In contrast to software companies who copyright and patent their products, McArthur award winner Richard Stallman argues that software should be free. You can learn why he makes this argument by reading his essay "If It's Not Source, It's Not Software" at www.virtualschool.edu/mon/ElectronicProperty/
StallmanSoftwareShouldBeFree. Stallman has written and is giving away free a Unix-compatible operating system called GNU. You can learn why he gives software away in his essay, "GNU Manifesto" at www.eff.org/pub/Intellectual_property/gnu.manifesto. You can also find an interview with Stallman at memex.org/meme2-04.html. You can learn more about GNU and the idea of free software at the Free Software Foundation, www.fsf.org. The League for Programming Freedom was established to "publicize the danger of interface copyrights and software patents;" it's Web site is at lpf.ai.mit.edu. Can you really find free software-not shareware-on the Internet? Yes! Check out Volition Free Software (www.volition.com/software.html) and Freeware Web (freeware95.atlnet.com).