Free software movement
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The '''free software movement''' is a [[new social movement]] which aims to promote user's rights to access and modify software. Although drawing on traditions and philosophies among members of the 1970s [[hacker (free and open source software)|hacker]] culture, [[Richard Stallman]] is widely credited with launching the movement in 1983 by founding the [[GNU Project]].<ref>{{cite web
|title=Announcement of the GNU project
|url=http://www.gnu.org/gnu/initial-announcement.html]
|}}</ref>
The '''free software philosophy''' at the core of the movement drew on core and incidental elements of what was called hacker culture by many computer users in the 70s, among other sources.
==Philosophy==
Stallman founded the [[Free Software Foundation]] in 1985 to support the movement. The philosophy of the movement is to give freedom to computer users by replacing [[proprietary software|proprietary]] [[computer software|software]] under restrictive licensing terms with [[free software]],<ref>{{cite web
|title=Use Free Software
|publisher=gnu.org
|url=http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/use-free-software.html
|}}</ref> with the ultimate goal of liberating everyone "in cyberspace"<ref>{{cite web
|title=Stallman interviewed by Sean Daly
|url=http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060625001523547
|publisher=Groklaw
|date=2006-06-23
|}}</ref> – that is, every computer user.
Members of the free software movement believe that all users of software should have the freedoms listed in the [[free software definition]]. Many hold that it is [[morality|immoral]] to prohibit or prevent people from exercising these freedoms and that these freedoms are required to create a decent society where software users can help each other, and to have control over their computers.<ref>{{cite web
|title=Why free software?
|url=http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/why-free.html
|publisher=gnu.org
|}}</ref>
Some adherents to the free software movement do not believe that [[proprietary software]] is strictly immoral.<ref>{{cite web
|title=Copyleft: Pragmatic Idealism
|publisher=gnu.org
|url=http://www.fsf.org/licensing/essays/pragmatic.html
|}}</ref> They argue freedom is valuable (both socially and pragmatically) as a property of software in its own right, separate from technical quality in a narrow sense.
The free software movement also believes all software needs free [[documentation]], but does not take a strong position on other types of works.<ref>{{cite web
|title=Free Software and Free Manuals
|url=http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-doc.html
|publisher=gnu.org
|}}</ref> Members of the free software movement advocate that works which serve a practical purpose should also be free.
==Actions==
===Writing and spreading free software===
The initial work of the free software movement focused on software development.
The free software movement also rejects proprietary software, refusing to install software that does not give them the freedoms of free software. According to Stallman, "The only thing in the software field that is worse than an unauthorised copy of a proprietary program, is an authorised copy of the proprietary program because this does the same harm to its whole community of users, and in addition, usually the developer, the perpetrator of this evil, profits from it."<ref>{{cite web
|title=Transcript of Stallman on Free Software
|date=2006-03-09
|url=http://fsfeurope.org/documents/rms-fs-2006-03-09.en.html]
|publisher=FSFE
|}}</ref>
===Building awareness===
[[Image:Uncle-gnu.jpeg|thumb|100px|right]]
Some supporters of the free software movement take up [[public speaking]], or host a stall at software-related conferences to raise awareness of software freedom. This is seen as important since people who receive free software, but who aren't aware that it is free software, will later accept a non-free replacement or will add software which is not free software. <ref>{{cite web
|title=Transcript of Stallman speaking at WSIS
|url=http://fsfe.org/en/fellows/ciaran/ciaran_s_free_software_notes/transcript_of_rms_at_wsis_on_is_free_open_source_software_the_answer#wsis--importance-of-awareness
|publisher=Ciaran O'Riordan
|}}</ref>
==Legislation==
A lot of lobbying work has been done against [[software patent]]s and expansions of copyright law.
The [[Venezuela]]n government implemented a free software law in January 2006. Decree No. 3,390 mandated all government agencies to migrate to free software over a two-year period.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/professional_services_venezuela/
|title=Free software liberates Venezuela
|publisher=[[Free Software Magazine]] n°10
|date=2006-02-08
|}}</ref>
Congressmen Dr [[Edgar David Villanueva]] and Jacques Rodrich Ackerman have been instrumental in introducing in Republic of Peru bill 1609 on "Free Software in Public Administration".<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Free_Software_in_Public_Agencies
|title=An English translation of the Free Software bill proposed in Peru
|}}</ref> The incident immediately invited the attention of Microsoft Inc, Peru, whose General Manager wrote a letter to Dr Edgar David Villanueva. Dr Edgar's response received worldwide attention and is still seen as a classical piece of argumentation favouring use of Free Software in Governments.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gnu.org.pe/resmseng.html|archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20070829215908/http://www.gnu.org.pe/resmseng.html|archivedate=2007-08-29|title=Peruvian Congressman Edgar Villanueva writing to Microsoft about free software.|}}</ref>
In the USA, there have been efforts to pass legislation at the state level encouraging use of free software by state government agencies.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://news.cnet.com/2100-1001-949241.html
|title=Open source's new weapon: The law?
}}</ref>
== Internal conflict ==
Like many social movements, the free software movement has ongoing internal conflict between personalities and between supporters of compromise versus strict adherence to values.
===Open source===
In 1998, some companies met to create a marketing campaign for free software which would focus on technology rather than ethics{{Fact|date=February 2008}}. After this [[Eric Raymond]] and [[Bruce Perens]], founded [[Open Source Initiative]] OSI, which promotes the term "[[open-source software]]" as an [[alternative term for free software]]. OSI does not agree with the free software movement's position that non-free software is a social problem or that it is unethical.<ref>[http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/hacking/fsvos.html "Free", "Open Source", and Philosophies of Software Ownership<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>
OSI advocates free software (under the name "open-source software") on the basis that it is a superior model for software development rather than it being a social or ethical issue.<ref>{{cite web
|publisher=gnu.org
|url=http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/open-source-misses-the-point.html
|title=Open Source misses the point
|}}</ref>
===Stallman and Torvalds===
The two most prominent people attached to the movement, [[Richard Stallman]] and [[Linus Torvalds]], have deep philosophical differences. This has fueled many dramatic news articles, but has not prevented Stallman from using Torvalds's [[Linux kernel|kernel]] or Torvalds from using Stallman's [[GNU General Public License]].
==Measures of progress==
[[Ohloh]], a [[web service]] founded in 2004 and launched in 2006, monitors the development activity in the [[free software community]], providing detailed [[Software metric|metrics]] and [[quantitative analysis|quantitative analyses]] on the growth and popularity of projects and [[programming language]]s.
==Criticism and controversy==
===Who defines "free"?===
Some people only consider [[Public Domain]] as free, and thus do not consider the "Free Software Movement" as free.
===Is something impeding progress?===
Some, such as [[Eric Raymond]], criticise the speed at which the free software movement is progressing, suggesting that temporary compromises should be made for short-term gains. Raymond argues that this could raise awareness of the software and thus increase the free software movement's influence on relevant standards and legislation.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/world-domination/world-domination-201.html
|title=ESR's "World Domination 201", on the need for more compromise by the free software movement
|}}</ref>
Others, such as Richard Stallman, see the current level of compromise to be the bigger worry.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/use-free-software.html
|title=RMS on the progress of the movement and his worry about compromise
|}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
|url=http://www.libervis.com/article/richard_stallman_on_world_domination_201
|title=Richard Stallman on "World Domination 201"
|quote=I cannot agree to that compromise, and my experience teaches me that
it won't be temporary. ... What our community needs most is more spine in rejection of non-free
software. It has far too much willingness to compromise. ... To "argue" in favor of adding non-free software in GNU/Linux distros
is almost superfluous, since that's what nearly all of them have
already done.}}</ref>
== See also ==
{{portal|Free software|Free Software Portal Logo.svg}}
* [[Free Culture Movement]]
* [[Free software community]]
* [[Free Software Foundation]]
* [[GNU Manifesto]]
* [[Linux adoption]]
* [[Open Source Initiative]]
* [[BadVista]]
* [[Defective by Design]]
== External links ==
*[http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/09/29/what-is-free-software.html What is Free Software?] - Essay by Karl Fogel.
*[http://fsfeurope.org/documents/rms-fs-2006-03-09.en.html The Free Software Movement and the Future of Freedom], a lecture by Richard Stallman
*[http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-intro.html Free Software Movement intro by FSF]
*[http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/ The GNU Project Philosophy Directory], containing many defining documents of the free software movement
*[http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/4795 An interview with Stallman, "Free Software as a social movement"]
*Christian Imhorst, [http://www.imhorst.net/translations/anarchy-and-source-code/ ''Anarchy and Source Code - What does the Free Software Movement have to do with Anarchism?]'', (licence: [[GFDL]]), 2005
*{{es icon}}[http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_libre_en_la_administraci%C3%B3n_p%C3%BAblica Software libre en la administración pública], Free software in public administration, from Spanish Wikipedia
*[http://www.billxu.com/friend/rms/zeuux.rms.anti.drm.html An anti-DRM campaign] - by Bill Xu and Richard Stallman
* [http://www.apdip.net/news/fossdoc The Codebreakers - a freely redistributable movie]
== References ==
{{reflist|2}}
{{FLOSS}}
[[Category:Free software culture and documents]]
[[Category:GNU project|*]]
[[Category:Free Software Foundation]]
[[Category:Copyleft media]]
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