All freedom is relative to the perspective you judge it. "Free" in this case is measured from the perspective of the software (and more specifically the source

All freedom is relative to the perspective you judge it. "Free" in this case is measured from the perspective of the software (and more specifically the source code), not the developer. The basic philosophy is that the easier it is lock up the source code and its development behind closed proprietary walls, the less free it is. From the FSF perspective, your freedom to make the source code less free stands in direct opposition to the freedom of the source code.