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<title>Proprietary Software
- GNU Project - Free Software Foundation</title>
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<h2>Proprietary Software Is Often Malware</h2>
<p>Proprietary software, also called nonfree software,
means software that doesn't
<a href="/philosophy/free-sw.html">respect users' freedom and
community</a>. This means that
<a href="/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html">
its developer or owner has power over its users.</a>
This power is itself an injustice.</p>
<p>The point of this page is that the initial injustice of proprietary
software often leads to further injustices: malicious
functionalities.</p>
<p>Power corrupts, so the proprietary program's developer is tempted
to design the program to mistreat its users—that is, to make
it <em>malware</em>. (Malware means software whose functioning
mistreats the user.) Of course, the developer usually does not do
this out of malice, but rather to put the users at a disadvantage.
That does not make it any less nasty or more legitimate.</p>
<p>Yielding to that temptation has become ever more frequent; nowadays
it is standard practice. Modern proprietary software is software for
suckers!</p>
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<div class="companies">
<ul>
<li><strong>Company or type of product</strong></li>
<li><a href="/philosophy/malware-apple.html">Apple href="/proprietary/malware-apple.html">Apple Malware</a></li>
<li><a href="/philosophy/malware-microsoft.html">Microsoft href="/proprietary/malware-microsoft.html">Microsoft Malware</a></li>
<li><a href="/philosophy/malware-mobiles.html">Malware href="/proprietary/malware-mobiles.html">Malware in mobile devices</a></li>
<li><a href="/philosophy/malware-kindle-swindle.html">Malware href="/proprietary/malware-kindle-swindle.html">Malware in the Amazon
Swindle</a></li>
<li><a href="/proprietary/proprietary-deception.html">Deceptive companies</a> masking their intentions.</li>
</ul>
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<ul>
<li><strong>Type of malware</strong></li>
<li><a href="/philosophy/proprietary-back-doors.html">Back href="/proprietary/proprietary-back-doors.html">Back doors</a></li>
<li><a href="/philosophy/proprietary/proprietary-censorship.html">Censorship</a></li> href="/proprietary/proprietary-censorship.html">Censorship</a></li>
<li><a href="/philosophy/proprietary-insecurity.html">Insecurity</a></li> href="/proprietary/proprietary-insecurity.html">Insecurity</a></li>
<li><a href="/philosophy/proprietary-sabotage.html">Sabotage</a></li> href="/proprietary/proprietary-sabotage.html">Sabotage</a></li>
<li><a href="/philosophy/proprietary-interference.html">Interference</a></li> href="/proprietary/proprietary-interference.html">Interference</a></li>
<li><a href="/philosophy/proprietary-surveillance.html">Surveillance</a></li> href="/proprietary/proprietary-surveillance.html">Surveillance</a></li>
<li><a href="/philosophy/proprietary-drm.html">Digital href="/proprietary/proprietary-drm.html">Digital restrictions
management</a> or “DRM” means functionalities designed
to restrict what users can do with the data in their computers.</li>
<li><a href="/philosophy/proprietary-jails.html">Jails</a>—systems href="/proprietary/proprietary-jails.html">Jails</a>—systems
that impose censorship on application programs.</li>
<li><a href="/philosophy/proprietary-tyrants.html">Tyrants</a>—systems href="/proprietary/proprietary-tyrants.html">Tyrants</a>—systems
that reject any operating system not “authorized” by the
manufacturer.</li>
</ul>
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<p>Users of proprietary software are defenseless against these forms
of mistreatment. The way to avoid them is by insisting on
<a href="/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html">free
(freedom-respecting) software.</a> Since free software is controlled
by its users, they have a pretty good defense against malicious
software functionality.</p>
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<p class="unprintable">Updated:
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$Date: 2015/11/20 21:29:21 $
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