Z:gnu-www-ja-copyright-versus-community-2000--b8a43a-=3Cstrong=3ERMS=3C/strong=3E: Right./en

RMS : Right. That's the only sense I use the term. It wouldn't do that because the source code might not be available or they might try to use contracts to restrict the users instead. So making software free is not as simple as ending copyright on software: it's a more complex situation than that. In fact, if copyright were simply abolished from software then we would no longer be able to use copyleft to protect the free status of a program but meanwhile the software privateers could use other methods&mdash;contracts or withholding the source to make software proprietary. So what would mean is, if we release a free program some greedy bastard could make a modified version and publish just the binaries and make people sign non-disclosure agreements for them. We would no longer have a way to stop them. So if we wanted to change the law that all software that was published had to be free we would have to do it in some more complex way, not just by turning copyright for software.