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Free software

Revision as of 10:16, 6 April 2010 by Ciaran (talk | contribs) (External links: * [http://fosspatents.blogspot.com/2010/04/patents-as-threat-to-free-and-open.html Patents as a threat to Free and Open Source Software], by Florian Mueller, April 2010)

Free software is software which can be used, copied, redistributed, and whose source code can be viewed, modified, and also redistributed. See also:

"Free software" is not a subtopic of software patents. All types of software development carry the risk of patent infringement. The reason these two topics often appear together is that, firstly, the free software community is very active and vocal in campaigning against software patents, and secondly, software patents threaten a general freedom that free software users value: the freedom to participate in software development.

The term open source is a near-synonym. Patents affect the freedom that users and developers have when dealing with software. Patents don't affect "openness", so ESP Wiki should use the term "free software".

Why free software groups should be involved

The free software movement says that everyone should be allowed to modify and redistribute the software they use. Software patents interfere with this because they can add legal risks and costs to software development and distribution.

Patent promises in 2005

IBM promised, for 500 of its patents, not to use them against free software.[1]

Sun[2] and Nokia[3] subsequently made promises that were so narrow in scope, they were qualified as "empty" and "next to nothing", respectively, by Richard Stallman.[4]

Related pages on ESP Wiki

External links

Pages from GNU/Linux distributions

References