If programmers deserve to be rewarded for creating innovative programs, by the same token they deserve to be punished if they restrict the use of these programs.
Richard StallmanRead
Proprietary software keeps users divided and helpless. Divided because each user is forbidden to redistribute it to others, and helpless because the users can't change it since they don't have the source code. They can't study what it really does. So the proprietary program is a system of unjust power.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Proprietary software limits user freedom and knowledge by preventing sharing and modification.
The quote by Richard Stallman emphasizes the restrictive nature of proprietary software, which not only forbids users from sharing the software but also from understanding its inner workings due to lack of access to the source code. This creates a situation where users are disempowered and subjected to the control of software developers, ultimately advocating for the need for open-source alternatives that foster collaboration and transparency.
Themes
Proprietary SoftwareFreedomPowerOpen SourceTechnology
In practice
Example use cases
In a tech seminar discussing software ethics, you could use this quote to highlight the importance of open-source principles.
More from Richard Stallman
All quotes βEMACS could not have been reached by a process of careful design, because such processes arrive only at goals which are visible at the outset, and whose desirability is established on the bottom line at the outset. Neither I nor anyone else visualized an extensible editor until I had made one, nor appreciated its value until he had experienced it. EMACS exists because I felt free to make individually useful small improvements on a path whose end was not in sight.
Richard StallmanRead
One reason you should not use web applications to do your computing is that you lose control. It's just as bad as using a proprietary program. Do your own computing on your own computer with your copy of a freedom-respecting program. If you use a proprietary program or somebody else's web server, you're defenceless.
Richard StallmanRead
Proprietary software is an injustice.
Richard StallmanRead
Proprietary software tends to have malicious features. The point is with a proprietary program, when the users don't have the source code, we can never tell. So you must consider every proprietary program as potential malware.
Richard StallmanRead
People sometimes ask me if it is a sin in the Church of Emacs to use vi. Using a free version of vi is not a sin; it is a penance. So happy hacking.
Richard StallmanRead
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