@@ -234,99 +234,99 @@ software, or to at least follow rote instructions to make basic modifications
themselves.
More commonly, users also exercise this freedom commercially. Each user, or
group of users, may hire anyone they wish in a competitive free market to
modify and change the software. This means that companies have a right to
hire anyone they wish to modify their Free Software. Additionally, such
companies may contract with other companies to commission software
modification.
\subsection{The Freedom to Copy and Share}
Users share Free Software in a variety of ways. Software freedom advocates
work to eliminate a fundamental ethical dilemma of the software age: choosing
between obeying a software license and friendship (by giving away a copy of a
program to your friend who likes the software you are using). Licenses that
respect software freedom, therefore, permit altruistic sharing of software
among friends.
The commercial environment also benefits of this freedom. Commercial sharing
includes selling copies of Free Software: that is, Free Software can
be distribted for any monetary
price to anyone. Those who redistribute Free Software commercially also have
the freedom to selectively distribute (i.e., you can pick your customers) and
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.
Companies and individuals have the right to make true value-added versions
of Free Software. They may use freedom to share improvements to
distribute distinct versions of Free Software with different functionality
and features. Furthermore, this freedom can be exercised to serve a
disenfranchised subset of the user community. If the developers of the
standard version refuse to serve the needs of some of the software's
users, other entities have the right to create a long- or short-lived fork
to serve that sub-community.
\section{How Does Software Become Free?}
The previous section set forth key freedoms and rights that are referred to
as ``software freedom''. This section discusses the licensing mechanisms
used to enable software freedom. These licensing mechanism were ultimately
created as a community-oriented ``answer'' to the existing proprietary
software licensing mechanisms. Thus, first, consider carefully why
proprietary software exists in the first place.
Proprietary software exists at all only because it is governed by copyright
law.\footnote{This statement is admittedly an oversimplification. Patents and
trade secrets can cover software and make it effectively non-Free, and one
can contract away their rights and freedoms regarding software, or source
code can be practically obscured in binary-only distribution without
reliance on any legal system. However, the primary control mechanism for