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www/server/staging the-moral-and-the-legal.html
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From: |
Jing Luo |
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Subject: |
www/server/staging the-moral-and-the-legal.html |
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Date: |
Wed, 17 Jan 2024 06:12:49 -0500 (EST) |
CVSROOT: /web/www
Module name: www
Changes by: Jing Luo <jing> 24/01/17 06:12:49
Removed files:
server/staging : the-moral-and-the-legal.html
Log message:
Moved to /philosophy/the-moral-and-the-legal.html
CVSWeb URLs:
http://web.cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/www/server/staging/the-moral-and-the-legal.html?cvsroot=www&r1=1.5&r2=0
Patches:
Index: the-moral-and-the-legal.html
===================================================================
RCS file: the-moral-and-the-legal.html
diff -N the-moral-and-the-legal.html
--- the-moral-and-the-legal.html 16 Jan 2024 15:08:59 -0000 1.5
+++ /dev/null 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0000
@@ -1,151 +0,0 @@
-<!--#include virtual="/server/header.html" -->
-<!-- Parent-Version: 1.99 -->
-<!-- This page is derived from /server/standards/boilerplate.html -->
-<!--#set var="TAGS" value="essays upholding action" -->
-<!--#set var="DISABLE_TOP_ADDENDUM" value="yes" -->
-<title>The Moral and the Legal
-- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
-<!--#include virtual="/server/gnun/initial-translations-list.html" -->
-<!--#include virtual="/server/banner.html" -->
-<!--#include virtual="/philosophy/ph-breadcrumb.html" -->
-<!--GNUN: OUT-OF-DATE NOTICE-->
-<!--#include virtual="/server/top-addendum.html" -->
-<div class="article reduced-width">
-<h2>The Moral and the Legal</h2>
-
-<address class="byline">by Richard Stallman</address>
-
-<p>Every legal issue about free/libre software is at root a moral issue.
-Before we think about the legal level of the issue, we need to understand the
-moral level.</p>
-
-<p>The legal level is about what current laws require. When we in the free
-software movement make a legal argument, that is what we are arguing about.
-However, the moral level is what matters most—it is where our goals come
-from. Liberty resides at that level, which is why we also call it
-“libre” software.</p>
-
-<p>The two levels are not the same or even parallel. In general,
-that <i>X</i> is currently lawful says nothing about whether <i>X</i> is
-morally legitimate, and vice versa. We might propose to change some laws to
-better follow some of our moral ideas.</p>
-
-<p>There is a pervasive tendency, especially in the US, to assume that laws
-dictate right and wrong. If we in the free software movement post articles or
-letters that discuss only the legal level, readers will tend to assume we
-agree with that assumption—that what we judge by is legality above all,
-so that if an action is lawful we are unable to criticize it.</p>
-
-<p>Since our overall purpose is to end the lawful but unjust computing
-practices (nonfree software
-and <a href="/philosophy/who-does-that-server-really-serve.html">SaaSS</a>)
-because we judge morally that they are unjust, we must show we do not define
-morality as “not breaking any laws.” We need to keep reminding the
-public to pay attention to the deeper level, which is the moral level. If, in
-a communication, we focus on the shallow aspects alone, we miss an opportunity
-to show the public our deeper message. Because some readers are interested
-only in the legalities, we must show we don't consider those to be
-paramount.</p>
-
-<p>In some cases, we contend, morality and legality say opposite things. In
-the US, distributing a program that can break DRM is illegal; the companies
-that implement DRM point to this, and hope you will confuse legality with
-morality. We are careful not to get confused that way. Breaking DRM is
-morally admirable; what's immoral is to <em>implement</em> DRM.</p>
-
-<p>In anything we publish, and anything we send to strangers (they might
-redistribute it to the public), we have to show that our views about issues
-are primarily based on the moral level. Even when the immediately crucial
-part is at the legal level, we must show how we judge programs, and laws
-themselves, at the moral level. Thus, when people ask whether a program
-follows the <i>XYZ</i> law, we can say, “We believe it does—and,
-most importantly, it respects users' freedom.”</p>
-
-<p>Presenting the two levels in relation to each other is a very good way of
-showing them both, and also showing how they are related. For instance, when
-speaking for the FSF, it can be useful to say, “Your program <i>FOO</i>
-contains part of the source code of <i>GNU BAR</i>” (a legal issue)
-“and fails to follow the GNU GPL rules” (a legal issue),
-“and that denies other users some of the rights they are entitled
-to” (the deeper moral issue). “To ensure all users of code
-from <i>GNU BAR</i> fully enjoy the <a href="/philosophy/free-sw.html">four
-freedoms</a> for it” (the goal at the moral level), “we invoke our
-copyright to require you to stop distributing the code that way” (using
-legal power as a tool to achieve the moral goal).</p>
-
-<p>That is not the only way to present them both. In other contexts, not the
-FSF, you might need to say something very different. The main thing is to
-remember to talk about the moral level often, so readers realize it is the
-deeper and more important of the two levels.</p>
-
-<div class="announcement" role="complementary">
-<p>See also <a href="/philosophy/compromise.html">Avoiding Ruinous
-Compromises</a>.</p>
-</div>
-
-</div><!-- end of "article reduced-width" -->
-
-</div><!-- for id="content", starts in the include above -->
-<!--#include virtual="/server/footer.html" -->
-<div id="footer" role="contentinfo">
-<div class="unprintable">
-
-<p>Please send general FSF & GNU inquiries to
-<a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org";><gnu@gnu.org></a>.
-There are also <a href="/contact/">other ways to contact</a>
-the FSF. Broken links and other corrections or suggestions can be sent
-to <a href="mailto:webmasters@gnu.org";><webmasters@gnu.org></a>.</p>
-
-<p><!-- TRANSLATORS: Ignore the original text in this paragraph,
- replace it with the translation of these two:
-
- We work hard and do our best to provide accurate, good quality
- translations. However, we are not exempt from imperfection.
- Please send your comments and general suggestions in this regard
- to <a href="mailto:web-translators@gnu.org";>
- <web-translators@gnu.org></a>.</p>
-
- <p>For information on coordinating and contributing translations of
- our web pages, see <a
- href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
- README</a>. -->
-Please see the <a
-href="/server/standards/README.translations.html">Translations
-README</a> for information on coordinating and contributing translations
-of this article.</p>
-</div>
-
-<!-- Regarding copyright, in general, standalone pages (as opposed to
- files generated as part of manuals) on the GNU web server should
- be under CC BY-ND 4.0. Please do NOT change or remove this
- without talking with the webmasters or licensing team first.
- Please make sure the copyright date is consistent with the
- document. For web pages, it is ok to list just the latest year the
- document was modified, or published.
-
- If you wish to list earlier years, that is ok too.
- Either "2001, 2002, 2003" or "2001-2003" are ok for specifying
- years, as long as each year in the range is in fact a copyrightable
- year, i.e., a year in which the document was published (including
- being publicly visible on the web or in a revision control system).
-
- There is more detail about copyright years in the GNU Maintainers
- Information document, www.gnu.org/prep/maintain. -->
-
-<p>Copyright © 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.</p>
-
-<p>This page is licensed under a <a rel="license"
-href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/";>Creative
-Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.</p>
-
-<!--#include virtual="/server/bottom-notes.html" -->
-
-<p class="unprintable">Updated:
-<!-- timestamp start -->
-$Date: 2024/01/16 15:08:59 $
-<!-- timestamp end -->
-</p>
-</div>
-</div><!-- for class="inner", starts in the banner include -->
-</body>
-</html>