Richard Stallman — "The GNU GPL is not Mr. Nice Guy."
The GNU GPL is not Mr. Nice Guy.
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More from Richard Stallman
"I don't use any software that requires me to agree to a restrictive license."
"I don't use a cell phone. I don't use a credit card. I don't use a loyalty card. I don't use a social network."
"I put the term in quotes because US law dishonestly defines images of young adults even of age 17 as 'child pornography', despite the fact that most Americans of age 17 have had sex."
"'Free software' is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of 'free' as in 'free speech,' not as in 'free beer.'"
"The only way to keep something from being copied is to make it so bad it's not worth copying."
About Richard Stallman (born 1953)
American programmer who founded the Free Software Foundation and the GNU Project, whose copyleft GPL licensing made the modern Linux ecosystem possible. Closely associated with Linus Torvalds (Linux kernel creator who builds on GNU userland) and Eric S. Raymond (open-source advocate (The Cathedral and the Bazaar)). For an intellectual contrast, see Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder — Gates's 1976 Open Letter to Hobbyists arguing for software-as-property is the foundational document Stallman's GPL was specifically written to refute — the two opposing answers to 'who owns the code'.