ElectricNews: Face to Face: Ciaran O'Riordan, Chairman, IFSO

"ENN: What is free software?

"O'Riordan: The term is more related to freedom than it is to money. The Free Software Movement was started in 1984 with the creation of the GNU public licence system. Free software means that computer users are allowed to copy software, modify it if it doesn't do what they would like it to do, and also to redistribute it so that the community as a whole benefits. Free software development doesn't place restrictions in order to lever money from patent licences or to force users to pay for each copy. Access to the source code is also a precondition for free software. We highlight the issue of freedom by using the term free software..."

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