Richard Stallman

Richard Matthew Stallman, a.k.a. RMS, (born March 16, 1953) is the founder of the free software movement, the GNU project, and the Free Software Foundation. He is also a renowned hacker, whose major accomplishments include GNU Emacs, the GNU C Compiler, and the GNU Debugger. He is also the author of the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or GPL), the most widely-used free software license, which pioneered the concept of the copyleft.

Terminology

Stallman places great importance on the words people use to talk about the relationship between software and freedom. In particular, he untiringly asks people to say "free software", "GNU/Linux", and to avoid the term "Intellectual Property". His requests that people use certain terms, and his ongoing efforts to convince people of the importance of terminology, are a source of constant friction with some parts of the free and open source software communities.

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One of his criteria for giving an interview to a journalist is that the journalist agrees to use certain terminology. Sometimes he even requires journalists to read parts of the GNU philosophy before an interview.

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http://www.apcmag.com/apc/v3.nsf/0/19E0B3D9F6981357CA256D44001ACA0A This style has earned him a reputation of being "high-maintenance" http://www.iwr.co.uk/features/1133127. He also turns down speaking requests over some terminology issues. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/linux-gnu-freedom.html

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Stallman is prone to being something of a monologuist. He does not take kindly to criticism or interruption.

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Free Software

Over the years, people have tried to come up with a term for free software that does not have the ambiguity problem between having-freedom and zero-cost (a problem which does not exist in romance languages). The most well known alternative is "open source software". Stallman strongly objects to this term since he says it hides the goal of freedom. Support for this term was no doubt bolstered by some influential figures' dislike of the moral philosophy of the free software movement, which came from Stallman. http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-for-freedom.html

Related Topics:
Open source software - Freedom

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For similar reasons, he asks people to say "proprietary software", not "closed source software", when referring to software that is not free software.

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Stallman accepts terms such as Libre Software, FLOSS, and "unfettered software", but prefers the term free software since a lot of energy has been invested in that term.

Related Topics:
Libre Software - FLOSS

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GNU/Linux

Stallman asks people to say "GNU/Linux", when referring to the operating system made by combining the GNU system and the Linux kernel. His reason for this term is that the connection between the GNU project's philosophy and its software is broken when people call the combination "Linux". http://www.gnu.org/gnu/why-gnu-linux.html

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Copyright, patents, and trademarks

Stallman says the term "Intellectual Property" is designed to confuse people. By lumping together areas of law that have little or nothing in common, it is used to prevent intelligent discussion on these specific laws. Also, by referring to these laws as "property" laws, he says that term biases the listener when thinking about how to treat these issues. "These laws originated separately, evolved differently, cover different activities, have different rules, and raise different public policy issues. Copyright law was designed to promote authorship and art, and covers the details of a work of authorship or art. Patent law was intended to encourage publication of ideas, at the price of finite monopolies over these ideas--a price that may be worth paying in some fields and not in others. Trademark law was not intended to promote any business activity, but simply to enable buyers to know what they are buying". http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/not-ipr.xhtml

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Lesser terminology issues

• Stallman has recommended the use of other terms such as "software idea patents" instead of the more common "software patents". His reason is that the latter gives the wrong impression that the patent covers an entire piece of software.
• He uses the term "(UFO) Uniform Fee Only", as a replacement for "(RAND) Reasonable And Non-Discriminatory". His reasoning is that a mandatory royalty of any amount discriminates against free software because distributors of free software cannot count the number of copies in existence. This concern is shared by much of the free software and open source communities http://perens.com/Articles/OASIS.html, but Stallman's term is not widely used.
• He asks people to reject the term "piracy" for the act of copying information because "piracy" has always designated the act of robbery or plundery at sea, the term being misused by today's corporations to lend a greater importance to the act of copying software or other immaterial things.
• He refers to digital audio discs that use Copy control and other similar technology to prevent copying as "corrupt discs" rather than Compact Disc to emphasize that they break the Red Book and that recent discs are printed without the Compact Disc logo
• He coined the term Treacherous Computing to refer to what many manufacturers and industry analysts call "Trusted Computing", and to the Microsoft term Trustworthy Computing, on the grounds that both technologies seek to deny the freedoms of users.

A list of all the terminology issues he takes a stance on can be found on the Words to avoid page on the GNU website. Not being a lawyer, Stallman does not claim to be an expert on the details of all these various laws.

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