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

[Richard Stallman]

I don't think the Pirate Parties have endorsed the free software
movement's position that all software ought to be free.  And I am not
asking them to go that far (though I would not reject their support).

Someone began attacking the free software movement here, so I
responded to defend it from those attacks.

The free software movement does not propose to prohibit proprietary
software, at least not under present conditions where many people want
to use it.  I would like to see a world without proprietary software,
but laws prohibiting something that many people want tend to cause a
lot of pain and resistance.

Maxime Rouquet <maxime.rouquet at partipirate.org> wrote:

    To me a drawing, a music or a book are not like software. They are some form
    of art, and therefore have something unique in them.

I draw the distinction between art and works that serve a practical,
functional purpose.

Software is in the latter category, and so are some books (educational
and reference works).  I think that works with a practical, functional
purpose ought to be free, but I don't say the same thing about art, or
about political statements (which the messages in this discussion
are).

See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/freedom-or-copyright.html
for more about this.

This position goes beyond that of the free software movement,
which (strictly speaking) is concerned only with software
and manuals for software.