Some views on theideas of selling exceptions to free software licenses, such as the GNUGPL are also available.
Many people believe that the spirit of the GNU Project is that youshould not charge money for distributing copies of software, or thatyou should charge as little as possible—just enough to coverthe cost. This is a misunderstanding.
Actually, we encourage people who redistributefree software to charge as muchas they wish or can. If a license does not permit users to makecopies and sell them, it is a nonfree license. If this seemssurprising to you, please read on.
The word “free” has two legitimate general meanings; it can refereither to freedom or to price. When we speak of “free software,”we're talking about freedom, not price. (Think of “free speech,”not “free beer.”) Specifically, it means that a user is free to runthe program, study and change the program, and redistribute the program with orwithout changes.
Free programs are sometimes distributed gratis, and sometimes for asubstantial price. Often the same program is available in both waysfrom different places. The program is free regardless of the price,because users have freedom in using it.
Nonfree programsare usually sold for a high price, but sometimes a store will give youa copy at no charge. That doesn't make it free software, though.Price or no price, the program is nonfree because its users are deniedfreedom.
Since free software is not a matter of price, a low price doesn't makethe softwarefree, or even closer to free. So if you are redistributing copies of freesoftware, you might as well charge a substantial fee and makesome money. Redistributing free software is a good andlegitimate activity; if you do it, you might as well make a profitfrom it.
Free software is a community project, and everyone who depends on itought to look for ways to contribute to building the community. For adistributor, the way to do this is to give a part of the profit to free software development projects or to theFree Software Foundation. This way you canadvance the world of free software.
Distributing free software is an opportunity to raisefunds for development. Don't waste it!
In order to contribute funds, you need to have some extra. If youcharge too low a fee, you won't have anything to spare to supportdevelopment.
Will a higher distribution price hurt some users?
People sometimes worry that a high distribution fee will put freesoftware out of range for users who don't have a lot of money. Withproprietarysoftware, a high price does exactly that—but free softwareis different.
The difference is that free software naturally tends to spread around,and there are many ways to get it.
Software hoarders try their damnedest to stop you from running aproprietary program without paying the standard price. If this priceis high, that does make it hard for some users to use the program.
With free software, users don't have to pay thedistribution fee in order to use the software. They can copy theprogram from a friend who has a copy, or with the help of a friend whohas network access. Or several users can join together, split theprice of one CD-ROM, then each in turn can install the software. A highCD-ROM price is not a major obstacle when the software is free.
Will a higher distribution price discourage use of free software?
Another common concern is for the popularity of free software. Peoplethink that a high price for distribution would reduce the number ofusers, or that a low price is likely to encourage users.
This is true for proprietary software—but free software isdifferent. With so many ways to get copies, the price of distributionservice has less effect on popularity.
In the long run, how many people use free software is determinedmainly by how much free software can do, and how easy itis to use. Many users do not make freedom their priority; theymay continue to use proprietary software iffree software can't do all the jobs they want done. Thus, if we wantto increase the number of users in the long run, we should above alldevelop more free software.
The most direct way to do this is by writing neededfree softwareormanuals yourself. But if you dodistribution rather than writing, the best way you can help is byraising funds for others to write them.
The term “selling software” can be confusing too
Strictly speaking, “selling” means trading goods formoney. Selling a copy of a free program is legitimate, and weencourage it.
However, when people think of “selling software,”they usually imagine doing it the way most companies do it: making thesoftware proprietary rather than free.
So unless you're going to draw distinctions carefully, the way thisarticle does, we suggest it is better to avoid using the term“selling software” and choose some other wording instead.For example, you could say “distributing free software for afee”—that is unambiguous.
High or low fees, and the GNU GPL
Except for one special situation, theGNU General Public License (GNU GPL)has no requirements about how much you can charge for distributing acopy of free software. You can charge nothing, a penny, a dollar, ora billion dollars. It's up to you, and the marketplace, so don'tcomplain to us if nobody wants to pay a billion dollars for acopy.
The one exception is in the case where binaries are distributedwithout the corresponding complete source code. Those who do this arerequired by the GNU GPL to provide source code on subsequent request.Without a limit on the fee for the source code, they would be able seta fee too large for anyone to pay—such as a billiondollars—and thus pretend to release source code while in truthconcealing it. So in this case wehave to limit the fee for source in orderto ensure the user's freedom. In ordinary situations, however, thereis no such justification for limiting distribution fees, so we do notlimit them.
Sometimes companies whose activities cross the line stated in the GNUGPL plead for permission, saying that they “won't chargemoney for the GNU software” or such like. That won't get them anywherewith us. Free software is about freedom, and enforcing the GPL isdefending freedom. When we defend users' freedom, we are notdistracted by side issues such as how much of a distribution fee ischarged. Freedom is the issue, the whole issue, and the only issue.
