FSF demonstrates iPhone's incompatibility with free software and GPLv3
BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Thursday, July 31, 2008 -- The Free Software Foundation
(FSF) has published a statement exposing Apple's hostile position towards free software
on its iPhone mobile computing platform.
The statement contrasts the iPhone with other proprietary computer operating platforms
that have allowed free software access, saying "For many years, we have been suffering
from Microsoft's PC monopoly; a platform that has allowed Microsoft to inflict untold
harm on computer users and the computing industry. The free software community has
been working for many years to give people an opportunity to escape to GNU/Linux
from Windows, but the iPhone would allow no such escape route."
FSF operations manager John Sullivan explained, "The severity of the restrictions
imposed by Apple's iPhone are contingent on the idea that you see it as just a phone.
But that justification is an attempt to whitewash ethical standards that have been
intrinsic to general-purpose computers. Apple's new restrictive model gives them
unprecedented and unjust control over iPhone users. We should reject the iPhone
and the model it represents, and instead support companies that respect and encourage
our freedom."
Other mobile computing companies are in fact embracing the free software community
and ensuring that users and developers have full access to improve and share their
software. The statement cites the Neo FreeRunner as a prime example of this approach,
and encourages the free software community to support it. The Free Software Foundation
is also calling for people to contact Apple's CEO Steve Jobs, asking him to change
Apple's stance and allow free software on the iPhone.
Published at http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/why-free-software-and-apples-iphone-dont-mix,
"Why free software and Apple's iPhone don't mix" is one of a series of articles
detailing the threats posed by Apple's iPhone to the free software community. It
focuses specifically on Apple's "tivoization" model of requiring every application
installed on the iPhone to have an approved cryptographic signature, a restriction
which is incompatible with version 3 of the GNU General Public License and with
user freedoms to share and modify free software in general.
About the Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer
users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The
FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly
the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for
free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political
issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org
and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to
support the FSF's work can be made at http://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are
in Boston, MA, USA.
Media Contacts
John Sullivan
Operations Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942
campaigns@fsf.org