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Why "open source" misses the point of free software

Author:

Richard StallmanAuthors Info & Claims

Communications of the ACM, Volume 52, Issue 6

Pages 31 - 33

https://doi.org/10.1145/1516046.1516058

Published: 01 June 2009 Publication History

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Abstract

Decoding the important differences in terminology, underlying philosophy, and value systems between two similar categories of software.

References

[1]

Joe Barr wrote an article called "Live and Let License" (see http://www.itworld.com/LWD010523vcontrol4) that gives his perspective on this issue.

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[2]

Lakhani and Wolf's paper on the motivation of free software developers (see http://freesoftware.mit.edu/papers/lakhaniwolf.pdf) states that a considerable fraction are motivated by the view that software should be free. This was despite the fact they surveyed the developers on SourceForge, a site that does not support the view that this is an ethical issue.

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Adakawa M(2024)Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Scholarly Communications for Enhanced Human Cognitive Abilities: The War for Philosophy?Revista Internacional de Filosofía Teórica y Práctica10.51660/riftp.v4i1.934:1(123-159)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.51660/riftp.v4i1.93
Bostan SJohnson OJaspersen LRandell R(2024)Contextual Barriers to Implementing Open-Source Electronic Health Record Systems for Low- and Lower-Middle-Income Countries: Scoping ReviewJournal of Medical Internet Research10.2196/4524226(e45242)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.2196/45242
Choksi MMandel IWidder DShvartzshnaider Y(2024)The Emerging Artifacts of Centralized Open-CodeProceedings of the 2024 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency10.1145/3630106.3659019(1971-1983)Online publication date: 3-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3630106.3659019
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Why "open source" misses the point of free software
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Management of computing and information systems
      1. Project and people management
      2. Software management
        Software maintenance
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software creation and management
  2. Software notations and tools
    1. Software configuration management and version control systems

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Published In

Communications of the ACM Volume 52, Issue 6

One Laptop Per Child: Vision vs. Reality

June 2009

128 pages

ISSN:0001-0782

EISSN:1557-7317

DOI:10.1145/1516046

Issue’s Table of Contents

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 01 June 2009

Published in CACM Volume 52, Issue 6

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Adakawa M(2024)Integrating Artificial Intelligence into Scholarly Communications for Enhanced Human Cognitive Abilities: The War for Philosophy?Revista Internacional de Filosofía Teórica y Práctica10.51660/riftp.v4i1.934:1(123-159)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2024
https://doi.org/10.51660/riftp.v4i1.93
Bostan SJohnson OJaspersen LRandell R(2024)Contextual Barriers to Implementing Open-Source Electronic Health Record Systems for Low- and Lower-Middle-Income Countries: Scoping ReviewJournal of Medical Internet Research10.2196/4524226(e45242)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.2196/45242
Choksi MMandel IWidder DShvartzshnaider Y(2024)The Emerging Artifacts of Centralized Open-CodeProceedings of the 2024 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency10.1145/3630106.3659019(1971-1983)Online publication date: 3-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3630106.3659019
Lawo DNeifer TEsau-Held MStevens G(2023)Digital Sovereignty: What it is and why it matters for HCIExtended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544549.3585834(1-7)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544549.3585834
Lawo DNeifer TEsau MStevens G(2023)Human-Centred Digital Sovereignty: Explorative Conceptual Model and Ways ForwardComputer-Human Interaction Research and Applications10.1007/978-3-031-49368-3_6(84-103)Online publication date: 23-Dec-2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49368-3_6
Massacci FSabetta AMirkovic JMurray TOkhravi HMannan MRocha ABodden EGeer D(2022)“Free” as in Freedom to Protest?IEEE Security and Privacy10.1109/MSEC.2022.318584520:5(16-21)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1109/MSEC.2022.3185845
Malarvizhi ALiu QSha DLan HYang C(2021)An Open-Source Workflow for Spatiotemporal Studies with COVID-19 as an ExampleISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information10.3390/ijgi1101001311:1(13)Online publication date: 29-Dec-2021
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Ahmad R(2021)A Critical Review of Open Source Software Development: Freedom or Benefit Libertarian View Versus Corporate ViewIT Professional10.1109/MITP.2020.301445023:1(16-26)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2021
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Koutroulis EPetrakis GAgou VMalisovas AHristopulos DPartsinevelos PTripolitsiotis AHalouani NAilliot PBoutigny MMonbet VAllard DCuzol AKolokotsa DVarouchakis EKokolakis KMertikas S(2021)Site selection and system sizing of desalination plants powered with renewable energy sources based on a web-GIS platformInternational Journal of Energy Sector Management10.1108/IJESM-04-2021-001816:3(469-492)Online publication date: 9-Aug-2021
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Menéndez-Caravaca EBueno SGallego M(2021)Exploring the link between free and open source software and the collaborative economy: A Delphi-based scenario for the year 2025Technological Forecasting and Social Change10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121087173(121087)Online publication date: Dec-2021
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121087
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Index Terms

Recommendations

History of free and open source software: Free and open source software, Free software licence, Open source license, Free Software Foundation, Open Source Initiative, GNU Project

Free Software Philosophy and Open Source

Open source software licenses: Strong-copyleft, non-copyleft, or somewhere in between?

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