WEBVTT

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Software is all around us

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and sometimes inside us.

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But what happens

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when the tools we use

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are obeying someone else?

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A tool you control

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serves your interests,

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but if someone else controls it,

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they serve their own.

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When you can examine tools

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to see how they work,

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you're able to learn about them,

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even modify them

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to work differently or better.

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When you can share a tool

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and its changes,

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you help others and, in turn,

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they help you.

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In fact,

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this is how early computing developed.

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Everyone could see a program's code

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and people shared their work freely

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to drive its growth.

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Every user was a potential author.

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But when companies began

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to lock source code away,

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it stopped being possible to participate

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or even to know what the code was doing.

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In response,

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hackers formed the GNU project,

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to create a computer system

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designed to respect

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the autonomy of users.

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They adopted a copyleft maneuver

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and built it into

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the GNU General Public License,

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a legal structure

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that preserves user rights.

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In ten short years,

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the free software movement

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had produced the GNU/Linux system.

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Computing that nobody could own,

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but anyone could use.

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Today it's keeping planes in the air,

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stocks trading

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and the global Internet running.

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We all encounter free software

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in invisible ways.

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But software freedom

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was designed for people.

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It's about what shape

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the technology we inhabit

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will take,

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and what kind of society

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we use our digital powers to build.

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We've still got work to do.

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Free Software Foundation

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30 years

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of propelling user freedom

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join us

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contribute

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learn more

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fsf.org

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License CC by-sa 4.0 2014

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Video by urchn.org

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Transcription Benjamin Sonntag