Re: [GNU-linux-libre] emulators and other hosts of foreign applications

[Richard Stallman]

[[[ To any NSA and FBI agents reading my email: please consider    ]]]
[[[ whether defending the US Constitution against all enemies,     ]]]
[[[ foreign or domestic, requires you to follow Snowden's example. ]]]

  > It is not intrinsically unethical to use nonfree software. It is, to 
  > contrast, unethical to develop nonfree software with the intent to 
  > distribute it and then to exploit the user. There are yet other 
  > unethical things one can do with nonfree software, but merely using it 
  > is not one of them.

Using a nonfree program by yourself is not unethical.  (Using it to
communicate with others does harm society by pressuring others to use
it too -- consider Skype and Zoom.)  But I don't see how that is
pertinent to the issue at hand.  The issue at hand is about whether
we, and free distros, _promote_ use of some nonfree programs.

  > Moreover, I would suggest that FSF should not be in the business of 
  > advising people at large not to use nonfree software, and to my very 
  > limited understanding, it does not have such a mission.

That is part of the FSF's mission and the FSF does it frequently.

Using nonfree software by yourself is not unethical, but it is bad for
you in practical ways and moral ways.  A nonfree program is always an
injustice.  Our mission includes leading people away from that and not
towards it.

Look in fsf.org for the "freedom ladder" to see this.

-- 
Dr Richard Stallman (https://stallman.org)
Chief GNUisance of the GNU Project (https://gnu.org)
Founder, Free Software Foundation (https://fsf.org)
Internet Hall-of-Famer (https://internethalloffame.org)