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Free Software Movement

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Free Software Movement
NameFree Software Movement
Formation1983
FounderRichard Stallman
Founding locationMIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts
PurposePromotion of free software and user freedoms
Key peopleRichard Stallman, Eben Moglen, Linus Torvalds

Free Software Movement. The Free Software Movement is a social and political initiative that advocates for the fundamental rights of computer users to use, study, share, and modify software. Founded in 1983 by programmer Richard Stallman, it arose as a response to the increasing commercialization and restriction of software in the 1980s. The movement's philosophy is formally defined by the Four Essential Freedoms and is primarily implemented through copyleft licenses, most notably the GNU General Public License. It has profoundly influenced the development of modern open-source software, Linux, and the broader digital rights landscape.

History and origins

The movement's origins are deeply tied to the culture of software sharing at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory in the 1970s. This collaborative environment was disrupted by the rise of proprietary software and restrictive end-user license agreements. A pivotal moment occurred in 1980 when a Xerox laser printer at the lab malfunctioned, and Stallman was denied access to its source code to fix it, highlighting the loss of user control. In 1983, Stallman announced the GNU Project, aiming to create a complete Unix-like operating system composed entirely of free software. To support this legally and philosophically, he founded the Free Software Foundation in 1985 and authored the first version of the GNU General Public License.

Core principles and philosophy

The movement's ethical foundation is the Four Essential Freedoms, which state that users should have the freedom to run a program for any purpose, study and change its source code, redistribute copies, and distribute modified versions. These freedoms are considered inalienable rights, not merely practical benefits. The philosophy is distinct from the later open-source software initiative, which often emphasizes technical and business advantages over ethical imperatives. Central to enforcing these freedoms is the concept of copyleft, a legal method that uses copyright law to ensure that all modified and extended versions of a program remain free software, as exemplified by the GNU General Public License.

Key organizations and projects

The Free Software Foundation, based in Boston, serves as the movement's principal organizational and legal steward. The GNU Project provides the foundational components, such as the GNU Compiler Collection and GNU Emacs, for a free operating system. The Linux kernel, initiated by Linus Torvalds in 1991, combined with the GNU system to create the fully functional GNU/Linux operating system. Other vital projects and organizations include the Software Freedom Law Center, the Debian project and its Debian Free Software Guidelines, the Apache Software Foundation, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which often aligns on digital rights issues.

Impact on software development

The movement catalyzed the development of the modern open-source software ecosystem, enabling collaborative projects on a global scale. It provided the legal and ideological framework for foundational internet technologies, including the Apache HTTP Server, Bind, and Sendmail. The development model pioneered by the Linux kernel demonstrated that large, complex free software projects could rival or surpass their proprietary counterparts in quality and reliability. This environment also fostered the growth of major corporations like Red Hat, IBM, and Google, which build products and services around free software.

The movement's legal framework is built upon a family of licenses authored by the Free Software Foundation and others. The GNU General Public License is the most prominent and influential copyleft license, requiring derivative works to be distributed under the same terms. Other important licenses include the GNU Lesser General Public License for software libraries, the GNU Affero General Public License for network services, and permissive licenses like the MIT License and BSD licenses. These licenses have been tested and upheld in courts in various jurisdictions, including Germany and the United States.

Criticisms and controversies

Critics, often from the commercial software sector, argue that copyleft licenses like the GPL are overly restrictive or "viral," potentially hindering commercial adoption. The movement's strict ethical stance has also been a point of contention with the more pragmatically focused open-source software community, leading to philosophical and marketing debates sometimes called the "free software vs. open source" schism. Internally, the movement has faced criticism regarding the leadership style of Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation. Furthermore, the rise of software as a service and proprietary hardware with locked bootloaders presents new challenges to user freedoms that traditional licenses do not fully address.

Category:Free software movement Category:Digital rights Category:Computer law Category:Social movements