SourceForge.net: Find and Develop Open Source Software. Code For America. The Free Software Definition - GNU Project - Free Software Found. The Free Software Definition Have a question about free software licensing not answered here? See our other licensing resources, and if necessary contact the FSF Compliance Lab at licensing@fsf.org.
“Free software” means software that respects users' freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. Thus, “free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. We campaign for these freedoms because everyone deserves them. The four essential freedoms A program is free software if the program's users have the four essential freedoms: [1] The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
A program is free software if it gives users adequately all of these freedoms. In any given scenario, these freedoms must apply to whatever code we plan to make use of, or lead others to make use of. “Free software” does not mean “noncommercial”. The freedom to run the program as you wish Copyleft.