Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman

Author : Richard M. Stallman
Introduction : Lawrence Lessig
Editor : Joshua Gay
ISBN : 1-882114-98-1
Pages : 224
Publication Date: October 2002
Publisher : GNU Press, Free Software Foundation, Boston, MA USA
Free License : GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.1

Terms and Conditions:


Book Excerpts:

The waning days of the 20th century seemed like an Orwellian nightmare: laws preventing publication of scientific research on software; laws preventing sharing software; an overabundance of software patents preventing development; and enduser license agreements that strip the user of all freedoms -- including ownership, privacy, sharing, and understanding how their software works. This collection of essays and speeches by Richard M. Stallman addresses many of these issues. Above all, Stallman discusses the philosophy underlying the free software movement. This movement combats the oppression of federal laws and evil end-user license agreements in hopes of spreading the idea of software freedom.

With the force of hundreds of thousands of developers working to create GNU software and the GNU/Linux operating system, free software has secured a spot on the servers that control the Internet, and -- as it moves into the desktop computer market -- is a threat to Microsoft and other proprietary software companies.

These essays cater to a wide audience; you do not need a computer science background to understand the philosophy and ideas herein. However, there is a 'Note on Software,' to help the less technically inclined reader become familiar with some common computer science jargon and concepts, as well as footnotes throughout.

The ordering of the essays is fairly arbitrary, in that there is no required order to read the essays in, for they were written independently of each other over a period of 18 years.

Also it is important to note that many of the essays have been updated and revised from their originally published versions. And since every chapter has a verbatim copying notice on it, you are free to make and distribute copies of the text.

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