FOSS & Society

Mathias Klang@klangable

mklang@sju.edu

How software was sold

Jacquard’s Loom 1801

The Analytical Engine

hollerith

Generation 3 (1964-72)

Selling/Leasing hardware

1969IBM began to charge separately for (mainframe) software and services, and ceased to supply source code.

Copyright & Copyleft

"technical means to a social end." Stallman

Stallman (1984)

Starting this Thanksgiving I am going to write a complete Unix-compatible software system called GNU (for Gnu's Not Unix), and give it away free to everyone who can use it. Contributions of time, money, programs and equipment are greatly needed.

Philosophy

The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).

The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1).

Access to the source code is a precondition for this.The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).

The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3).

“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.” Stallman

GNU General Public License

GNU Manifesto (1985)

GNU is not in the public domain. Everyone will be permitted to modify and redistribute GNU, but no distributor will be allowed to restrict its further redistribution. That is to say, proprietary modifications will not be allowed. I want to make sure that all versions of GNU remain free.

CopyleftShare Alike

Open Source

The term “open source” software is used by some people to mean more or less the same category as free software. It is not exactly the same class of software: they accept some licences that we consider too restrictive…

Return of Selling hardware

Tivo-isation

Tivoization is the creation of a system that incorporates software under the terms of a copyleft software license (like the GPL), but uses hardware restrictions to prevent users

from running modified versions of the software on that hardware.

Mathias Klang mklang@sju.edu or @klangable

www.klangable.com

Image & licensing info in the notes section of slides.

Images at www.flickr.com (or specifically stated).

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