Meta tags:
description=The principles of Free Software are simple but it is important to not get confused by the underlying complexity caused by its long history. Learn about the...;

Headings (most frequently used words):

share, the, what, is, free, software, four, freedoms, licences, advantages, synonyms, further, insights, subscribe, to, newsletter, use, study, improve, autonomy, collaboration, copy, no, lock, in, reuse, code, innovation, competition, security, and, support,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (73), #software (69), and (53), free (50), can (19), for (16), with (13), public (13), are (12), that (11), licence (10), #licences (9), more (9), not (9), freedoms (9), domain (9), this (8), freedom (8), share (7), other (7), technology (6), open (6), work (6), you (6), these (6), four (6), about (6), source (5), use (5), legal (5), its (5), terms (5), one (5), used (5), code (4), fsfe (4), copyright (4), foundation (4), may (4), your (4), study (4), maintain (4), which (4), also (4), under (4), advantages (4), but (4), non (4), different (4), page (3), contribute (3), web (3), has (3), organisations (3), transparency (3), distribution (3), english (3), support (3), without (3), from (3), our (3), their (3), users (3), development (3), patents (3), innovation (3), while (3), how (3), way (3), cooperation (3), reuse (3), improve (3), education (3), all (3), between (3), what (3), than (3), most (3), avoid (3), rights (3), synonyms (3), principles (3), read (3), security (3), provides (3), shared (3), translate (2), america (2), privacy (2), any (2), 2001 (2), 2022 (2), europe (2), nederlands (2), italiano (2), français (2), deutsch (2), español (2), ελληνικά (2), learn (2), everyone (2), limitations (2), today (2), able (2), patent (2), using (2), society (2), will (2), rather (2), applications (2), benefit (2), citizens (2), they (2), control (2), put (2), fundamental (2), artificial (2), global (2), conditions (2), guarantees (2), international (2), perfect (2), government (2), means (2), cost (2), suits (2), procurement (2), spirit (2), standards (2), people (2), lock (2), promote (2), choice (2), vendors (2), why (2), over (2), just (2), democracy (2), numerous (2), technical (2), fields (2), have (2), been (2), make (2), difference (2), insights (2), provide (2), there (2), such (2), important (2), simple (2), always (2), determined (2), get (2), confused (2), same (2), was (2), widely (2), labels (2), libre (2), allows (2), help (2), competition (2), least (2), lists (2), application (2), anyone (2), restrictions (2), donate (2), org (2), nov (2), team, latin, india, north, sister, commitment, policy, imprint, jobs, contact, javascript, verbatim, copying, entire, article, permitted, medium, provided, notice, preserved, top, shqip, svenska, русский, română, português, subscribe, newsletter, some, services, unfriendly, harm, facebook, twitter, mail, hacker, news, flattr, reddit, fediverse, past, future, demonstrated, short, programs, prevent, obsolescence, repair, repurpose, hardware, extending, lifetime, saving, natural, resources, sustainability, measure, achieve, world, where, participate, add, financial, risks, giving, holders, power, prohibit, developers, patented, ideas, result, ultimately, harmful, economy, ending, made, enormous, developments, last, few, years, slow, down, opposite, lives, many, undermine, ability, risk, explore, releasing, paves, accessibility, fairness, intelligence, concerned, sustainable, improvement, economic, social, ecological, political, becoming, indispensable, legally, compliant, enables, scaling, simultaneous, local, adaptability, fit, sector, resource, each, efficiency, interact, them, best, pedagogically, superior, basic, proper, democratic, environment, allow, kinds, data, freely, fidelity, resist, barriers, interoperability, solutions, greatly, influences, hands, everybody, small, group, themselves, positively, since, exploring, areas, further, explained, less, three, minutes, subtitles, videos, certainly, overlap, aims, rule, synonymous, indeed, bound, rules, especially, european, union, existing, systems, difficult, identify, accurately, ambiguities, intend, piece, therefore, preferable, placing, clear, comprehensible, information, obligations, involved, commonly, misused, describe, distinction, consists, creative, including, applies, works, expired, expressly, waived, inapplicable, very, general, behind, decisive, factor, constitutes, country, level, particular, offers, label, words, don, features, interested, historical, background, prefer, original, term, first, defined, mentioned, above, 1986, 1998, set, marketing, campaign, mind, known, initiated, ambiguity, word, foss, floss, abbreviations, gnu, project, course, time, came, additional, often, motivation, highlight, aspects, confusion, independent, checks, close, holes, faster, resists, monopolisation, enhances, encourages, projects, reinforce, independence, service, providers, limitless, number, installations, run, paying, extra, copy, exclusive, serving, good, collaboration, helps, develop, tailored, needs, vendor, business, model, autonomy, practice, businesses, governments, multitude, focuses, product, parts, licensed, actual, selection, strategic, question, advised, pick, licensing, questions, given, define, programme, reused, text, must, contain, reviewed, approved, usually, considered, does, appear, initiative, modified, improvements, publicly, copied, virtually, studied, disclosure, agreements, similar, purpose, expiry, geographic, refers, price, essential, absence, proprietary, looking, beyond, circle, itself, interplay, like, underlying, complexity, caused, long, history, meaning, fundamentals, common, now, contribution, really, makes, digital, 818, 212, 000, change, language, login, press, activities, info, content, menu, türkçe, polski, 日本語, hrvatski, wayback, machine, http, archive, 20221208022840, https, freesoftware, timestamps, capture, fail, success, 2023, 2021, jan, dec, 2012, sep, 2026, 693, captures,

Text of the page (random words):
free software fsfe 693 captures 16 nov 2012 15 sep 2026 nov dec jan 08 2021 2022 2023 success fail about this capture timestamps the wayback machine http web archive org web 20221208022840 https fsfe org freesoftware translate this page deutsch ελληνικά english español français hrvatski italiano 日本語 nederlands polski türkçe free software foundation europe go to menu content page info donate about activities contribute press login change language 47 818 69 of 212 000 your contribution really makes a difference support our work to help us promote software freedom and digital rights donate now what is free software the principles of free software are simple but it is important to not get confused by the underlying complexity caused by its long history learn about the four freedoms and their meaning the fundamentals about free software licences the advantages that free software provides and the most common synonyms looking beyond the circle of software itself you can read more about the interplay of free software with other fields like education procurement and democracy the four freedoms free software refers to freedom not price it guarantees its users the essential four freedoms the absence of at least one of these freedoms means an application is proprietary so non free software use study share improve use free software can be used for any purpose and is free of restrictions such as licence expiry or geographic limitations study free software and its code can be studied by anyone without non disclosure agreements or similar restrictions share free software can be shared and copied at virtually no cost improve free software can be modified by anyone and these improvements can be shared publicly licences the four freedoms are given by a software licence software licences define the conditions under which a programme can be used and reused for it to be free software the licence text must contain at least the four freedoms the free software foundation and the open source initiative maintain lists of reviewed and approved licences an application can usually not be considered free software if its licence does not appear in one of these lists there are a multitude of licences with different focuses and a software product or parts of it can also be licensed under more than one licence the actual selection is a strategic question but you are advised to pick one of the most widely used licences for more insights on legal and licensing questions you can read more advantages free software is about freedom in practice this provides numerous advantages for users organisations businesses and governments autonomy free software helps to develop and maintain tailored software that suits your needs not just the vendor s business model collaboration free software can be shared and used in a non exclusive way by everyone serving the public good share copy a free software licence allows a limitless number of installations to be run without paying extra no lock in free software licences reinforce independence from vendors and provide more choice in service providers reuse code free software provides the freedom to reuse the code for other projects innovation a free software licence encourages innovation for your software competition free software resists monopolisation and enhances competition security free software allows for independent security checks that help close security holes faster synonyms over the course of time people came up with additional labels for free software often the motivation for these terms is to highlight different aspects and to avoid confusion free software was first defined with the four freedoms mentioned above by the gnu project in 1986 in 1998 open source was set up as a marketing campaign for free software but with the same freedoms in mind other widely known labels for free software are libre software initiated to avoid the ambiguity of the english word free and foss or floss as abbreviations for free libre open source software the level of freedom particular software offers is always determined by the licence not the label in other words don t get confused by different terms for the same features if you are interested in the historical background and why we prefer the original term you can read more there are also terms that are commonly misused as synonyms to describe free software public domain is one of such terms and it is important to maintain a distinction between free software and public domain put in simple terms the public domain consists of all creative work including software to which no copyright applies the rights to these works may have expired been expressly waived or may be inapplicable while these are the very general principles behind the public domain the decisive factor of what constitutes public domain will always be determined by the legal principles in the country in which a work is to be used while software in the public domain certainly can overlap with the aims of free software as a rule free software is not synonymous with public domain indeed most of free software is bound by the rules of copyright especially in the european union the existing copyright and patent systems make it difficult to identify a work under the public domain accurately to avoid ambiguities in how you intend to share a piece of work it therefore is preferable to use a free software licence rather than placing the work in the public domain as a free software licence is able to provide clear and comprehensible legal information on the rights and obligations involved in using that software what is free software open source software freedom explained in less than three minutes all subtitles and more videos further insights the numerous advantages of free software are a benefit in themselves but also contribute positively to other technical and non technical fields since the fsfe s foundation in 2001 we have been exploring different areas and how free software can make a difference democracy technology greatly influences today s society that is why control over technology has to be in the hands of everybody not just a small group open standards open standards allow people to share all kinds of data freely and with perfect fidelity they resist lock in and other artificial barriers to interoperability and promote choice between vendors and between technology solutions education free software is pedagogically superior its basic spirit of freedom and cooperation is the proper spirit of education in a democratic environment public procurement free software is a perfect fit for the public sector it is a public resource that government organisations can use study improve and share with each other for citizens this means transparency cost efficiency and the freedom to interact with their government in the way that suits them best international development cooperation is concerned with the sustainable improvement of global economic social ecological and political conditions free software is becoming an indispensable fundamental technology that guarantees legally compliant international cooperation and reuse a technology that enables global scaling with simultaneous local adaptability artificial intelligence ai has made enormous developments in the last few years and it will not slow down rather the opposite while ai applications benefit the lives of many citizens they may also undermine our ability to control technology and put fundamental freedoms at risk we explore how releasing ai applications under free software licences paves the way for more accessibility transparency and fairness ending software patents is a measure in which we can achieve a world where software users are able to participate in the development and distribution of software software patents add legal and financial risks to software development and distribution by giving patent holders legal power to prohibit software developers from using patented ideas the result of this is that software patents are ultimately harmful to innovation the economy and to society sustainability everyone can use free software without limitations from the past today and in the future as demonstrated in our short study with free software we can maintain programs and prevent software obsolescence we can repair and repurpose hardware extending their lifetime and saving natural resources share and support fediverse ok reddit flattr hacker news e mail twitter facebook support some services may be free software unfriendly and harm your privacy learn more subscribe to the newsletter english ελληνικά español deutsch français italiano nederlands português română русский svenska shqip go to the top copyright 2001 2022 free software foundation europe verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium provided this notice is preserved javascript licences contact us jobs imprint privacy policy transparency commitment fsfe has sister organisations in north america india and latin america source code contribute to the web team translate this page