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Text of the page (random words):
conclude that a program licensed with such restrictions does not qualify as free software a free program must offer the four freedoms to any would be user that obtains a copy of the software who has complied thus far with the conditions of the free license covering the software in any previous distribution of it putting some of the freedoms off limits to some users or requiring that users pay in money or in kind to exercise them is tantamount to not granting the freedoms in question and thus renders the program nonfree clarifying the boundary between free and nonfree in the rest of this article we explain more precisely how far the various freedoms need to extend on various issues in order for a program to be free the freedom to run the program as you wish the freedom to run the program means the freedom for any kind of person or organization to use it on any kind of computer system for any kind of overall job and purpose without being required to communicate about it with the developer or any other specific entity in this freedom it is the user s purpose that matters not the developer s purpose you as a user are free to run the program for your purposes and if you distribute it to someone else she is then free to run it for her purposes but you are not entitled to impose your purposes on her the freedom to run the program as you wish means that you are not forbidden or stopped from making it run this has nothing to do with what functionality the program has whether it is technically capable of functioning in any given environment or whether it is useful for any particular computing activity for example if the code arbitrarily rejects certain meaningful inputs or even fails unconditionally that may make the program less useful perhaps even totally useless but it does not deny users the freedom to run the program so it does not conflict with freedom 0 if the program is free the users can overcome the loss of usefulness because freedoms 1 and 3 permit users and communities to make and distribute modified versions without the arbitrary nuisance code as you wish includes optionally not at all if that is what you wish so there is no need for a separate freedom not to run a program the freedom to study the source code and make changes in order for freedoms 1 and 3 the freedom to make changes and the freedom to publish the changed versions to be meaningful you need to have access to the source code of the program therefore accessibility of source code is a necessary condition for free software obfuscated source code is not real source code and does not count as source code source code is defined as the preferred form of the program for making changes in thus whatever form a developer changes to develop the program is the source code of that developer s version freedom 1 includes the freedom to use your changed version in place of the original if the program is delivered in a product designed to run someone else s modified versions but refuse to run yours a practice known as tivoization or lockdown or in its practitioners perverse terminology as secure boot freedom 1 becomes an empty pretense rather than a practical reality these binaries are not free software even if the source code they are compiled from is free one important way to modify a program is by merging in available free subroutines and modules if the program s license says that you cannot merge in a suitably licensed existing module for instance if it requires you to be the copyright holder of any code you add then the license is too restrictive to qualify as free whether a change constitutes an improvement is a subjective matter if your right to modify a program is limited in substance to changes that someone else considers an improvement that program is not free one special case of freedom 1 is to delete the program s code so it returns after doing nothing or make it invoke some other program thus freedom 1 includes the freedom to delete the program the freedom to redistribute if you wish basic requirements freedom to distribute freedoms 2 and 3 means you are free to redistribute copies either with or without modifications either gratis or charging a fee for distribution to anyone anywhere being free to do these things means among other things that you do not have to ask or pay for permission to do so you should also have the freedom to make modifications and use them privately in your own work or play without even mentioning that they exist if you do publish your changes you should not be required to notify anyone in particular or in any particular way freedom 3 includes the freedom to release your modified versions as free software a free license may also permit other ways of releasing them in other words it does not have to be a copyleft license however a license that requires modified versions to be nonfree does not qualify as a free license the freedom to redistribute copies must include binary or executable forms of the program as well as source code for both modified and unmodified versions distributing programs in runnable form is necessary for conveniently installable free operating systems it is ok if there is no way to produce a binary or executable form for a certain program since some languages don t support that feature but you must have the freedom to redistribute such forms should you find or develop a way to make them copyleft certain kinds of rules about the manner of distributing free software are acceptable when they don t conflict with the central freedoms for example copyleft very simply stated is the rule that when redistributing the program you cannot add restrictions to deny other people the central freedoms this rule does not conflict with the central freedoms rather it protects them in the gnu project we use copyleft to protect the four freedoms legally for everyone we believe there are important reasons why it is better to use copyleft however noncopylefted free software is ethical too see categories of free software for a description of how free software copylefted software and other categories of software relate to each other rules about packaging and distribution details rules about how to package a modified version are acceptable if they don t substantively limit your freedom to release modified versions or your freedom to make and use modified versions privately thus it is acceptable for the license to require that you change the name of the modified version remove a logo or identify your modifications as yours as long as these requirements are not so burdensome that they effectively hamper you from releasing your changes they are acceptable you re already making other changes to the program so you won t have trouble making a few more rules that if you make your version available in this way you must make it available in that way also can be acceptable too on the same condition an example of such an acceptable rule is one saying that if you have distributed a modified version and a previous developer asks for a copy of it you must send one note that such a rule still leaves you the choice of whether to distribute your version at all rules that require release of source code to the users for versions that you put into public use are also acceptable a special issue arises when a license requires changing the name by which the program will be invoked from other programs that effectively hampers you from releasing your changed version so that it can replace the original when invoked by those other programs this sort of requirement is acceptable only if there s a suitable aliasing facility that allows you to specify the original program s name as an alias for the modified version export regulations sometimes government export control regulations and trade sanctions can constrain your freedom to distribute copies of programs internationally software developers do not have the power to eliminate or override these restrictions but what they can and must do is refuse to impose them as conditions of use of the program in this way the restrictions will not affect activities and people outside the jurisdictions of these governments thus free software licenses must not require obedience to any nontrivial export regulations as a condition of exercising any of the essential freedoms merely mentioning the existence of export regulations without making them a condition of the license itself is acceptable since it does not restrict users if an export regulation is actually trivial for free software then requiring it as a condition is not an actual problem however it is a potential problem since a later change in export law could make the requirement nontrivial and thus render the software nonfree legal considerations in order for these freedoms to be real they must be permanent and irrevocable as long as you do nothing wrong if the developer of the software has the power to revoke the license or retroactively add restrictions to its terms without your doing anything wrong to give cause the software is not free a free license may not require compliance with the license of a nonfree program thus for instance if a license requires you to comply with the licenses of all the programs you use in the case of a user that runs nonfree programs this would require compliance with the licenses of those nonfree programs that makes the license nonfree it is acceptable for a free license to specify which jurisdiction s law applies or where litigation must be done or both contract based licenses most free software licenses are based on copyright and there are limits on what kinds of requirements can be imposed through copyright if a copyright based license respects freedom in the ways described above it is unlikely to have some other sort of problem that we never anticipated though this does happen occasionally however some free software licenses are based on contracts and contracts can impose a much larger range of possible restrictions that means there are many possible ways such a license could be unacceptably restrictive and nonfree we can t possibly list all the ways that might happen if a contract based license restricts the user in an unusual way that copyright based licenses cannot and which isn t mentioned here as legitimate we will have to think about it and we will probably conclude it is nonfree the free software definition in practice how we interpret these criteria note that criteria such as those stated in this free software definition require careful thought for their interpretation to decide whether a specific software license qualifies as a free software license we judge it based on these criteria to determine whether it fits their spirit as well as the precise words if a license includes unconscionable restrictions we reject it even if we did not anticipate the issue in these criteria sometimes a license requirement raises an issue that calls for extensive thought including discussions with a lawyer before we can decide if the requirement is acceptable when we reach a conclusion about a new issue we often update these criteria to make it easier to see why certain licenses do or don t qualify get help with free licenses if you are interested in whether a specific license qualifies as a free software license see our list of licenses if the license you are concerned with is not listed there you can ask us about it by sending us email at licensing gnu org if you are contemplating writing a new license please contact the free software foundation first by writing to that address the proliferation of different free software licenses means increased work for users in understanding the licenses we may be able to help you find an existing free software license that meets your needs if that isn t possible if you really need a new license with our help you can ensure that the license really is a free software license and avoid various practical problems use the right words when talking about free software when talking about free software it is best to avoid using terms like give away or for free because those terms imply that the issue is about price not freedom some common terms such as piracy embody opinions we hope you won t endorse see confusing words and phrases that are worth avoiding for a discussion of these terms we also have a list of proper translations of free software into various languages another group uses the term open source to mean something close but not identical to free software we prefer the term free software because once you have heard that it refers to freedom rather than price it calls to mind freedom the word open never refers to freedom beyond software software manuals must be free for the same reasons that software must be free and because the manuals are in effect part of the software the same arguments also make sense for other kinds of works of practical use that is to say works that embody useful knowledge such as educational works and reference works wikipedia is the best known example any kind of work can be free and the definition of free software has been extended to a definition of free cultural works applicable to any kind of works history from time to time we revise this free software definition here is the list of substantive changes along with links to show exactly what was changed version 1 169 explain more clearly why the four freedoms must apply to commercial activity explain why the four freedoms imply the freedom not to run the program and the freedom to delete it so there is no need to state those as separate requirements version 1 165 clarify that arbitrary annoyances in the code do not negate freedom 0 and that freedoms 1 and 3 enable users to remove them version 1 153 clarify that freedom to run the program means nothing stops you from making it run version 1 141 clarify which code needs to be free version 1 135 say each time that freedom 0 is the freedom to run the program as you wish version 1 134 freedom 0 is not a matter of the program s functionality version 1 131 a free license may not require compliance with a nonfree license of another program version 1 129 state explicitly that choice of law and choice of forum specifications are allowed this was always our policy version 1 122 an export control requirement is a real problem if the requirement is nontrivial otherwise it is only a potential problem version 1 118 clarification the issue is limits on your right to modify not on what modifications you have made and modifications are not limited to improvements version 1 111 clarify 1 77 by saying that only retroactive restrictions are unacceptable the copyright holders can always grant additional permission for use of the work by releasing the work in another way in parallel version 1 105 reflect in the brief statement of freedom 1 the point already stated in version 1 80 that it includes really using your modified version for your computing version 1 92 clarify that obfuscated code does not...