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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" as
in "free speech
not as in "free beer:
We sometimes
call it
libre software,
borrowing the French 0r
Spanish word for
as in freedom; t0 show we do
not mean the software i5
You may have
money tO 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
the
software; even to sell copies:
We campaign for these freedoms because everyone deserves
them. With these freedoms; the users
individually and
collectively) control the program and what it does for them.
When users dont control the program; we call it a
nonfree"
proprietary
program. The nonfree program controls the
users; and the developer controls the program; this makes
the program an instrument of unjust power:
"Open source" is something different: it has
very different
"free"
gratis.
paid
change
(both