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-revision 1.168 by ineiev, Tue Jul 30 10:09:02 2019 UTC
+revision 1.169 by rms, Tue Feb 2 23:19:19 2021 UTC
 Line 109   are free.  However, if we plan to modify
  only A needs to be free; B is not pertinent to that plan.</p>
  <p>
- &ldquo;Free software&rdquo; does not mean &ldquo;noncommercial&rdquo;.  A free
+ &ldquo;Free software&rdquo; does not mean &ldquo;noncommercial&rdquo;.
- program must be available for commercial use, commercial development,
+ On the contrary, a free program must be available for commercial use,
- and commercial distribution.  Commercial development of free software
+ commercial development, and commercial distribution.  This policy is
- is no longer unusual; such free commercial software is very important.
+ of fundamental importance&mdash;without this, free software could not
- You may have paid money to get copies of free software, or you may have
+ achieve its aims.
- obtained copies at no charge.  But regardless of how you got your copies,
- you always have the freedom to copy and change the software, even to
- <a href="/philosophy/selling.html">sell copies</a>.
  </p>
  <p>
- A free program must offer the four freedoms to any user that obtains a
+ We want to invite everyone to use the GNU system, including businesses
- copy of the software, provided the user has complied thus far with the
+ and their workers.  That requires allowing commercial use.  We hope
- conditions of the free license covering the software.  Putting some of
+ that free replacement programs will supplant comparable proprietary
- the freedoms off limits to some users, or requiring that users pay, in
+ programs, but they can't do that if businesses are forbidden to use
- money or in kind, to exercise them, is tantamount to not granting the
+ them.  We want commercial products that contain software to include
- freedoms in question, and thus renders the program nonfree.
+ the GNU system, and that would constitute commercial distribution for
+ a price.  Commercial development of free software is no longer
+ unusual; such free commercial software is very important.  Paid,
+ professional support for free software fills an important need.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Thus, to exclude commercial use, commercial development or commercial
+ distribution would hobble the free software community and obstruct its
+ path to success.  We must conclude that a program licensed with such
+ restrictions does not qualify as free software.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ 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.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ You may have paid money to get copies of a free program, or you may
+ have obtained copies at no charge.  But regardless of how you got your
+ copies, you always have the freedom to copy and change the software,
+ even to <a href="/philosophy/selling.html">sell copies</a>.
  </p>
  <h3>Clarifying the line at various points</h3>
-Line 163   loss of usefulness, because freedoms 1 a
+Line 187   loss of usefulness, because freedoms 1 a
  communities to make and distribute modified versions without the
  arbitrary nuisance code.</p>
+ <p>&ldquo;As you wish&rdquo; includes, optonally, &ldquo;not at
+ all&rdquo; if that is what you wish.  So there is no need for a
+ separate &ldquo;freedom not to run a program.&rdquo;<p>
  <h4>The freedom to study the source code and make changes</h4>
  <p>
-Line 199   If your right to modify a program is lim
+Line 227   If your right to modify a program is lim
  someone else considers an improvement, that program is not free.
  </p>
+ <p>
+ 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 &ldquo;freedom to delete the program.&rdquo;
+ </p>
  <h4>The freedom to redistribute if you wish: basic requirements</h4>
  <p>Freedom to distribute (freedoms 2 and 3) means you are free to
-Line 460   was changed.</p>
+Line 494   was changed.</p>
  <ul>
+ <li><a href="http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/www/philosophy/free-sw.html?root=www&amp;r1=1.168&amp;r2=1.169">Version
+.169</a>: Explain why 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.</li>
  <li><a href="http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/www/philosophy/free-sw.html?root=www&amp;r1=1.164&amp;r2=1.165">Version
 .165</a>: Clarify that arbitrary annoyances in the code do not
  negate freedom 0, and that freedoms 1 and 3 enable users to remove them.</li>

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