Z:gnu-www-ja-free-digital-society--db7908-So free software is software t/en

So free software is software that respects users' freedom. What does this mean? Ultimately there are just two possibilities with software: either the users control the program or the program controls the users. If the users have certain essential freedoms, then they control the program, and those freedoms are the criterion for free software. But if the users don't fully have the essential freedoms, then the program controls the users. But somebody controls that program and, through it, has power over the users.