Richard Stallman
Founder of the free software movement and the GNU Project.
Most quoted
"Calling it 'intellectual property' is a propaganda term designed to confuse people into thinking that the various different laws that restrict what you can do with information are all one thing, and that they all have the same moral basis."
— from Various speeches
"I could have made money this way, and perhaps amused myself writing code. But I knew that at the end of my career, I would look back on years of building walls to divide people, and feel I had spent my life making the world a worse place."
— from The GNU Project
"My work on free software is motivated by an idealistic goal: spreading freedom and cooperation. I want to encourage free software to spread, replacing proprietary software that forbids cooperation, and thus make our society better."
— from Essays
All quotes by Richard Stallman (373)
If you use a proprietary program, you are a user of that program, but you are not a free user.
Proprietary software is a social problem, and free software is the solution.
The fundamental act of friendship among programmers is the sharing of programs.
Sharing is good, and proprietary software is evil.
Our mission is to give all computer users freedom.
The GNU General Public License is a copyleft license.
Copyleft is a general method for making a program (or other work) free, and requiring all modified and extended versions of the program to be free as well.
The main reason for using the GPL is to protect the freedom of the users.
Software patents are an attack on innovation and on the public.
The internet is a tool for freedom, but it can also be a tool for surveillance.
We must fight for our digital freedom.
Digital restrictions management (DRM) is an attack on our freedom.
DRM is about controlling what you can do with your own computer.
The term 'open source' was coined by people who wanted to avoid the ethical issues of 'free software.'
Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement.
The difference between 'free software' and 'open source' is fundamental.
The most important thing is to have freedom.
Freedom is the most important value.
The goal of the free software movement is to liberate cyberspace.
The four essential freedoms are the core of free software.
Contemporaries of Richard Stallman
Other Computer Sciences born within 50 years of Richard Stallman (1953).