“ You may have heard of "free” software before. One common belief is that it’s free of cost. The majority of free software is available without cost, but “free” really refers to freedom not price. Specifically, the freedom to run, study, modify and distribute the software.
If you have all of these freedoms, then the program is free software. If not then the program is proprietary. Proprietary software is a dark alley. Only a select few can legally know the ins and outs of the program. If you can’t run the program for any purpose that you want, if you can’t study and modify the program so that it does (or doesn’t do) whatever you want, then who is your computer really taking orders from? Certainly not you.
In addition, the license attached to proprietary software often says that you’re forbidden to share copies with anyone else. If you can’t legally share copies with your friends, what what does that say if you’re forced to choose between obeying the license of the software or being a good friend and making a copy? “
October 4th, 1985 – The Free Software Foundation is founded by Richard Stallman in Massachusetts, an organization dedicated to promoting the creation of software without the restrictions of copyright and licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Many of the tenants of the FSF extend beyond Stallman’s vision and have contributed to a great deal of projects which many users and institutions take advantage of and contribute towards.
(via internetarchive)