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Software is all around us
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and sometimes inside us.
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But what happens
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when the tools we use
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are obeying someone else?
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A tool you control
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serves your interests,
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but if someone else controls it,
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they serve their own.
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When you can examine tools
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to see how they work,
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you're able to learn about them,
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even modify them
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to work differently or better.
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When you can share a tool
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and its changes,
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you help others and, in turn,
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they help you.
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In fact,
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this is how early computing developed.
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Everyone could see a program's code
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and people shared their work freely
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to drive its growth.
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Every user was a potential author.
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But when companies began
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to lock source code away,
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it stopped being possible to participate
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or even to know what the code was doing.
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In response,
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hackers formed the GNU project,
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to create a computer system
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designed to respect
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the autonomy of users.
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They adopted a copyleft maneuver
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and built it into
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the GNU General Public License,
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a legal structure
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that preserves user rights.
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In ten short years,
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the free software movement
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had produced the GNU/Linux system.
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Computing that nobody could own,
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but anyone could use.
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Today it's keeping planes in the air,
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stocks trading
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and the global Internet running.
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We all encounter free software
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in invisible ways.
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But software freedom
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was designed for people.
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It's about what shape
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the technology we inhabit
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will take,
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and what kind of society
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we use our digital powers to build.
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We've still got work to do.
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Free Software Foundation
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30 years
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of propelling user freedom
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join us
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contribute
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learn more
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fsf.org
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License CC by-sa 4.0 2014
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Video by urchn.org
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Transcription Benjamin Sonntag
