This, I believe, was the original driver for Richard Stallman to start the GNU project. The story I heard him tell was about two printers at MIT. An old one w

This, I believe, was the original driver for Richard Stallman to start the GNU project. The story I heard him tell was about two printers at MIT. An old one with source code available which they were able to upgrade with many new network features. The other a modern one with better performance but closed source software. Stallman actually found out that a colleague had been given access to the source code but told explicitly not to allow other MIT staff to see it. That infuriated him enough to create the Free Software movement.