In the GNU project, when we speak of "free software", this refers to?liberty, not price.? Specifically, it refers to the users' freedom to?study, copy, change and improve the software.? Sometimes users pay?money for copies of GNU software, and sometimes they get copies at no?charge.? But regardless of how they got the software, or whether it?was modified by anyone else along the way, they have the freedom to?copy and change it--those freedoms are what "free software" means.

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? --- RMS

當(dāng)我們在GNU項目中提到『Free software』的時候，它是指自由，而不是價格。它尤其意味著用戶可以自由的學(xué)習(xí)、復(fù)制、修改和改進軟件。用戶有時花錢購買GNU的軟件，有時免費獲得，不管他們通過什么方式獲得這些軟件，或者這些軟件是不是已經(jīng)被其他人通過同樣的方式修改過了，他們都可以自由的復(fù)制和修改它。這種『自由』就是我們所說的『Free software』的含義。