@@ -258,51 +258,51 @@ to set prices at any level that redistributor sees fit.
Of course, most people get copies of Free Software very cheaply (and
sometimes without charge). The competitive free market of Free Software
tends to keep prices low and reasonable. However, if someone is willing to
pay billions of dollars for one copy of the GNU Compiler Collection, such a
sale is completely permitted.
Another common instance of commercial sharing is service-oriented
distribution. For example, some distribution vendors provide immediate
security and upgrade distribution via a special network service. Such
distribution is not necessarily contradictory with software freedom.
(Section~\ref{Business Models} of this tutorial talks in detail about some
common Free Software business models that take advantage of the freedom to
share commercially.)
\subsection{The Freedom to Share Improvements}
The freedom to modify and improve is somewhat empty without the freedom to
share those improvements. The Software freedom community is built on the
pillar of altruistic sharing of improved Free Software. Historically
it was typical for a
Free Software project to sprout a mailing list where improvements
would be shared
freely among members of the development community. This is still
freely among members of the development community\footnote{This is still
commonly the case, though today there are other or additional ways of
sharing Free Software. Such noncommercial
sharing Free Software.}. Such noncommercial
sharing is the primary reason that Free Software thrives.
Commercial sharing of modified Free Software is equally important.
For commercial support to exist in a competitive free market, all
developers -- from single-person contractors to large software
companies -- must have the freedom to market their services as
improvers of Free Software. All forms of such service marketing must
be equally available to all.
For example, selling support services for Free Software is fully
permitted. Companies and individuals can offer themselves as ``the place
to call'' when software fails or does not function properly. For such a
service to be meaningful, the entity offering that service needs the
right to modify and improve the software for the customer to correct any
problems that are beyond mere user error.
Software freedom licenses also permit any entity to distribute modified
versions of Free Software. Most Free Software programs have a ``standard
version'' that is made available from the primary developers of the software.
However, all who have the software have the ``freedom to fork'' -- that is,
make available nontrivial modified versions of the software on a permanent or
semi-permanent basis. Such freedom is central to vibrant developer and user
interaction.