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authorDave Love <fx@gnu.org>1999-10-20 10:41:43 +0000
committerDave Love <fx@gnu.org>1999-10-20 10:41:43 +0000
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+Copyright (C) 1985, 1993 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
+ Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim copies
+of this document, in any medium, provided that the copyright notice and
+permission notice are preserved, and that the distributor grants the
+recipient permission for further redistribution as permitted by this
+notice.
+
+ Modified versions may not be made.
+
+The GNU Manifesto
+*****************
+
+ The GNU Manifesto which appears below was written by Richard
+ Stallman at the beginning of the GNU project, to ask for
+ participation and support. For the first few years, it was
+ updated in minor ways to account for developments, but now it
+ seems best to leave it unchanged as most people have seen it.
+
+ Since that time, we have learned about certain common
+ misunderstandings that different wording could help avoid.
+ Footnotes added in 1993 help clarify these points.
+
+ For up-to-date information about the available GNU software,
+ please see the latest issue of the GNU's Bulletin. The list is
+ much too long to include here.
+
+What's GNU? Gnu's Not Unix!
+============================
+
+ GNU, which stands for Gnu's Not Unix, is the name for the complete
+Unix-compatible software system which I am writing so that I can give it
+away free to everyone who can use it.(1) Several other volunteers are
+helping me. Contributions of time, money, programs and equipment are
+greatly needed.
+
+ So far we have an Emacs text editor with Lisp for writing editor
+commands, a source level debugger, a yacc-compatible parser generator,
+a linker, and around 35 utilities. A shell (command interpreter) is
+nearly completed. A new portable optimizing C compiler has compiled
+itself and may be released this year. An initial kernel exists but
+many more features are needed to emulate Unix. When the kernel and
+compiler are finished, it will be possible to distribute a GNU system
+suitable for program development. We will use TeX as our text
+formatter, but an nroff is being worked on. We will use the free,
+portable X window system as well. After this we will add a portable
+Common Lisp, an Empire game, a spreadsheet, and hundreds of other
+things, plus on-line documentation. We hope to supply, eventually,
+everything useful that normally comes with a Unix system, and more.
+
+ GNU will be able to run Unix programs, but will not be identical to
+Unix. We will make all improvements that are convenient, based on our
+experience with other operating systems. In particular, we plan to
+have longer file names, file version numbers, a crashproof file system,
+file name completion perhaps, terminal-independent display support, and
+perhaps eventually a Lisp-based window system through which several
+Lisp programs and ordinary Unix programs can share a screen. Both C
+and Lisp will be available as system programming languages. We will
+try to support UUCP, MIT Chaosnet, and Internet protocols for
+communication.
+
+ GNU is aimed initially at machines in the 68000/16000 class with
+virtual memory, because they are the easiest machines to make it run
+on. The extra effort to make it run on smaller machines will be left
+to someone who wants to use it on them.
+
+ To avoid horrible confusion, please pronounce the `G' in the word
+`GNU' when it is the name of this project.
+
+Why I Must Write GNU
+====================
+
+ I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I
+must share it with other people who like it. Software sellers want to
+divide the users and conquer them, making each user agree not to share
+with others. I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this
+way. I cannot in good conscience sign a nondisclosure agreement or a
+software license agreement. For years I worked within the Artificial
+Intelligence Lab to resist such tendencies and other inhospitalities,
+but eventually they had gone too far: I could not remain in an
+institution where such things are done for me against my will.
+
+ So that I can continue to use computers without dishonor, I have
+decided to put together a sufficient body of free software so that I
+will be able to get along without any software that is not free. I
+have resigned from the AI lab to deny MIT any legal excuse to prevent
+me from giving GNU away.
+
+Why GNU Will Be Compatible with Unix
+====================================
+
+ Unix is not my ideal system, but it is not too bad. The essential
+features of Unix seem to be good ones, and I think I can fill in what
+Unix lacks without spoiling them. And a system compatible with Unix
+would be convenient for many other people to adopt.
+
+How GNU Will Be Available
+=========================
+
+ GNU is not in the public domain. Everyone will be permitted to
+modify and redistribute GNU, but no distributor will be allowed to
+restrict its further redistribution. That is to say, proprietary
+modifications will not be allowed. I want to make sure that all
+versions of GNU remain free.
+
+Why Many Other Programmers Want to Help
+=======================================
+
+ I have found many other programmers who are excited about GNU and
+want to help.
+
+ Many programmers are unhappy about the commercialization of system
+software. It may enable them to make more money, but it requires them
+to feel in conflict with other programmers in general rather than feel
+as comrades. The fundamental act of friendship among programmers is the
+sharing of programs; marketing arrangements now typically used
+essentially forbid programmers to treat others as friends. The
+purchaser of software must choose between friendship and obeying the
+law. Naturally, many decide that friendship is more important. But
+those who believe in law often do not feel at ease with either choice.
+They become cynical and think that programming is just a way of making
+money.
+
+ By working on and using GNU rather than proprietary programs, we can
+be hospitable to everyone and obey the law. In addition, GNU serves as
+an example to inspire and a banner to rally others to join us in
+sharing. This can give us a feeling of harmony which is impossible if
+we use software that is not free. For about half the programmers I
+talk to, this is an important happiness that money cannot replace.
+
+How You Can Contribute
+======================
+
+ I am asking computer manufacturers for donations of machines and
+money. I'm asking individuals for donations of programs and work.
+
+ One consequence you can expect if you donate machines is that GNU
+will run on them at an early date. The machines should be complete,
+ready to use systems, approved for use in a residential area, and not
+in need of sophisticated cooling or power.
+
+ I have found very many programmers eager to contribute part-time
+work for GNU. For most projects, such part-time distributed work would
+be very hard to coordinate; the independently-written parts would not
+work together. But for the particular task of replacing Unix, this
+problem is absent. A complete Unix system contains hundreds of utility
+programs, each of which is documented separately. Most interface
+specifications are fixed by Unix compatibility. If each contributor
+can write a compatible replacement for a single Unix utility, and make
+it work properly in place of the original on a Unix system, then these
+utilities will work right when put together. Even allowing for Murphy
+to create a few unexpected problems, assembling these components will
+be a feasible task. (The kernel will require closer communication and
+will be worked on by a small, tight group.)
+
+ If I get donations of money, I may be able to hire a few people full
+or part time. The salary won't be high by programmers' standards, but
+I'm looking for people for whom building community spirit is as
+important as making money. I view this as a way of enabling dedicated
+people to devote their full energies to working on GNU by sparing them
+the need to make a living in another way.
+
+Why All Computer Users Will Benefit
+===================================
+
+ Once GNU is written, everyone will be able to obtain good system
+software free, just like air.(2)
+
+ This means much more than just saving everyone the price of a Unix
+license. It means that much wasteful duplication of system programming
+effort will be avoided. This effort can go instead into advancing the
+state of the art.
+
+ Complete system sources will be available to everyone. As a result,
+a user who needs changes in the system will always be free to make them
+himself, or hire any available programmer or company to make them for
+him. Users will no longer be at the mercy of one programmer or company
+which owns the sources and is in sole position to make changes.
+
+ Schools will be able to provide a much more educational environment
+by encouraging all students to study and improve the system code.
+Harvard's computer lab used to have the policy that no program could be
+installed on the system if its sources were not on public display, and
+upheld it by actually refusing to install certain programs. I was very
+much inspired by this.
+
+ Finally, the overhead of considering who owns the system software
+and what one is or is not entitled to do with it will be lifted.
+
+ Arrangements to make people pay for using a program, including
+licensing of copies, always incur a tremendous cost to society through
+the cumbersome mechanisms necessary to figure out how much (that is,
+which programs) a person must pay for. And only a police state can
+force everyone to obey them. Consider a space station where air must
+be manufactured at great cost: charging each breather per liter of air
+may be fair, but wearing the metered gas mask all day and all night is
+intolerable even if everyone can afford to pay the air bill. And the
+TV cameras everywhere to see if you ever take the mask off are
+outrageous. It's better to support the air plant with a head tax and
+chuck the masks.
+
+ Copying all or parts of a program is as natural to a programmer as
+breathing, and as productive. It ought to be as free.
+
+Some Easily Rebutted Objections to GNU's Goals
+==============================================
+
+ "Nobody will use it if it is free, because that means they can't
+ rely on any support."
+
+ "You have to charge for the program to pay for providing the
+ support."
+
+ If people would rather pay for GNU plus service than get GNU free
+without service, a company to provide just service to people who have
+obtained GNU free ought to be profitable.(3)
+
+ We must distinguish between support in the form of real programming
+work and mere handholding. The former is something one cannot rely on
+from a software vendor. If your problem is not shared by enough
+people, the vendor will tell you to get lost.
+
+ If your business needs to be able to rely on support, the only way
+is to have all the necessary sources and tools. Then you can hire any
+available person to fix your problem; you are not at the mercy of any
+individual. With Unix, the price of sources puts this out of
+consideration for most businesses. With GNU this will be easy. It is
+still possible for there to be no available competent person, but this
+problem cannot be blamed on distribution arrangements. GNU does not
+eliminate all the world's problems, only some of them.
+
+ Meanwhile, the users who know nothing about computers need
+handholding: doing things for them which they could easily do
+themselves but don't know how.
+
+ Such services could be provided by companies that sell just
+hand-holding and repair service. If it is true that users would rather
+spend money and get a product with service, they will also be willing
+to buy the service having got the product free. The service companies
+will compete in quality and price; users will not be tied to any
+particular one. Meanwhile, those of us who don't need the service
+should be able to use the program without paying for the service.
+
+ "You cannot reach many people without advertising, and you must
+ charge for the program to support that."
+
+ "It's no use advertising a program people can get free."
+
+ There are various forms of free or very cheap publicity that can be
+used to inform numbers of computer users about something like GNU. But
+it may be true that one can reach more microcomputer users with
+advertising. If this is really so, a business which advertises the
+service of copying and mailing GNU for a fee ought to be successful
+enough to pay for its advertising and more. This way, only the users
+who benefit from the advertising pay for it.
+
+ On the other hand, if many people get GNU from their friends, and
+such companies don't succeed, this will show that advertising was not
+really necessary to spread GNU. Why is it that free market advocates
+don't want to let the free market decide this?(4)
+
+ "My company needs a proprietary operating system to get a
+ competitive edge."
+
+ GNU will remove operating system software from the realm of
+competition. You will not be able to get an edge in this area, but
+neither will your competitors be able to get an edge over you. You and
+they will compete in other areas, while benefiting mutually in this
+one. If your business is selling an operating system, you will not
+like GNU, but that's tough on you. If your business is something else,
+GNU can save you from being pushed into the expensive business of
+selling operating systems.
+
+ I would like to see GNU development supported by gifts from many
+manufacturers and users, reducing the cost to each.(5)
+
+ "Don't programmers deserve a reward for their creativity?"
+
+ If anything deserves a reward, it is social contribution.
+Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so far as society
+is free to use the results. If programmers deserve to be rewarded for
+creating innovative programs, by the same token they deserve to be
+punished if they restrict the use of these programs.
+
+ "Shouldn't a programmer be able to ask for a reward for his
+ creativity?"
+
+ There is nothing wrong with wanting pay for work, or seeking to
+maximize one's income, as long as one does not use means that are
+destructive. But the means customary in the field of software today
+are based on destruction.
+
+ Extracting money from users of a program by restricting their use of
+it is destructive because the restrictions reduce the amount and the
+ways that the program can be used. This reduces the amount of wealth
+that humanity derives from the program. When there is a deliberate
+choice to restrict, the harmful consequences are deliberate destruction.
+
+ The reason a good citizen does not use such destructive means to
+become wealthier is that, if everyone did so, we would all become
+poorer from the mutual destructiveness. This is Kantian ethics; or,
+the Golden Rule. Since I do not like the consequences that result if
+everyone hoards information, I am required to consider it wrong for one
+to do so. Specifically, the desire to be rewarded for one's creativity
+does not justify depriving the world in general of all or part of that
+creativity.
+
+ "Won't programmers starve?"
+
+ I could answer that nobody is forced to be a programmer. Most of us
+cannot manage to get any money for standing on the street and making
+faces. But we are not, as a result, condemned to spend our lives
+standing on the street making faces, and starving. We do something
+else.
+
+ But that is the wrong answer because it accepts the questioner's
+implicit assumption: that without ownership of software, programmers
+cannot possibly be paid a cent. Supposedly it is all or nothing.
+
+ The real reason programmers will not starve is that it will still be
+possible for them to get paid for programming; just not paid as much as
+now.
+
+ Restricting copying is not the only basis for business in software.
+It is the most common basis because it brings in the most money. If it
+were prohibited, or rejected by the customer, software business would
+move to other bases of organization which are now used less often.
+There are always numerous ways to organize any kind of business.
+
+ Probably programming will not be as lucrative on the new basis as it
+is now. But that is not an argument against the change. It is not
+considered an injustice that sales clerks make the salaries that they
+now do. If programmers made the same, that would not be an injustice
+either. (In practice they would still make considerably more than
+that.)
+
+ "Don't people have a right to control how their creativity is
+ used?"
+
+ "Control over the use of one's ideas" really constitutes control over
+other people's lives; and it is usually used to make their lives more
+difficult.
+
+ People who have studied the issue of intellectual property rights
+carefully (such as lawyers) say that there is no intrinsic right to
+intellectual property. The kinds of supposed intellectual property
+rights that the government recognizes were created by specific acts of
+legislation for specific purposes.
+
+ For example, the patent system was established to encourage
+inventors to disclose the details of their inventions. Its purpose was
+to help society rather than to help inventors. At the time, the life
+span of 17 years for a patent was short compared with the rate of
+advance of the state of the art. Since patents are an issue only among
+manufacturers, for whom the cost and effort of a license agreement are
+small compared with setting up production, the patents often do not do
+much harm. They do not obstruct most individuals who use patented
+products.
+
+ The idea of copyright did not exist in ancient times, when authors
+frequently copied other authors at length in works of non-fiction. This
+practice was useful, and is the only way many authors' works have
+survived even in part. The copyright system was created expressly for
+the purpose of encouraging authorship. In the domain for which it was
+invented--books, which could be copied economically only on a printing
+press--it did little harm, and did not obstruct most of the individuals
+who read the books.
+
+ All intellectual property rights are just licenses granted by society
+because it was thought, rightly or wrongly, that society as a whole
+would benefit by granting them. But in any particular situation, we
+have to ask: are we really better off granting such license? What kind
+of act are we licensing a person to do?
+
+ The case of programs today is very different from that of books a
+hundred years ago. The fact that the easiest way to copy a program is
+from one neighbor to another, the fact that a program has both source
+code and object code which are distinct, and the fact that a program is
+used rather than read and enjoyed, combine to create a situation in
+which a person who enforces a copyright is harming society as a whole
+both materially and spiritually; in which a person should not do so
+regardless of whether the law enables him to.
+
+ "Competition makes things get done better."
+
+ The paradigm of competition is a race: by rewarding the winner, we
+encourage everyone to run faster. When capitalism really works this
+way, it does a good job; but its defenders are wrong in assuming it
+always works this way. If the runners forget why the reward is offered
+and become intent on winning, no matter how, they may find other
+strategies--such as, attacking other runners. If the runners get into
+a fist fight, they will all finish late.
+
+ Proprietary and secret software is the moral equivalent of runners
+in a fist fight. Sad to say, the only referee we've got does not seem
+to object to fights; he just regulates them ("For every ten yards you
+run, you can fire one shot"). He really ought to break them up, and
+penalize runners for even trying to fight.
+
+ "Won't everyone stop programming without a monetary incentive?"
+
+ Actually, many people will program with absolutely no monetary
+incentive. Programming has an irresistible fascination for some
+people, usually the people who are best at it. There is no shortage of
+professional musicians who keep at it even though they have no hope of
+making a living that way.
+
+ But really this question, though commonly asked, is not appropriate
+to the situation. Pay for programmers will not disappear, only become
+less. So the right question is, will anyone program with a reduced
+monetary incentive? My experience shows that they will.
+
+ For more than ten years, many of the world's best programmers worked
+at the Artificial Intelligence Lab for far less money than they could
+have had anywhere else. They got many kinds of non-monetary rewards:
+fame and appreciation, for example. And creativity is also fun, a
+reward in itself.
+
+ Then most of them left when offered a chance to do the same
+interesting work for a lot of money.
+
+ What the facts show is that people will program for reasons other
+than riches; but if given a chance to make a lot of money as well, they
+will come to expect and demand it. Low-paying organizations do poorly
+in competition with high-paying ones, but they do not have to do badly
+if the high-paying ones are banned.
+
+ "We need the programmers desperately. If they demand that we stop
+ helping our neighbors, we have to obey."
+
+ You're never so desperate that you have to obey this sort of demand.
+Remember: millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute!
+
+ "Programmers need to make a living somehow."
+
+ In the short run, this is true. However, there are plenty of ways
+that programmers could make a living without selling the right to use a
+program. This way is customary now because it brings programmers and
+businessmen the most money, not because it is the only way to make a
+living. It is easy to find other ways if you want to find them. Here
+are a number of examples.
+
+ A manufacturer introducing a new computer will pay for the porting of
+operating systems onto the new hardware.
+
+ The sale of teaching, hand-holding and maintenance services could
+also employ programmers.
+
+ People with new ideas could distribute programs as freeware, asking
+for donations from satisfied users, or selling hand-holding services.
+I have met people who are already working this way successfully.
+
+ Users with related needs can form users' groups, and pay dues. A
+group would contract with programming companies to write programs that
+the group's members would like to use.
+
+ All sorts of development can be funded with a Software Tax:
+
+ Suppose everyone who buys a computer has to pay x percent of the
+ price as a software tax. The government gives this to an agency
+ like the NSF to spend on software development.
+
+ But if the computer buyer makes a donation to software development
+ himself, he can take a credit against the tax. He can donate to
+ the project of his own choosing--often, chosen because he hopes to
+ use the results when it is done. He can take a credit for any
+ amount of donation up to the total tax he had to pay.
+
+ The total tax rate could be decided by a vote of the payers of the
+ tax, weighted according to the amount they will be taxed on.
+
+ The consequences:
+
+ * The computer-using community supports software development.
+
+ * This community decides what level of support is needed.
+
+ * Users who care which projects their share is spent on can
+ choose this for themselves.
+
+ In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the
+post-scarcity world, where nobody will have to work very hard just to
+make a living. People will be free to devote themselves to activities
+that are fun, such as programming, after spending the necessary ten
+hours a week on required tasks such as legislation, family counseling,
+robot repair and asteroid prospecting. There will be no need to be
+able to make a living from programming.
+
+ We have already greatly reduced the amount of work that the whole
+society must do for its actual productivity, but only a little of this
+has translated itself into leisure for workers because much
+nonproductive activity is required to accompany productive activity.
+The main causes of this are bureaucracy and isometric struggles against
+competition. Free software will greatly reduce these drains in the
+area of software production. We must do this, in order for technical
+gains in productivity to translate into less work for us.
+
+ ---------- Footnotes ----------
+
+ (1) The wording here was careless. The intention was that nobody
+would have to pay for *permission* to use the GNU system. But the
+words don't make this clear, and people often interpret them as saying
+that copies of GNU should always be distributed at little or no charge.
+That was never the intent; later on, the manifesto mentions the
+possibility of companies providing the service of distribution for a
+profit. Subsequently I have learned to distinguish carefully between
+"free" in the sense of freedom and "free" in the sense of price. Free
+software is software that users have the freedom to distribute and
+change. Some users may obtain copies at no charge, while others pay to
+obtain copies--and if the funds help support improving the software, so
+much the better. The important thing is that everyone who has a copy
+has the freedom to cooperate with others in using it.
+
+ (2) This is another place I failed to distinguish carefully between
+the two different meanings of "free". The statement as it stands is
+not false--you can get copies of GNU software at no charge, from your
+friends or over the net. But it does suggest the wrong idea.
+
+ (3) Several such companies now exist.
+
+ (4) The Free Software Foundation raises most of its funds from a
+distribution service, although it is a charity rather than a company.
+If *no one* chooses to obtain copies by ordering from the FSF, it
+will be unable to do its work. But this does not mean that proprietary
+restrictions are justified to force every user to pay. If a small
+fraction of all the users order copies from the FSF, that is sufficient
+to keep the FSF afloat. So we ask users to choose to support us in
+this way. Have you done your part?
+
+ (5) A group of computer companies recently pooled funds to support
+maintenance of the GNU C Compiler.
+