<< Back Home
ALL SOFTWARE SHOULD BE FREE!!!
or "The Nature of Free Software and What that Means To All of US - Long Live the GPL License!!!", 1/28/06
All Software Should be Free, and Someday Will Be!
That's right! You might have read the title to my latest article and be thinking....this guy is very naive and really quite an uninformed idiot! Well, as long as the web remains a "free-to-speak" open medium, you and I both are entitled to our opinions. (Maybe not in Communist China right now, but the rest of us are!). I certainly respect your feelings, if that is the case. Just wanted to get that out there, that this is adifficult argument to put forth. But before I state my case, I need to let you know, I am familiar with the subject, have followed closely the evolution of the Open Source movement, and remain a devout follower of Richard Stallman, the
GNU.ORG group and the GPL License, not to mention the
FSF.ORG or FRee Software Foundation. (Please explore these organizations to get more information about the topic).
Ok, so SOFTWARE SHOULD BE FREE! Thats right! All software should be and eventually will be free, as the world's global business model changes and people embrace more of the services model for software delivered via the web, and eventually more engaged data exchange models where software becomes nothing but a hollow shell of itself, driven by more advanced logic, processing, and services delivered online for a fee. I would even see a far away future where like television and radio, where everything on the Web is free and driven by a pure advertising model. Thats already happening to a degree at Google, and its got Microsoft rethinking their model for their own software licenses and delivery models, from what I have read. Some claim that "psuedo-technologies" like AJAX will solve all that and allow us to have say, Microsoft Office online and available for a subscription fee someday soon. I dont think so.....AJAX is a horrible technology and client-side scripting isnt solving anything new online. Same for the failure of Active X and its security concerns. The web has a ways to go before we simply say some little client-side technology solves anything. There are WAY too many security concerns and new agents that DONT support JScript and client side technologies right now to support such a model.....anyway, I digress.....let me just pose a question:
So, why should software be free??? How is that possible and where would the money and protection and patent law come into play in such a world?
First of all, all software should be free simply because it crazy expensive right now! Microsoft, bar none, makes the most incredible products and and fantastically easy to use and reliable OS that continues to fuel the business world as we know it today. They DESERVE every penny they get in the billions they generate in revenure from products like Microsoft Office 2003, which last I checked, for a person off the street, runs over $400 for a single home license!!!! Wow....thats allot of money. I cannot give a copy to a friend, as that would be considered "piracy" of some kind under the license I get when I purchase the software, as I understand it. No problem with that.....thats the law, and thats the copyright law, and thats what I agree to when I purchase the license, and what I cannot do in the United States under current copyright laws. I also cannot "steal" or copy the software and resell it under another name, or use certain "items" contained in the software that might fall under things like "patents" Microsoft owns as defined by the Library of Congress, as I understand it. Im not going to get into specifics of that....there is TONS of info on that online. What I want to say here, is, despite the rights of ANY company to copyright and patent their software and processes, its becoming a silly, convoluted and frankly, in many cases, "illegal" patent and copyright world where the person who loses most in these scenarios is the CONSUMER, and the small-time technology INNOVATORS!!!
Thats my complaint here!!!!!!!!!...and why we need a CHANGE. Software needs to be developed and paid for in some form and have limited protections under a license, but that software and license needs to be FREE and be open to EVERYONE to use and protected as such from ALL PATENTS and allow ALL PEOPLE to innovate around and redefine and use for their benefit period!!!!
Thats how I feel...not JUST because its so darn expensive, or because of the thousand of illegal and indefensible patents released by the United States Patent Office every year for computer processes we all use and develop against constantly by the millions (of developers and shops) around the globe. We need free software simply because, we as consumers, need to be
FREE of FEAR we will be sued, infringe on someone, be stripped of our rights to use software, be stripped of our right to get software free, be stripped of our rights to use and exchange part of a program, or the data it generates, without total fear of some OBSCURE patent or copyright some individual holds in another state, country or province somewhere in the world! Its is OUR DATA, right??? Why should anyone ever be forced to pay for expensive software just to access their personal data??? Think about it!!!!
If every copyright and patent ever created for the computer-driven digital medium was enforcced by countries and international laws and agreements, would there be a single person on the face of the planet left with any money in the bank and not sitting inside some jailhouse?!?!?
My point here is simply to have you start thinking deeply about what free software advocates, like Mr. Richard Stallman of the GNU.ORG has been sayiing....that is, that PEOPLE, not businesses, are losing more and more freedom in the digital world with EACH PASSING DAY! You may say, what the hell are you talking about, to me??? What Im talking about, to make it crystal clear, is we are more and more bound together by data and software and exchange of those things in our daily lives. We dont need MORE patents and restrictive licenses to tell us what we can and cannot do with software and data and online. We need more CONSUMER PROTECTION such that the average guy has the right to use and build his own software and services such that he can control his own data!!!! Thats right, you and I need the freedom to use more code, exchange more data, and share more software. We need that right as more of our lives become tied to the Web and the computer. Otherwise, the RICH and the consortium of RICH COMPANIES will begin to collect all the patents and chain us all to their software, their web services, and their domains, holding all our data hostage for either a high fee, or some legal agreement not to use someone elses service, etc.
Think about this.....we are just on the horizon of a world that may be controlled by digital media and the web as a delivery model. When I say controlled, Im talking about data control, and the software that binds that data. Im talking about all your family photos tied to someones server and someone's silly little software patent that someone with the "JPEG COMPRESSION PATENT" may hold and elect to enforce against a family who tries to develop say, some software that allows them to compress their photos so they can send them to Grandma's computer. Or the small businessman that wants to develop a new software system for its clients, but gets sued by the company that claims the "XML PATENT" and has to pay those people so many dollars per unit sold, such that his family starves. Or what about the kid who writes an article online, but gets sued for liable for saying something bad about Microsoft or reveals some piece of code he got online that exposes some copyrighted services that someone else controls. What about the families that have uploaded their images to Google servers or Yahoo's free photo service? Or what about the business that has set up its data store with a certain database vendor and now wants to own that data? When those servers go down or they need to scrape off their data, they might find out they dont even own their own data? What about the shear weight of problems we are creating storing our data and digital media chained to one of the big portals??? What happens if we share software that allows us to stay productive at work, but to find out, someone cracked the license, and now my business gets sued because some kid at my business decided to use that software illegally??? What happens when someone sells software where part of the code is licensed under the GPL free license??? Is that software free, or are parts of it. And who can sue whom in that scenario??? What about 3/4 of the world which can NOT access the web, the poor kids who CANNOT afford expensive software licenses much less computers, or the starving children all over the world who have little if any chance of ever using a computer and its software? Are we segregating the poorer countries and their people by making software and free available software an impossibility? Is that why China and Vietnam have a 90% piracy software rate right now? Think about that my friend? SOmething is truly flawed with how we write, sell, distribute, and license software period!!!! And something has to change or poor children will never see the promise that technology brings to our kids in this country.....
Let me say, before I answer those questions....Im NOT against licenses!!! Licenses, like the GPL that help protect the creator's rights, is a GOOD THING! But licenses that do not protect the end-users as well, and the creators, against infringment lawsuits or free use of that software, in both free exchange, and free modification, is bad! What we all need is more GPL Software, that allows all developers to use each others work freely. This would destroy black markets that exist. In such a world, where the market determines risk and supply and demand, software seems to be exchanged anyway freely! Why run from that model?
Data is not a physical commodity, and existing patent and copyright laws dont really make much sense in our world today! I envision a world where software, all software, is just an
enabling medium and mechanism for access to and exchange of consumer data, that is the backbone of a new global data-driven business world. In that world, free software is constantly built and evolved to serve the data and medium and advertsing exposure models that fuel it. End-users use and quickly update software and services and enslave such tools to drive bigger models that are a means to an end encompassed by service exchanges we all pay for based on quality, speed, and availability of that data. Customization and timeliness of data, as well as secure ownership of our data is what people will pay for in time. Example....I want to manage my OWN PHOTOS on a server either I pay someone to host or I host in my own home or at a secure location, such that I use FREE SOFTWARE to help me manage MY PHOTOS of my family on MY MANAGED SERVER environment. The software and website and its services should be FREE TOOLS I get online. Access to the internet and the servers and the web should and will be someday, ALL FREE! What do I pay for then in that situation and who????
In that model, I would pay a "provider" who allows me to send my data to a list of services they manage and control, so that, for example, my family photos can be incorporated into say a global medical repository securely, or a printing service that automatically sends me print of anything I need on acid free paper, or to a high traffic dating site (should I be a single person), or expose my photos along with my resume to a job site with high exposure rates to certain cross-sections of employers (free of irresponsible recruiters), etc.
Software should be free as well, such that all people and businesses can continue to innovate free of patent lawsuits and other crap!!! I mean, if my business sells a small service to Company A that allows them to store a small piece of data on their own database server and analyze that data....what the hell does that have to do with ANYONE ELSE!!! How DARE some company claim they own any part of that process!!!! Its silly and crazy this fueled
Intellectual Property Rights system we are slowly building in the name of corporate rights! Its nothing but a Monopoly Board Game where the poorer companies give away their "mortgaged" property rights to bigger companies, and small groups who happen to own a small piece of the pie with a hotel sitting on Boardwalk, when someone lands on it, they collect, and the poor guys and consumers get screwed over. What WORK did ANY OF THE PATENT owners really do other than hire some lawyers. Computer processes and code SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ALLOWED PATENT RIGHTS, and thats a failure in the United States Patent Office!!! As a taxpayer and United States Citizen, IM DISGUSTED!!!! Patent law has to change (and that will be a future article I'll be writing!).
USe The GPL and Make Your Software Free!
For now, what Im saying is lets stand up for the rights of the little guy to use code and software someone else has written and licensed freely and for good use and free of fear by adopting a
GPL License on that software. I encourage EVERYONE who develops software to look at the GPL at GNU.ORG and try and use it. What will it do for you???? You will remain the sole creator and hold the license for the software, period, indefinately. But by adding that license to your code.....you are allowing everyone all over the world to freely use your code (which in most cases, they could steal if they wanted anyway!) and modify it for their free use, thereby saturating a segment of the market with YOUR SOFTWARE, and thus competing against those people who charge large license fees for similar software. Thats not a gurantee but the idea! In addition, businesses will be able to use your software, as defined by the license, and incorporate it if they so choose in their own free license software, as long as they follow the tenants of the license, in that all other users must have the same freedom and rights to change and exchange it for free. It also protects other companies from "stealing" your softare and rights such that they can turn around and sell software built on that code....once its free....all use of it must remain free!!!! If they go against that concept, you can sue to make sure it remains free! Now that again goes against what Im saying....we want less lawsuits and infringement suits...not more and more fear of it. But the spirit here is not in making money but protecting your users who now have to pay to use the software. The idea here is to also keep patent suits from being laid against you and your end users and developers of your software. Thats the challenge for the future of software currently and cannot be addressed here fully, except to say that situation is still evolving. The next version of the GPL is trying to address that and punish companies that use GPL Software yet turn around and sue based on their own patents.
What you should think about, as far as building free software, is the fact that just because you are "giving" away code you have worked hard on, doesnt mean there is not money involved. You can still charge a
distribution fee for free software as defined by the GPL.....its still free in that copies can be made and it can be modified and used freely, but how they get new versions and modules and other services surrounding it can be sold. Youre NOT SELLING A RESTRICTIVE LICENSE that forbids people from using it or giving copies of it away. You are simply letting the law of supply-and-demand drive how much people are willing to pay for your work or services.
I am COMPLETELY and TOTALLY CONVINCED that the true global model for software exchange and development - not to mention sound business model for the industry - has yet to have evolved!!! Salesforce.com and Google.com have begun to build two very good models where software is free, but services or advertsing based on exposure to viewership is the new model. My concern with either model remains, though, that the data access and users are forced to enslavement with the portal domains and servers. Even "freer" software models and services whereby the actual web application code is installed or given to users so their data can sit ANYWHERE AT ANY DOMAIN or even their own website domain, is the next step in freeing users from having to go to Google or Microsoft's websites, or even using their services and either paying for those services or having to view advertising Ad Word links.
The "end-game" is for YOU, as user and/or web or software developer, to build software you give to people such that they can manage their OWN data on thier OWN web servers and thus are truly free of the Big Portal Companies and the Desktop/OS software world. When that happens, that means pain to the those comapnies as they no longer have you "captured" or your data held on their domains! Their business model disolves!!!! As a developer building THAT type of free software, you not only free your users but the world. Where YOUR income comes from then is as ENABLER of the free!! And that can take the form of people coming to you and paying you to CUSTOMIZE and BUILD special services, software and data exchanges that enable them to shift, massage, manage, and exchange their data for their own benefit!!!
In the end, what Im describing is a world where software is free, built and exchanged and modified freely, and a part of the NEW BUSINESS MODEL surrounding companies and individuals that help those individuals and companies manage and service THEMSELVES! You may say, well, people are paying for that now using licensed software and services for a fee. But I argue, they really are NOT! Can you give that software away for free to other companies? Can you easily modify ALL the code in those scenarios? Does your data have the ability to FREELY move and be used the same on your own server or computer? Or are you chained to a certain web domain packed with links and advertising or a service or subscription fees???? Thats NOT free software or services and certainly not what the world needs!!!! People everywhere...the poorest person in the poorest country and the richest CEO in the richest country need to be able to have FREE ACCESS to the web, FREE ACCESS to their data free of contsraints or domains or access rights, and FREE to MODIFY and EXCHANGE software they need to continue free use of their data. Companies that build and license and enable and protect its users with those God given rights, will be the rich new players who millions will gladly turn to and pay to customize and build software and services they need to increase that freedom! Its your choice now as developer to figure out how to have someone pay you to build the free tools that allow and enhance that participation. If that software is freely available that enables that it also benefits you! Your challenge then becomes that of free agent in putting your services out there such that you tap into that freedom and sell your time and services in helping people expand that freedom. There is PLENTY of customized exchanges and data exchanges that will need to be continually enhanced and modified and expanded with new work and services. Constraining that process by building narrow, proprietary software and services that tie the hands of users in using both your work and that of others doesnt benefit anyone! But as soon as YOU can show that you have a free product that benefits them and works well in that regards, they certainly will continue to use it and pay others who develop around that expanding free model to customize it and expand it for their contantly changing needs. The digital world is diverse enough that free software will certainly expand the demand for those paid services that either distribute or manage such software, as well as continually customize such services for individuals, as well as its data. Doing so in a free market world where people can find and use what they need FOR FREE online and offline, means nothing but a better world for all users of the Internet and Web. But it also means a constant and expanded demand for paid access to people and companies that can expand that freedom. Anything less is more like the digital enslavement we are going down with the current expansion of patents and other lawsuits that are flooding the digital landscape today. When will we be free?.....trust me, its coming.....
- Mitchell Stokely, USA
