Dear Fellow members, Distinguished guests,

Good morning.

Last time I introduced the concept of Free Software to you. Who can tell me what the Chinese translation of free software is?

Yes, you are right. I am glad that my previous introduction worked. The Chinese translation of Free Software is 自由软件. Free Software is about freedom, not about price.

Let us recall the four essential freedoms of free software:

• Freedom 0: free to run the software as you wish for any purpose.
• Freedom 1: free to study how the software works and make changes as you wish.
• Freedom 2: free to distribute the original software.
• Freedom 3: free to distribute you modified version of the software.

In short, Free software means user can run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software.

Today, I will try to explain why we need free software. Who has a reason?

First of all, let’s talk about the copyright system. It grew up with printing—a technology for mass-production copying. Copyright fit in well with this technology because it restricted only the mass producers of copies. It did not take freedom away from readers of books. An ordinary reader, who did not own a printing press, could copy books only with pen and ink, and few readers were sued for that.

Now we are in the era of digital information technology. It contributes to the world by making copy and modification of information easier. Digital technology is more flexible than the printing press: when information has digital form, you can easily copy and share it with others.

Not everyone wants it to be easier. The system of copyright gives software programs “owners”, most of whom aim to withhold software’s potential benefit from the rest of the public. They would like to be the only ones who can copy and modify the software that we use.

On the other side, what does society need? It needs information that is truly available to its citizens—for example, programs that people can read, fix, adapt, and improve, not just operate. But what software owners typically deliver is a black box that we can’t study or change. The users lose freedom to control part of their own lives.

Above all, sharing knowledge make human kind survive and thrive. Human society needs to encourage the spirit of voluntary cooperation in its citizens. When software owners tell us that helping our neighbors in a natural way is “piracy”, they pollute our society’s civic spirit, and they prevent knowledge sharing. They leave human kind in danger.

This is why we say that free software is a matter of freedom, not price.

As a computer user today, you may find yourself using a proprietary program. If your friend asks a copy, it would be wrong to refuse. But if you copy, you voliate the agreement with the proprietary software. What should you do? Would you want to be a person living an upright life openly with pride? This means saying no to proprietary software.

Dear friends, you deserve to be able to cooperate openly and freely with other people who use software. You deserve to be able to learn how the software works, and to teach your kids, students and friends with it. You deserve to be able to hire your favorite programmer to fix it when it breaks.

You deserve free software.

That’s the very ethical reason to have free software.

Thank you.

reference: why software should not have owners