In 2011, boy genius Mike Saunders met Stallman at the Institute of Engineering and Technology in London, where he put to him some of the questions you’d asked…
RMS: First, I want to tell you about free software because I want that to be the interview. Many users of the GNU/Linux system will not have heard the ideas of free software. The idea of free software is that users of computing deserve freedom. They deserve in particular to have control over their computing. And proprietary software does not allow users to have control of their computing. Proprietary software keeps users divided and helpless. Divided because each user is forbidden to redistribute it to others, and helpless because the users can’t change it since they don’t have the source code. The owner of the program has unjust power over the users, and the program is simply an instrument of that power. This is an injustice, and the idea of free software is to escape from that injustice and put an end to it. Free software respects the user’s freedom.
A program is free if it gives the user the four essential freedoms. Freedom zero is the freedom to run the program as you wish. Freedom one is the freedom to study the source code and change it so the program does your computing as you wish. Freedom two is the freedom to help others – the freedom to redistribute exact copies when you wish. Freedom three is the freedom to contribute to your community, which is the freedom to distribute your modified copies. These four freedoms mean the social system of using and distributing the program is an ethical system. With these four freedoms, the users control the program. Without these four freedoms, the program controls the users. This is not a technical issue – it’s an ethical issue. It’s an ethical issue that arises from the use of certain technology. But because it’s an ethical issue and not a technical one, it’s important – it’s more important than any mere technical issue.