One sentence sums this up perfectly - Stallman writes: "A nonfree program submits the users to the power of the program's developer." This is almost always pat

One sentence sums this up perfectly - Stallman writes: "A nonfree program submits the users to the power of the program's developer." This is almost always patently false ... A user chooses to submit themselves to the power of the program's developer in exchange for the utility provided by the program. We do similar things all the time in society: - If I want to drive a car, I submit myself to the "programmer" who decided that the "Enter" key (gas pedal) would be operated by my foot and be on the floor. - If I want to drive a car, I also submit myself to a myriad of driving conventions and laws that I can't change: I should probably drive on the correct side of the road for the country I'm in and if I don't stop at red-lights I'll quickly be t-boned. These are in no way moral decisions and since many of his warnings have to do with privacy and security issues, I applaud him for raising the warning. I don't however think that he helps himself by being so black and white on issues. It's far too easy to point out hypocrisies, especially in non-software areas.