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About_free software
Principles
What is Free Software?
"Free software" means software that respects users'
freedom and community. Roughly; it means that the
users have the freedom to run; copY; distribute;
study, change and improve the software: Thus,
"free software" is a matter of liberty; not price: To
understand the concept; you should think of "free"
in "free
not as in "free beer:
We sometim
call it "libre software
borrowing the French or
Spanish word for
free" as in freedom; to show we
not mean the software is
gratis
You may
money t0 get copies of a free
program, Or YOu may have obtained copies at no
charge: But regardless of how you got your copies_
you always have the freedom to copy and change
software_
even [0
sell copies:
We campaign for these freedoms because everyone des
them. With these freedoms; the users (both individually
collectively) control the program and what it does for =
When users don't control the program; we call it a "nor
"proprietary" program: The nonfree program contro_
users; and the
developer controls the program; this ma
the program an instrument of unjust power
source" is
something different: it has a very diff
'speech;
have
paid
"Open