Z:gnu-www-ja-rieti--d10a9a-Free software is primarily a p/en

Free software is primarily a political, ethical and social issue. I have explained that level of it. It also has economic consequences. For instance, nonfree software can be used to create very rich companies, where a few people collect money from everyone around the world, and those few get very rich and other people are deprived. There are many countries (Japan is not one of them, I guess) where the people who can afford a computer usually cannot afford to pay for the nonfree software, for permission to use the nonfree software. So in those countries, nonfree software as a system creates tremendous deprivation. But in any country, money is squeezed out of most people and concentrated to a few who become very rich by nonfree software. With free software, you cannot do that. You cannot squeeze a lot of money out of people, but you can do business with people as long as you are providing them with a real service.