[pp.int.general] Why Free Software misses the point

[Richard Stallman]

With software, there are two possibilities.  With free software, the
users control the software.  With proprietary software, the software
controls the users, which means the owner controls the users.

Non-programmer users do get the benefit of the four freedoms in making
free software have the features they want.  However, since you brought
up the issue of things so bad that users might sue the developers
about them, let's focus on that.

With proprietary software, blind trust in the program's owner
is imposed on the user.

With free software, the basic option is to trust a community of people
who check each others' work.  This is like science: not perfect, but
no better way to find the truth is known.

You also have the option of paying people of your choice to study
and/or change the program for you.  That way, you choose who to trust.

It is foolish to argue that something about our legal or social system
will ensure proprietary software does not do nasty things, because the
empirical fact is that it often does them.

Malicious features abound in proprietary software.  We know of
malicious features in Windows, Mac OS, the iGroan, the iBad, the
Amazon Swindle, the Spotify client, and the Adobe Flash player.  Can
you make the developers remove these malicious features by suing them?
I would be glad to see such a lawsuit succeed, but I don't think it
would.

Many of these malicious features are designed specifically to stop
users from copying and sharing the files on their machines.  That is
an issue of direct concern to the Pirate Party.  Many others damage
the users' privacy, which is also an issue of direct concern to the
Pirate Party.

There is every reason for the Pirate Party to support the cause of
free software.