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Read and share online:
https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/your-digital-life-is-not-yours.

Dear Ruben Safir,

An invisible force is shaping your world. It curates the news you
read, suggests the music you hear, filters the job applications you
see, and may decide if you qualify for a loan. This is the work of
machine learning — software that doesn't just follow
instructions, but learns and makes autonomous decisions. It's a
powerful new kind of code, and it has become the most profound black
box ever created.

We're told this development will usher in a new era of progress, but
who controls it? Who is accountable when a biased algorithm denies
someone housing? What data was used to train the system that assesses
your child's educational future? We're not allowed to know. The code
is a secret, the data is proprietary, and the logic is often
unexplainable, even to those who use or made the system. This
isn't just a lack of transparency; it's a surrender of human
oversight and a concentration of power unlike anything we've ever
seen, and it doesn't end there.

You own your phone, but someone else dictates its functions. You may
use social media, but an algorithm you can't inspect shapes the
reality you see. You own your car, but you can't fix it. You own your
smart TV, but it's watching you. In every corner of our modern lives,
we're surrounded by things we've purchased but are forbidden from
truly possessing or understanding. The culprit isn't the device itself
but the invisible code running inside it, and the fight for control
over that code is one of the most important battles for human rights
in the twenty-first century.

This isn't a niche issue for coders and tech enthusiasts; it is about
your fundamental rights. It's about whether you're the owner of your
digital life or merely a tenant living at the mercy of someone else.

The term for this freedom to control your digital life is "free
software," coined by activist and programmer Richard Stallman. One
must understand what "free" in "free software" means. In English, the
word "free" can mean "without cost," as in free beer, or "with
liberty," as in free speech. The free software movement is, and always
has been, concerned with liberty, not cost.

Four essential freedoms define free software:

• The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose
  (freedom 0);


• The freedom to study how the software works and change it to do
  what you wish (freedom 1);


• The freedom to share copies with others (freedom 2); and


• The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to
  others (freedom 3).

Anything that doesn't grant you these four freedoms is known as
"proprietary" or "nonfree" software.

Free software might sound abstract, but consequences from a lack of it
are profoundly concrete and affecting you right now. Consider farmers
in the rural United States. They might buy a state-of-the-art John
Deere tractor for hundreds of thousands of dollars, but when it
breaks down, they can't repair it because the tractor's essential
functions are run by proprietary software. Farmers own fifteen-ton
machines but are helpless because the software obeys John Deere, not
the farmers. This isn't just an inconvenience; it is a threat to their
livelihood, all to protect a company's repair monopoly.

The same principle applies to your car, your smartphone, and even your
refrigerator. When Apple intentionally slowed down older iPhones
through software updates — a scandal known as Batterygate — it
demonstrated their ultimate power over a device you supposedly own.
The manufacturer decides its lifespan. You bought the device, but the
company holds the keys to determining what it does and how it works.

Proprietary software is a black box you're forbidden to open, and if
you try, you might be labeled a pirate and thrown in jail for years,
regardless of why you wanted to do it or how important your reasons
were. You're expected to accept the software along with whatever it
does, and in doing so, you cede control. This power imbalance does
more than just hurt our wallets; it fuels an unjust world.

This system concentrates power in the hands of a few tech giants. They
become the gatekeepers of information, art, and communication. The
algorithms that determine what you see on social media, the news you
read, and the apps you can install are proprietary secrets. They can
manipulate public opinion, silence dissent, and shape culture without
any democratic oversight. We're living in digital kingdoms ruled by
unaccountable corporate monarchs.

We need to demand technology that respects us and empowers us to build
a digital society on a foundation of freedom where the user is in
charge, rather than a system based on control and exploitation. A
future where a few tech monopolies gain more and more control over our
daily activities isn't inevitable, and it hasn't always been like
this. To regain control, we must first understand how we lost it.

In the early days of computing, everyone had the right to run, study,
modify, and share their software. It was a time of collaboration and
unity, when it was unthinkable for users to have any less control than
that. However, this spirit of cooperation began to wane, and with it,
the world of computing underwent significant changes. Software, once a
common good, began to be seen as a resource that could be owned and
controlled. The era of proprietary software was replacing the one of
collaborative culture. People were legally prohibited from sharing,
and the spirit of community and cooperation was being replaced by
control. Code became a source of division, a tool for control.

A single, powerful anecdote perfectly captures this shift. At MIT's
Artificial Intelligence Lab, a programmer named Richard Stallman grew
frustrated with a new Xerox laser printer that frequently jammed. His
solution was simple: modify the program to automatically notify users
on the network about the jam, saving everyone time and frustration.
The problem was that he wasn't allowed to; the source code of the
program was a secret. Though a programmer at another university had
the code, he was bound by a non-disclosure agreement and refused to
share it. This wasn't just an inconvenience; it was an ethical crisis
in miniature. A practical problem had become impossible to solve, not
for technical reasons, and most definitely not because it was better
this way. A barrier was intentionally placed to deny users control
over the software they used.

This moment of frustration ignited the spark for the free software
movement. In 1983, Stallman announced the GNU Project, a plan to
create an entire operating system composed exclusively of free
software. Its name, a recursive acronym for "GNU's Not Unix," was a
clever declaration of its purpose: to be a Unix-like system built on
freedom, not restriction. Two years later, he founded the Free
Software Foundation (FSF) to provide the movement with a legal,
administrative, and philosophical foundation.

To ensure user freedom was protected absolutely, the FSF codified the
four essential freedoms discussed earlier. These freedoms weren't
arbitrary; they were the direct, practical antidote to the freedoms
users were losing over their software, designed to guarantee that
users would always be the masters of their technology. The central
argument of the movement is that proprietary software is a fundamental
social and ethical problem, creating an unjust power dynamic where the
developer controls the user. The four freedoms are the computer user's
defense against this injustice. Unless you control the software, the
software will control you. In short, these four freedoms ensure that
your computer takes its orders from you, and only you.

This October marked a milestone in the history of computing: the
fortieth anniversary of the FSF. Looking back over the past
four decades, the achievements of the movement are nothing short
of remarkable. From the initial vision of a completely free operating
system, the GNU Project has blossomed into the GNU/Linux system,
empowering millions of people worldwide to reclaim control over their
computing. Today, thousands of free software applications exist. This
success is built upon the foundational philosophical infrastructure
created and championed by the FSF.

The challenges may evolve, from the original struggle with a jammed
Xerox printer to the dangers of machine learning, but the core
principle remains as vital as ever. This is a testament to the
movement's unwavering commitment to user rights. Readers are
encouraged to join this ongoing mission, ensuring the light of freedom
never dims.

There are many ways that you can build this free future:

• Embrace freedom: Take the empowering step to use free software.
  Install an entirely free GNU/Linux distribution and discover
  the world of applications that respect your rights.


• Become a steward: Get involved in the vibrant free software
  community. Contribute skills to existing projects through coding,
  testing, documentation, translation, or by joining a local
  LibrePlanet group.


• Support the FSF: Reinforce the crucial work of the Free Software
  Foundation. Becoming an associate member of the FSF or
  donating enables the FSF to continue defending user
  freedoms, developing essential infrastructure, and advocating for a
  future where all technology empowers its users.

The code running our world can be either a tool of empowerment for all
or control over all for a few. Every time we accept proprietary
software, we normalize a world where we own nothing and are granted
privileges at the whim of a distant corporation. We must demand to be
more than just users of our technology: we must fight for the right to
control it. The future of our freedom depends on it.