL

Laws

• Examples of Excellent Copyright Policies
• Reevaluating Copyright: The Public must prevail
• The Right to Read: A Dystopian Short Story by Richard Stallman
• Eldred v. Reno is about a lawsuit to overturn a law that extends copyright by 20 extra years.
• Encryption software volunteers needed in countries without export control.
• How to Protect the Right to Write Software (independent of whether it's free or not)
• The Right Way to Tax DAT (22k characters)
• How to Protect the Freedoms of Speech, Press, and Association on the Internet
• Patent Reform Is Not Enough
• Saving Europe from Software Patents
• Boycott Amazon!
• Why We Must Fight UCITA by Richard Stallman
• A world with UCITA may allow fine print to outweigh the right thing by Ed Foster gripe@infoworld.com
• Freedom-Or Copyright? by Richard Stallman
• Sequential Innovation, Patents, and Imitation is a paper that presents a mathematical model showing how patents can impede progress in fields like software.
• Copyright versus community in the age of computer networks: is a verbatim transcript of a talk by Richard Stallman at the Logiciel Libre Conference in July 2000.

Terminology and Definitions

• Confusing Words which You Might Want to Avoid
• "Open Source Software" or "Free Software"?
• Categories of Free and Non-Free Software (18k characters)

GIFs

• Why there are no GIF files on GNU web pages

Motivation

• Studies Find Reward Often No Motivator

Speeches and Interviews (in reverse chronological order)

• Audio recording of a speech, The Free Software Movement and the GNU/Linux Operating System given by Richard M. Stallman at LinuxTag 2000.
• Interview from Linux Magazine in July 1999 with Richard Stallman
• The Road to GNU
• Richard Stallman's interview with LinuxWorld about the problems with software patents.
• LinuxWorld Interview with Richard Stallman
• Transcription (in French) of a speech that Richard Stallman gave in 1998 at the University of Paris.
• English translation of a speech that Georg Greve gave in 1998 at the GNU/Linux Cluster "CLOWN" in Germany (German original)
• BYTE Interview in July 1986 with Richard Stallman
• A speech that Richard Stallman gave in 1986 at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden

Third Party Ideas

Many of the Organizations that Work for Freedom in Computer Development and Electronic Communications also have philosophical opinions in support of free software, or related issues, and don't speak for the GNU project -- but we more or less agree with them.

• Gnutella Replaces Godzilla in Corporate Media
• The net bites back - Website attacks prove the Internet still works
• The GNU Project FTP Site: A Digital Collection Supporting a Social Movement by Michelle Bejian
• Copyrighting fire
• The Hacker Anti-Defamation League
• Read Them And Weep, by Simson Garfinkel, talks about the pending bills that would give information owners sweeping new powers, and restrict the activities of users.
• Applying Copyleft To Non-Software Information, by Michael Stutz.
• Only the Free World Can Stand Up to Microsoft, by Tom Hull.
• The Free Music Philosophy, by Ram Samudrala.
• The Manifesto: Piracy is Your Friend, by Jaron Lanier.
  Note that the GNU Project recommends avoiding the term piracy since it implies that sharing copies is somehow illegitimate.
• A primer on the ethics of ``Intellectual property'', by Ram Samudrala.
• Is Self-Interest Sufficient to Organize an Free Economy? by Loyd Fueston.
• The Free Science Campaign is a campaign for the freedom to distribute scientific work.
• Article (in German) in the Swiss paper Neue Zuercher Zeitung about the Netscape decision to release source code
• People, places, things and ideas by Kragen Sitaker
• The Libertarian Case Against Intellectual Property Rights by Roderick T. Long
  The Free Software Movement does not endorse Libertarianism, and we do not agree entirely with that article. But it is useful for refuting one specific argument that is made in favor of proprietary software.
• Articles in Spanish about free software issues
• Anarchism Triumphant: Free Software and the Death of Copyright
• Imagined Electronic Community: Representations of Virtual Community in Contemporary Business Discourse
• The Death and Rebirth of Plagiarism by Rodney Riegle. (We don't entirely agree with this article--we think there is no harm in asking people to make some extra effort to write ``footnotes'' to give credit.)
• Save the Web is a website devoted to protecting Internet users rights in Europe.
• Does Studying Economics Inhibit Cooperation? by Frank, Gilovich, and Regan.
• Development, Ethical Trading, and Free Software by Danny Yee.
• THE BALLAD OF DENNIS KARJALA: A political comment in the form of a broadside ballad by Timothy R. Phillips.
• Libranet is collecting signatures on a petition which will be submitted to the major producers of PC devices, asking them to make available to GNU/Linux developers full specifications of their devices, so that GNU/Linux compatible device drivers can be produced for their products.
• Shaping Collaborative ICT Development and Initiatives for Global Prosperity by Robert J. Chassell
• The Competitive Advantage of Free Software by Alexandre Oliva.
• Patent grant under the GPL.
• The Concept of Copyright Fights for Internet Survival by John Markoff.
• The Real Purpose of Copyright by John N. Berry III.
• Copyrighting Fire! (Humor) by Ian Clarke.
• The Future Brings "Infirmation Technology" by Andy Oram.

Translations of these documents

• Unofficial Korean translations of many of these documents
• Translations of the GNU Manifesto
• Translations of the term ``free software''
• Translations of the GNU GPL
• Translations of the GNU LGPL
• Translations of the GNU FDL

FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to gnu@gnu.org. Other ways to contact the FSF.

Comments on these web pages to webmasters@gnu.org, send other questions to gnu@gnu.org.

Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.

Updated: 27 Nov 2000 bkuhn