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 The GNU Manifesto
 *****************
 
      The GNU Manifesto which appears below was written by Richard
      Stallman at the beginning of the GNU project, to ask for
      participation and support.  For the first few years, it was
      updated in minor ways to account for developments, but now it
      seems best to leave it unchanged as most people have seen it.
 
      Since that time, we have learned about certain common
      misunderstandings that different wording could help avoid.
      Footnotes added in 1993 help clarify these points.
 
      For up-to-date information about the available GNU software,
      please see the latest issue of the GNU's Bulletin.  The list is
      much too long to include here.
 
 What's GNU?  Gnu's Not Unix!
 ============================
 
    GNU, which stands for Gnu's Not Unix, is the name for the complete
 Unix-compatible software system which I am writing so that I can give it
 away free to everyone who can use it.(1) Several other volunteers are
 helping me.  Contributions of time, money, programs and equipment are
 greatly needed.
 
    So far we have an Emacs text editor with Lisp for writing editor
 commands, a source level debugger, a yacc-compatible parser generator,
 a linker, and around 35 utilities.  A shell (command interpreter) is
 nearly completed.  A new portable optimizing C compiler has compiled
 itself and may be released this year.  An initial kernel exists but
 many more features are needed to emulate Unix.  When the kernel and
 compiler are finished, it will be possible to distribute a GNU system
 suitable for program development.  We will use TeX as our text
 formatter, but an nroff is being worked on.  We will use the free,
 portable X window system as well.  After this we will add a portable
 Common Lisp, an Empire game, a spreadsheet, and hundreds of other
 things, plus on-line documentation.  We hope to supply, eventually,
 everything useful that normally comes with a Unix system, and more.
 
    GNU will be able to run Unix programs, but will not be identical to
 Unix.  We will make all improvements that are convenient, based on our
 experience with other operating systems.  In particular, we plan to
 have longer file names, file version numbers, a crashproof file system,
 file name completion perhaps, terminal-independent display support, and
 perhaps eventually a Lisp-based window system through which several
 Lisp programs and ordinary Unix programs can share a screen.  Both C
 and Lisp will be available as system programming languages.  We will
 try to support UUCP, MIT Chaosnet, and Internet protocols for
 communication.
 
    GNU is aimed initially at machines in the 68000/16000 class with
 virtual memory, because they are the easiest machines to make it run
 on.  The extra effort to make it run on smaller machines will be left
 to someone who wants to use it on them.
 
    To avoid horrible confusion, please pronounce the `G' in the word
 `GNU' when it is the name of this project.
 
 Why I Must Write GNU
 ====================
 
    I consider that the golden rule requires that if I like a program I
 must share it with other people who like it.  Software sellers want to
 divide the users and conquer them, making each user agree not to share
 with others.  I refuse to break solidarity with other users in this
 way.  I cannot in good conscience sign a nondisclosure agreement or a
 software license agreement.  For years I worked within the Artificial
 Intelligence Lab to resist such tendencies and other inhospitalities,
 but eventually they had gone too far: I could not remain in an
 institution where such things are done for me against my will.
 
    So that I can continue to use computers without dishonor, I have
 decided to put together a sufficient body of free software so that I
 will be able to get along without any software that is not free.  I
 have resigned from the AI lab to deny MIT any legal excuse to prevent
 me from giving GNU away.
 
 Why GNU Will Be Compatible with Unix
 ====================================
 
    Unix is not my ideal system, but it is not too bad.  The essential
 features of Unix seem to be good ones, and I think I can fill in what
 Unix lacks without spoiling them.  And a system compatible with Unix
 would be convenient for many other people to adopt.
 
 How GNU Will Be Available
 =========================
 
    GNU is not in the public domain.  Everyone will be permitted to
 modify and redistribute GNU, but no distributor will be allowed to
 restrict its further redistribution.  That is to say, proprietary
 modifications will not be allowed.  I want to make sure that all
 versions of GNU remain free.
 
 Why Many Other Programmers Want to Help
 =======================================
 
    I have found many other programmers who are excited about GNU and
 want to help.
 
    Many programmers are unhappy about the commercialization of system
 software.  It may enable them to make more money, but it requires them
 to feel in conflict with other programmers in general rather than feel
 as comrades.  The fundamental act of friendship among programmers is the
 sharing of programs; marketing arrangements now typically used
 essentially forbid programmers to treat others as friends.  The
 purchaser of software must choose between friendship and obeying the
 law.  Naturally, many decide that friendship is more important.  But
 those who believe in law often do not feel at ease with either choice.
 They become cynical and think that programming is just a way of making
 money.
 
    By working on and using GNU rather than proprietary programs, we can
 be hospitable to everyone and obey the law.  In addition, GNU serves as
 an example to inspire and a banner to rally others to join us in
 sharing.  This can give us a feeling of harmony which is impossible if
 we use software that is not free.  For about half the programmers I
 talk to, this is an important happiness that money cannot replace.
 
 How You Can Contribute
 ======================
 
    I am asking computer manufacturers for donations of machines and
 money.  I'm asking individuals for donations of programs and work.
 
    One consequence you can expect if you donate machines is that GNU
 will run on them at an early date.  The machines should be complete,
 ready to use systems, approved for use in a residential area, and not
 in need of sophisticated cooling or power.
 
    I have found very many programmers eager to contribute part-time
 work for GNU.  For most projects, such part-time distributed work would
 be very hard to coordinate; the independently-written parts would not
 work together.  But for the particular task of replacing Unix, this
 problem is absent.  A complete Unix system contains hundreds of utility
 programs, each of which is documented separately.  Most interface
 specifications are fixed by Unix compatibility.  If each contributor
 can write a compatible replacement for a single Unix utility, and make
 it work properly in place of the original on a Unix system, then these
 utilities will work right when put together.  Even allowing for Murphy
 to create a few unexpected problems, assembling these components will
 be a feasible task.  (The kernel will require closer communication and
 will be worked on by a small, tight group.)
 
    If I get donations of money, I may be able to hire a few people full
 or part time.  The salary won't be high by programmers' standards, but
 I'm looking for people for whom building community spirit is as
 important as making money.  I view this as a way of enabling dedicated
 people to devote their full energies to working on GNU by sparing them
 the need to make a living in another way.
 
 Why All Computer Users Will Benefit
 ===================================
 
    Once GNU is written, everyone will be able to obtain good system
 software free, just like air.(2)
 
    This means much more than just saving everyone the price of a Unix
 license.  It means that much wasteful duplication of system programming
 effort will be avoided.  This effort can go instead into advancing the
 state of the art.
 
    Complete system sources will be available to everyone.  As a result,
 a user who needs changes in the system will always be free to make them
 himself, or hire any available programmer or company to make them for
 him.  Users will no longer be at the mercy of one programmer or company
 which owns the sources and is in sole position to make changes.
 
    Schools will be able to provide a much more educational environment
 by encouraging all students to study and improve the system code.
 Harvard's computer lab used to have the policy that no program could be
 installed on the system if its sources were not on public display, and
 upheld it by actually refusing to install certain programs.  I was very
 much inspired by this.
 
    Finally, the overhead of considering who owns the system software
 and what one is or is not entitled to do with it will be lifted.
 
    Arrangements to make people pay for using a program, including
 licensing of copies, always incur a tremendous cost to society through
 the cumbersome mechanisms necessary to figure out how much (that is,
 which programs) a person must pay for.  And only a police state can
 force everyone to obey them.  Consider a space station where air must
 be manufactured at great cost: charging each breather per liter of air
 may be fair, but wearing the metered gas mask all day and all night is
 intolerable even if everyone can afford to pay the air bill.  And the
 TV cameras everywhere to see if you ever take the mask off are
 outrageous.  It's better to support the air plant with a head tax and
 chuck the masks.
 
    Copying all or parts of a program is as natural to a programmer as
 breathing, and as productive.  It ought to be as free.
 
 Some Easily Rebutted Objections to GNU's Goals
 ==============================================
 
      "Nobody will use it if it is free, because that means they can't
      rely on any support."
 
      "You have to charge for the program to pay for providing the
      support."
 
    If people would rather pay for GNU plus service than get GNU free
 without service, a company to provide just service to people who have
 obtained GNU free ought to be profitable.(3)
 
    We must distinguish between support in the form of real programming
 work and mere handholding.  The former is something one cannot rely on
 from a software vendor.  If your problem is not shared by enough
 people, the vendor will tell you to get lost.
 
    If your business needs to be able to rely on support, the only way
 is to have all the necessary sources and tools.  Then you can hire any
 available person to fix your problem; you are not at the mercy of any
 individual.  With Unix, the price of sources puts this out of
 consideration for most businesses.  With GNU this will be easy.  It is
 still possible for there to be no available competent person, but this
 problem cannot be blamed on distribution arrangements.  GNU does not
 eliminate all the world's problems, only some of them.
 
    Meanwhile, the users who know nothing about computers need
 handholding: doing things for them which they could easily do
 themselves but don't know how.
 
    Such services could be provided by companies that sell just
 hand-holding and repair service.  If it is true that users would rather
 spend money and get a product with service, they will also be willing
 to buy the service having got the product free.  The service companies
 will compete in quality and price; users will not be tied to any
 particular one.  Meanwhile, those of us who don't need the service
 should be able to use the program without paying for the service.
 
      "You cannot reach many people without advertising, and you must
      charge for the program to support that."
 
      "It's no use advertising a program people can get free."
 
    There are various forms of free or very cheap publicity that can be
 used to inform numbers of computer users about something like GNU.  But
 it may be true that one can reach more microcomputer users with
 advertising.  If this is really so, a business which advertises the
 service of copying and mailing GNU for a fee ought to be successful
 enough to pay for its advertising and more.  This way, only the users
 who benefit from the advertising pay for it.
 
    On the other hand, if many people get GNU from their friends, and
 such companies don't succeed, this will show that advertising was not
 really necessary to spread GNU.  Why is it that free market advocates
 don't want to let the free market decide this?(4)
 
      "My company needs a proprietary operating system to get a
      competitive edge."
 
    GNU will remove operating system software from the realm of
 competition.  You will not be able to get an edge in this area, but
 neither will your competitors be able to get an edge over you.  You and
 they will compete in other areas, while benefiting mutually in this
 one.  If your business is selling an operating system, you will not
 like GNU, but that's tough on you.  If your business is something else,
 GNU can save you from being pushed into the expensive business of
 selling operating systems.
 
    I would like to see GNU development supported by gifts from many
 manufacturers and users, reducing the cost to each.(5)
 
      "Don't programmers deserve a reward for their creativity?"
 
    If anything deserves a reward, it is social contribution.
 Creativity can be a social contribution, but only in so far as society
 is free to use the results.  If programmers deserve to be rewarded for
 creating innovative programs, by the same token they deserve to be
 punished if they restrict the use of these programs.
 
      "Shouldn't a programmer be able to ask for a reward for his
      creativity?"
 
    There is nothing wrong with wanting pay for work, or seeking to
 maximize one's income, as long as one does not use means that are
 destructive.  But the means customary in the field of software today
 are based on destruction.
 
    Extracting money from users of a program by restricting their use of
 it is destructive because the restrictions reduce the amount and the
 ways that the program can be used.  This reduces the amount of wealth
 that humanity derives from the program.  When there is a deliberate
 choice to restrict, the harmful consequences are deliberate destruction.
 
    The reason a good citizen does not use such destructive means to
 become wealthier is that, if everyone did so, we would all become
 poorer from the mutual destructiveness.  This is Kantian ethics; or,
 the Golden Rule.  Since I do not like the consequences that result if
 everyone hoards information, I am required to consider it wrong for one
 to do so.  Specifically, the desire to be rewarded for one's creativity
 does not justify depriving the world in general of all or part of that
 creativity.
 
      "Won't programmers starve?"
 
    I could answer that nobody is forced to be a programmer.  Most of us
 cannot manage to get any money for standing on the street and making
 faces.  But we are not, as a result, condemned to spend our lives
 standing on the street making faces, and starving.  We do something
 else.
 
    But that is the wrong answer because it accepts the questioner's
 implicit assumption: that without ownership of software, programmers
 cannot possibly be paid a cent.  Supposedly it is all or nothing.
 
    The real reason programmers will not starve is that it will still be
 possible for them to get paid for programming; just not paid as much as
 now.
 
    Restricting copying is not the only basis for business in software.
 It is the most common basis because it brings in the most money.  If it
 were prohibited, or rejected by the customer, software business would
 move to other bases of organization which are now used less often.
 There are always numerous ways to organize any kind of business.
 
    Probably programming will not be as lucrative on the new basis as it
 is now.  But that is not an argument against the change.  It is not
 considered an injustice that sales clerks make the salaries that they
 now do.  If programmers made the same, that would not be an injustice
 either.  (In practice they would still make considerably more than
 that.)
 
      "Don't people have a right to control how their creativity is
      used?"
 
    "Control over the use of one's ideas" really constitutes control over
 other people's lives; and it is usually used to make their lives more
 difficult.
 
    People who have studied the issue of intellectual property rights
 carefully (such as lawyers) say that there is no intrinsic right to
 intellectual property.  The kinds of supposed intellectual property
 rights that the government recognizes were created by specific acts of
 legislation for specific purposes.
 
    For example, the patent system was established to encourage
 inventors to disclose the details of their inventions.  Its purpose was
 to help society rather than to help inventors.  At the time, the life
 span of 17 years for a patent was short compared with the rate of
 advance of the state of the art.  Since patents are an issue only among
 manufacturers, for whom the cost and effort of a license agreement are
 small compared with setting up production, the patents often do not do
 much harm.  They do not obstruct most individuals who use patented
 products.
 
    The idea of copyright did not exist in ancient times, when authors
 frequently copied other authors at length in works of non-fiction.  This
 practice was useful, and is the only way many authors' works have
 survived even in part.  The copyright system was created expressly for
 the purpose of encouraging authorship.  In the domain for which it was
 invented--books, which could be copied economically only on a printing
 press--it did little harm, and did not obstruct most of the individuals
 who read the books.
 
    All intellectual property rights are just licenses granted by society
 because it was thought, rightly or wrongly, that society as a whole
 would benefit by granting them.  But in any particular situation, we
 have to ask: are we really better off granting such license?  What kind
 of act are we licensing a person to do?
 
    The case of programs today is very different from that of books a
 hundred years ago.  The fact that the easiest way to copy a program is
 from one neighbor to another, the fact that a program has both source
 code and object code which are distinct, and the fact that a program is
 used rather than read and enjoyed, combine to create a situation in
 which a person who enforces a copyright is harming society as a whole
 both materially and spiritually; in which a person should not do so
 regardless of whether the law enables him to.
 
      "Competition makes things get done better."
 
    The paradigm of competition is a race: by rewarding the winner, we
 encourage everyone to run faster.  When capitalism really works this
 way, it does a good job; but its defenders are wrong in assuming it
 always works this way.  If the runners forget why the reward is offered
 and become intent on winning, no matter how, they may find other
 strategies--such as, attacking other runners.  If the runners get into
 a fist fight, they will all finish late.
 
    Proprietary and secret software is the moral equivalent of runners
 in a fist fight.  Sad to say, the only referee we've got does not seem
 to object to fights; he just regulates them ("For every ten yards you
 run, you can fire one shot").  He really ought to break them up, and
 penalize runners for even trying to fight.
 
      "Won't everyone stop programming without a monetary incentive?"
 
    Actually, many people will program with absolutely no monetary
 incentive.  Programming has an irresistible fascination for some
 people, usually the people who are best at it.  There is no shortage of
 professional musicians who keep at it even though they have no hope of
 making a living that way.
 
    But really this question, though commonly asked, is not appropriate
 to the situation.  Pay for programmers will not disappear, only become
 less.  So the right question is, will anyone program with a reduced
 monetary incentive?  My experience shows that they will.
 
    For more than ten years, many of the world's best programmers worked
 at the Artificial Intelligence Lab for far less money than they could
 have had anywhere else.  They got many kinds of non-monetary rewards:
 fame and appreciation, for example.  And creativity is also fun, a
 reward in itself.
 
    Then most of them left when offered a chance to do the same
 interesting work for a lot of money.
 
    What the facts show is that people will program for reasons other
 than riches; but if given a chance to make a lot of money as well, they
 will come to expect and demand it.  Low-paying organizations do poorly
 in competition with high-paying ones, but they do not have to do badly
 if the high-paying ones are banned.
 
      "We need the programmers desperately.  If they demand that we stop
      helping our neighbors, we have to obey."
 
    You're never so desperate that you have to obey this sort of demand.
 Remember: millions for defense, but not a cent for tribute!
 
      "Programmers need to make a living somehow."
 
    In the short run, this is true.  However, there are plenty of ways
 that programmers could make a living without selling the right to use a
 program.  This way is customary now because it brings programmers and
 businessmen the most money, not because it is the only way to make a
 living.  It is easy to find other ways if you want to find them.  Here
 are a number of examples.
 
    A manufacturer introducing a new computer will pay for the porting of
 operating systems onto the new hardware.
 
    The sale of teaching, hand-holding and maintenance services could
 also employ programmers.
 
    People with new ideas could distribute programs as freeware, asking
 for donations from satisfied users, or selling hand-holding services.
 I have met people who are already working this way successfully.
 
    Users with related needs can form users' groups, and pay dues.  A
 group would contract with programming companies to write programs that
 the group's members would like to use.
 
    All sorts of development can be funded with a Software Tax:
 
      Suppose everyone who buys a computer has to pay x percent of the
      price as a software tax.  The government gives this to an agency
      like the NSF to spend on software development.
 
      But if the computer buyer makes a donation to software development
      himself, he can take a credit against the tax.  He can donate to
      the project of his own choosing--often, chosen because he hopes to
      use the results when it is done.  He can take a credit for any
      amount of donation up to the total tax he had to pay.
 
      The total tax rate could be decided by a vote of the payers of the
      tax, weighted according to the amount they will be taxed on.
 
      The consequences:
 
         * The computer-using community supports software development.
 
         * This community decides what level of support is needed.
 
         * Users who care which projects their share is spent on can
           choose this for themselves.
 
    In the long run, making programs free is a step toward the
 post-scarcity world, where nobody will have to work very hard just to
 make a living.  People will be free to devote themselves to activities
 that are fun, such as programming, after spending the necessary ten
 hours a week on required tasks such as legislation, family counseling,
 robot repair and asteroid prospecting.  There will be no need to be
 able to make a living from programming.
 
    We have already greatly reduced the amount of work that the whole
 society must do for its actual productivity, but only a little of this
 has translated itself into leisure for workers because much
 nonproductive activity is required to accompany productive activity.
 The main causes of this are bureaucracy and isometric struggles against
 competition.  Free software will greatly reduce these drains in the
 area of software production.  We must do this, in order for technical
 gains in productivity to translate into less work for us.
 
    ---------- Footnotes ----------
 
    (1) The wording here was careless.  The intention was that nobody
 would have to pay for _permission_ to use the GNU system.  But the
 words don't make this clear, and people often interpret them as saying
 that copies of GNU should always be distributed at little or no charge.
 That was never the intent; later on, the manifesto mentions the
 possibility of companies providing the service of distribution for a
 profit.  Subsequently I have learned to distinguish carefully between
 "free" in the sense of freedom and "free" in the sense of price.  Free
 software is software that users have the freedom to distribute and
 change.  Some users may obtain copies at no charge, while others pay to
 obtain copies--and if the funds help support improving the software, so
 much the better.  The important thing is that everyone who has a copy
 has the freedom to cooperate with others in using it.
 
    (2) This is another place I failed to distinguish carefully between
 the two different meanings of "free".  The statement as it stands is
 not false--you can get copies of GNU software at no charge, from your
 friends or over the net.  But it does suggest the wrong idea.
 
    (3) Several such companies now exist.
 
    (4) The Free Software Foundation raises most of its funds from a
 distribution service, although it is a charity rather than a company.
 If _no one_ chooses to obtain copies by ordering from the FSF, it will
 be unable to do its work.  But this does not mean that proprietary
 restrictions are justified to force every user to pay.  If a small
 fraction of all the users order copies from the FSF, that is sufficient
 to keep the FSF afloat.  So we ask users to choose to support us in
 this way.  Have you done your part?
 
    (5) A group of computer companies recently pooled funds to support
 maintenance of the GNU C Compiler.
 

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