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<title>It's not the Gates, it's the bars
- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
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<h2> It's not the Gates, it's the bars</h2>
(削除) <p>by (削除ここまで)
(追記) <address class="byline">by (追記ここまで) <a (削除) href="http://www.stallman.org/"><strong>Richard
Stallman</strong></a><br />
Founder, Free Software Foundation
</p>
<blockquote>
<p><em>(This article was <a
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7487060.stm">published by
BBC News in 2008</a>.)</em></p>
</blockquote> (削除ここまで) (追記) href="https://www.stallman.org/">Richard
Stallman</a></address> (追記ここまで)
<p>To pay so much attention to Bill Gates' retirement is
missing the point. What really matters is not Gates, nor
Microsoft, but the unethical system of restrictions that
Microsoft—like many other software companies—imposes on its
customers.</p>
<p>That statement may surprise you, since most people interested in
computers have strong feelings about Microsoft. Businessmen and their
tame politicians admire its success in building an empire over so many
computer users. Many outside the computer field credit Microsoft for
advances which it only took advantage of, such as making computers
cheap and fast, and convenient graphical user interfaces.</p>
<p>Gates' philanthropy for health care for poor countries has won
some people's good opinion. The LA Times reported that his
foundation spends five to 10% of its money annually and invests
the rest, sometimes in companies it suggests cause environmental
degradation and illness in the same poor countries.
(2010 update: The Gates Foundation is supporting a project with
agribusiness giant Cargill on a <a
(削除) href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/29/gates-foundation-gm-monsanto">project (削除ここまで)
(追記) href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/poverty-matters/2010/sep/29/gates-foundation-gm-monsanto">project (追記ここまで)
that could involve pushing genetically modified crops in Africa</a>.)</p>
<p>Many computerists specially hate Gates and Microsoft. They have
plenty of reasons. Microsoft persistently engages in anti-competitive
behaviour, and has been convicted three times. (Bush, who let
Microsoft off the hook for the second US conviction, was invited to
Microsoft headquarters to solicit funds for the 2000 election. In the
UK, Microsoft established a major office in Gordon Brown's
constituency. Both lawful, both potentially corrupting.)</p>
<p>Many users hate the “Microsoft (削除) tax”, (削除ここまで) (追記) tax,” (追記ここまで) the retail
contracts that make you pay for Windows on your computer even if you
won't use it. (In some countries you can get a refund, but the effort
required is daunting.) There's also the Digital Restrictions
Management: software features designed to “stop” you from
accessing your files freely. (Increased restriction of users seems to
be the main advance of Vista.)</p>
<p>Then there are the gratuitous incompatibilities and obstacles to
interoperation with other software. (This is why the EU required
Microsoft to publish interface specifications.) This year Microsoft
packed standards committees with its supporters to procure ISO
approval of its unwieldy, unimplementable and patented “open
standard” for documents. (The EU is now investigating this.)</p>
<p>These actions are intolerable, of course, but they are not
isolated events. They are systematic symptoms of a deeper wrong
which most people don't recognize: proprietary software.</p>
<p>Microsoft's software is distributed under licenses that keep
users divided and helpless. The users are divided because they
are forbidden to share copies with anyone else. The users are
helpless because they don't have the source code that programmers
can read and change.</p>
<p>If you're a programmer and you want to change the software, for
yourself or for someone else, you can't. If you're a business and you
want to pay a programmer to make the software suit your needs better,
you can't. If you copy it to share with your friend, which is simple
good-neighbourliness, they call you a (削除) “pirate”. (削除ここまで) (追記) “pirate.” (追記ここまで)
Microsoft would have us believe that helping your neighbour is the
moral equivalent of attacking a ship.</p>
<p>The most important thing that Microsoft has done is to promote this
unjust social system. Gates is personally identified with it, due to
his infamous open letter which rebuked microcomputer users for sharing
copies of his software. It said, in effect, “If you don't let me
keep you divided and helpless, I won't write the software and you
won't have any. Surrender to me, or you're lost!”</p>
<p>But Gates didn't invent proprietary software, and thousands of
other companies do the same thing. It's wrong—no matter who does
it. Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, and the rest, offer you software that
gives them power over you. A change in executives or companies is not
important. What we need to change is this system.</p>
<p>That's what the free software movement is all
about. “Free” refers to freedom: we write and publish
software that users are free to share and modify. We do this
systematically, for freedom's sake; some of us paid, many as
volunteers. We already have complete free operating systems, including
GNU/Linux. Our aim is to deliver a complete range of useful free
software, so that no computer user will be tempted to cede her freedom
to get software.</p>
<p>In 1984, when I started the free software movement, I was hardly
aware of Gates' letter. But I'd heard similar demands from others,
and I had a response: “If your software would keep us divided
and helpless, please don't write it. We are better off without
it. We will find other ways to use our computers, and preserve our
freedom.”</p>
<p>In 1992, when the GNU operating system was completed by the
kernel, Linux, you had to be a wizard to run it. Today GNU/Linux
is user-friendly: in parts of Spain and India, it's standard in
schools. Tens of millions use it, around the world. You can use
it too.</p>
<p>Gates may be gone, but the walls and bars of proprietary software
he helped create remain—for now. Dismantling them is up to
us.</p>
(追記) <div class="infobox extra" role="complementary">
<hr />
<p>This article was <a
href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7487060.stm">published by
<cite>BBC News</cite> in 2008</a>.</p>
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<p>Copyright © (削除) 2008 (削除ここまで) (追記) 2008, 2021 (追記ここまで) Richard Stallman</p>
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