What Does That Server Really Serve?

“Digital technology can give you freedom; it can also take your
freedom away. The first threat to our control over our computing
came from proprietary software: software that the users cannot
control because the owner (a company such as Apple or Microsoft)
controls it. The owners often take advantage of this unjust power
by inserting malicious features such as spyware, back doors, and
Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) (referred to as
“Digital Rights Management” in their propaganda).

“Our solution to this problem is developing free software and
rejecting proprietary software. Free software means that you, as a
user, have four essential freedoms: (0) to run the program as you
wish, (1) to study and change the source code so it does what you
wish, (2) to redistribute exact copies, and (3) to redistribute
copies of your modified versions.

“With free software, we, the users, take back control of our
computing. Proprietary software still exists, but we can exclude it
from our lives, and many of us have done so. However, we now face a
new threat to our control over our computing: Software as a
Service. For our freedom’s sake, we have to reject that
too.”

Complete
Story