Off the Beat: Bruce Byfield's Blog

Joe Brockmeier, my one-time colleague at Linux.com, has been blogging recently about how to present free software to non-technical users. He suggests that the community approach the problem as a marketing exercise, emphasizing benefits rather than the ethical issue of freedom.

My own take is somewhat different: The problem is not so much talking about ethics as the fact that we have not been talking about the benefits of ethics. Instead of the four freedoms that appeal to developers, we need a similar list that explains what advantages free software offers for ordinary users.

Much of my thinking on this issue stems from an interview I did in 2006 with Peter Brown, the executive director of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). At the time, the FSF was launching its first social campaigns, and Brown said that he wanted to see free software become as much of a mainstream issue as recycling.

"So what’s recycling about? Is recycling about the most economical way of treating garbage? Is that what recycling is about, or is about protecting the environment?" Brown asked rhetorically.

What Brown was emphasizing was that, in popularizing recycling, you do not talk about the mechanics, such as the temperature a smelter has to reach to melt down aluminium, or how much maintaining separate recycling bins is going to cost an average city. Instead, you talk about how recycling improves the average person's quality of life or ensures a future for their children. By taking this approach, you convert recycling from an abstract good into a concrete one that has immediate benefits for the listener.

Forking the four freedoms

Unfortunately, this approach is nearly the complete opposite of the one that the free software community usually takes. Asked to explain free software, we are apt to refer to the four freedoms:

• The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
• The freedom to study how the program works, and change it to make it do what you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
• The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
• The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

The trouble is, to non-developers, this manifesto is about as exciting as cutting their toenails. Freedom 1 and 3 probably seem irrelevant to them, while 0 and 4 are too brief and abstract to be worthy of interest.

The challenge is to reword and modify the four freedoms to produce a set of freedoms that means something to users.

For example, I would suggest that freedom 0 could be modified to read: "The freedom to use and copy the software for any purpose without any need for activation, registration, license renewal or any other mechanism that prevents you from treating your software as freely as you would any other consumer purchase." This wording says much the same thing as the original, but spells out why an average user might be interested in the freedom.

Similarly, I would suggest modifying freedom 1 to read: "The freedom to improve the program, either through your own efforts or those of a developer whom you sponsor, and release your improvements (and modified versions in general) to the public, so that the whole community benefits." Without suggesting that users might want to enlist the help of a developer, freedom 1 is meaningless for the average user.

Freedom 2 could almost stand as it is, except that I would add at the end, "and to install on multiple devices for your own convenience." In much the same way, I would suggest modifying Freedom 3 so that the opening reads, "The freedom to improve the program through your own efforts or sponsorship."

These four freedoms would encompass most of what free software is about. However, to be as explicit as possible, I would add the following two freedoms:

• The freedom to use the software without any unauthorized surveillance, digital restrictions management, automatic updating or any other mechanism that restricts your control." I use "unauthorized" here because users might want to waive some control in order to use an online service or a private network.
• The freedom to choose the software you use, and not to have it restricted by a hardware manufacturer or a software vendor.

Benefits and other freedoms

These six freedoms, I suggest, could be the basis of making the ethics of free software attractive to average users. But, naturally I would not suggest presenting them in these forms to users. These are the outlines for talking about ethical benefits, not the appeals to average users themselves.

For example, instead of quoting the modified freedom 0, I might talk about "the right to control your own computer" for freedom 0, and about "consumer choice" rather than "the freedom to choose the software you use." The more that such user freedoms could be condensed, the greater their appeal is likely to be, and the greater chance of free software entering the public consciousness as recycling has done. But the exact wording of appeals is perhaps a topic for another day.

What I am not sure of at this point is how complete this list of freedoms is. For now, it seems complete to me, but I could easily be missing something.

So what do you think? What am I missing? What other freedoms does free software deliver for average users?

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